Etacism
Under Etazismus means a pronunciation system of the ancient Greek language . It was named after the fact that, following this system, the Greek letter Eta (η) is pronounced as a long, open ē .
The etazism goes back to a demand of Erasmus of Rotterdam , which he expounded in his work De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione published in 1528 . He thought it unlikely that the ancient Greek language, as it was spoken in his day, had six differently written i-sounds: ι, οι, ει, υ, υι, η , all of which were pronounced as i . In addition, Erasmus demanded that the Greek beta (β), which up to Erasmus was pronounced as w as in modern Greek , should become a b . Without these adjustments, the sheep in the Greek comedy would have bleated “wi, wi” instead of “bä, bä” ( βῆ βῆ ) in Kratinos.
Etacism has established itself in ancient Greek lessons in Germany and internationally - except in Greece. Representatives of the pronunciation of all vowel sounds mentioned as i, which was valid until Erasmus, defended by Johannes Reuchlin and Philipp Melanchthon and which has been cultivated for a long time, are called Itazists . Ancient Greek texts with Etazist pronunciation sound significantly less related to modern Greek.
literature
- Ernst Vogt : Greek Philology in Modern Times. In: Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (Ed.): Introduction to Greek Philology. Springer, Wiesbaden 1997, pp. 117-134, here p. 120.
Remarks
- ↑ Hans Poeschel : The Greek language. Heimeran, Munich 1950, p. 31.