[B-Greek] Sing and Learn NT Greek
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Dec 11 08:20:17 EST 2008
Randall has already posted his reply. I went to James' site and read
the review and then left a comment to the effect that what is offered
in this item is "fun and games in fake Latin" and suggesting that one
might pay more and get Randall's materials from Biblical Ulpan (http://www.biblicalulpan.org/
) and begin a process of oral/aural acquisition of the authentic
sounds of Koine Greek of the NT era. That's my honest opinion, which
I'm not ashamed of having stated frankly, but it (literally) outraged
the next (more or less anonymous) commenter who didn't seem aware that
Erasmian pronunciation is an artificial creation that reflects what is
spoken and heard only in academic classrooms and was never used by
native speakers of Greek in any era.
The fact is that I learned the Erasmian pronunciation of ancient Greek
when I began Greek and I continued to use it and teach it throughout
my whole career as a university teacher of ancient Greek. But I did
tell my classes in the 1990's that this pronunciation does not reflect
native-spoken Greek of any era and that its chief virtue, if it has
one, is that the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants of Erasmian are
more or less differentiated from each other, whereas several vowels
and diphthongs of Koine were not so clearly differentiated. I really
regret ever using Erasmian pronunciation and would not use it now;
I've endeavored to use Randall's materials to habituate my ears and
mind and eyes to the sounds of Koine as he has set them forth because
I think they are authentic; they also seem easier to me than the
reconstructed classical pronunciation set forth in Sidney Allen's
book. The only other alternative is one that many have adopted: use
the modern Greek pronunciation: that too seems to me a better choice
than the Erasmian.
There was a time, and it wasn't so very long ago, that I didn't feel
so strongly on this issue, but it really does irk me that materials of
this sort are published and marketed to promote what I think must, in
all honesty, be called "fake Greek." It has one and only one virtue
(and I concede that it is a real virtue): it enables a student to
coordinate the written or printed word with a (more or less)
consistently voiced phonology. But why do that, when it's possible to
have what there's every reason to believe is the right phonology?
I regret the likelihood that we'll start a new round of the never-
ending roundabout on the "right" pronunciation of ancient Greek, and I
grant the validity of the proposition, "De gustibus non disputandum
est" -- but in my dotage I have grown less tolerant in some matters
while at the same time more skeptical about others.
On Dec 10, 2008, at 6:47 PM, Kathleen Marie wrote:
> I downloaded a copy from audible.com for about $5.00. I think it's
> really good. Playing the songs causes a friend of mine to be unable
> to stop humming the tunes and it makes her crazy. I have to admit to
> using it in a passive aggressive way a couple times.
>
> Kathleen Marie
> student
> Boston
>
> --- On Wed, 12/10/08, James Spinti <JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com> wrote:
> From: James Spinti <JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com>
> Subject: [B-Greek] Sing and Learn NT Greek
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 2:51 PM
>
> All,
>
> I have a brief review of Zondervan's "Sing and Learn NT Greek"
> posted on
> my blog:
> http://anebooks.blogspot.com/2008/12/sing-and-learn-nt-greek.html
> Tinyurl:
> http://tinyurl.com/5d46ro
>
> Enjoy :)
>
> James
> ________________________________
> James Spinti
> Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
> Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
> Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
> jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
> Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
> Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
> Fax: 574-269-6788
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
>
>
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list