CHTHONIC (PRONOUNCED KAH-TAH-NICK)
Duncan Murrell
dvmurrell at nc.rr.com
Wed Jul 14 14:53:43 EDT 2004
On Jul 14, 2004, at 1:37 PM, Nathaniel Florin wrote:
>
> --- Doctor Oakroot <doctor at doctoroakroot.com> wrote:
>> That depends on whether you're speaking classical
>> Greek or modern English :o)
>
>
When I took ancient Greek (got a C-, I sucked at it), there were two
native speakers of modern Greek in the class who took exception to the
pronunciation of many words we were learning, some of which they
recognized in some form. This prompted my professor to observe that no
one really knows how ancient Greek was spoken, that most of the
pronunciation guides were written by tweedy Oxbridge Brits who did a
lot of guessing, and that there were only two reasons for trying to
speak words and sentences: as an aid to memorizing words, and to get
some idea of the rhythm of Hellenic speech.
My professor chain-smoked and on occasion had a beer while reciting
long passages. He wore a Clash-meets-My-Aim-Is-True-era-Costello outfit
constantly. (No coat, t-shirt rolled to the anterior deltoid, Costello
from the neck up and the waist down.) Maybe he shouldn't have been
trusted.
d
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