School pronunciation of ancient Greek

The school pronunciation of ancient Greek is the debate that in schools and universities to the oral rendition of the ancient Greeks used. It does not agree with the scientifically reconstructed ancient Greek phonology .

Greek-speaking world

In the school system of the countries in which (new) Greek was and is spoken as the mother tongue - i.e. in the historical Byzantine Empire , today's Greece and the Republic of Cyprus - Greek-language texts from all times were or are pronounced as it is in the respective time Standard pronunciation is common. This is possible and sensible, as many words have not or hardly changed their spelling over time.
There were, however, major changes in the case of letter combinations (e.g. φθ [fθ] and σθ), the three vowels η, ι, υ, which are now pronounced identically, and some diphthongs .

Orthodox Church

The theological faculties and schools that belong to or are at least related to the Orthodox Church use the pronunciation propagated by Johannes Reuchlin , which essentially corresponds to the modern standard language. Thus, they continue to follow the tradition of the Byzantine Empire.

Doctrine of the Renaissance

During the Renaissance , interest in the teaching of Ancient Greek increased enormously in Western Europe, especially after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when many Greco-Byzantine Greek scholars fled to Western Europe . During this time, ancient Greek texts were pronounced such as medieval Greek, which was almost identical in pronunciation to modern Greek.

From around 1486 onwards, various scholars - in particular Antonio de Nebrija , Hieronymus Aleander and Aldus Manutius - found discrepancies with the descriptions handed down by ancient grammarians and suggested an alternative pronunciation. A major work of this period is Erasmus von Rotterdam's dialogue De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione . The pronunciation that Erasmus described largely corresponds to today's scientific view of the pronunciation of classical Greek, that is, of Attic in the 5th century BC. Chr. Interestingly, used Erasmus pronunciation never himself.

England

In 1540 John Cheke and Thomas Smith became royal professors at Cambridge . They proposed a reconstructed pronunciation of both Greek and Latin which, although developed independently, resembled that of Erasmus and was adopted by the schools.

The reform of Cheke and Smith coincided with the time of the early New English vowel shift (Great Vowel Shift) , through which sound values in English, especially those of long vowels, changed. These shifts were therefore carried over to the pronunciation of Greek used by English speakers, which thus diverged more from the ancient Greek original as well as from the pronunciation of Greek used in other European countries.

Another peculiarity of the English pronunciation of ancient Greek developed due to the work of Isaac Vossius , who, in an anonymous work, took the position that the written accents of Greek do not reflect the original pronunciation. Furthermore, Heinrich Christian Henning published the work Dissertatio Paradoxa (in German about "contradicting treatise"), in which he claimed that the accentuation of ancient Greek must follow the same rules in Latin. Today, however, this is generally judged to be wrong: there is consensus that the accented syllable - as in modern Greek - carried the written accent, although most experts object that it is, in contrast to the pure stress accent in modern Greek, one tonal accent acted. Still, Henning's theory influences pronunciation in the UK and the Netherlands , while it is rejected in the US and other countries.

As a result, during the 19th century the pronunciation of ancient Greek in British schools differed greatly not only from modern Greek, but also from the reconstructed pronunciation of ancient Greek, on which there was already widespread agreement among scholars at the time, and from the pronunciation used in other countries was used. An organization convened for this purpose therefore developed a new pronunciation which is now generally used in British schools.

However, if one realizes that ancient Greek - like Latin - is learned for literary and historical purposes, that there are no longer any native speakers of ancient Greek as informants for correct pronunciation, and that the pronunciation used by native Greek speakers is generally considered to be later developed becomes - even if there have hardly been any relevant sound shifts in Greek since the 2nd century - the search for the most precise possible pronunciation of ancient Greek is not as relevant for schools as it is for a living language. Some of the reconstructed sounds and sound distinctions are very difficult to pronounce for English speakers (or speakers of other languages, respectively), and there is a tendency to overlay the reconstructed pronunciation with a British or American accent, making communication difficult at classical conferences. The alternative of using the modern Greek pronunciation instead has so far found few followers outside of Greece, which may also be due to the fact that modern Greek no longer distinguishes between long and short vowels, nor between long and short syllables, what for Understanding ancient Greek meters is important, however.

German-speaking area

The teaching situation in today's German-speaking area can be compared to that of other European countries: Basically, the pronunciation is based on the Erasmic model, but in practice it often happens that sounds that are unknown in German are replaced by sounds that exist in German. Thus, the Theta (Θ, θ) [usually not θ ], but [ t ] pronounced, making the distinction between theta (aspirated) and tau (Τ, τ) does not apply, though, the Erasmian model almost correspondingly, Phi (Φ, φ) and Chi (Χ, χ) can be pronounced as [ f ] and [ x ] or [ ç ] (distribution, however, according to German rules depending on the preceding vowel). Zeta (Ζ, ζ) is often pronounced as [ ts ], but also as [dz]. Conversely, the initial sigma like the German s is sometimes pronounced voiced [ z ]. Furthermore, ευ and οι and sometimes also ηυ are not differentiated from each other and all as [ ɔɪ̯ ] or like the German digraphs eu , äu and oi as [ øʏ ]. Similarly, ει and αι are often not differentiated, but both are pronounced as [ aɪ ], just like the similar-looking German digraphs ei and ai , while ει is sometimes pronounced as [ ɛɪ ] or [ eɪ ], even where [ e: ] closer to the pronunciation of the 5th century. ου is usually pronounced as [uː] as it was later, although the pronunciation in the 5th century was probably still [oː]. It is never done in practice an effort in syllables with long vowels a difference between acute (first More on bass, second More in tweeter) and circumflex to distinguish (first More in treble, bass in the second More) phonetically.

While these deviations are often accepted as compromises for practical teaching reasons, awareness of other pronunciation differences based on the German phonetic system is less pronounced: In German (unlike in French) there are no non-aspirated voiceless consonants except after s-, the Greek sounds [p ], [t], [k] (π, τ, κ) have no equivalent in German and are replaced by [pʰ], [tʰ] and [kʰ], since the German consonant letters p, t, k are generally aspirated be spoken. As in later Greek, no distinction is made between single and double consonants. Speakers of German try to reproduce the vowel length in stressed syllables, but typically fail in unstressed syllables, where they often tend to weaken the e-sounds [ ə ]. Since there are no accented short tense [e] and [o] in German, they are typically replaced by unstressed (and open) [ε] and [ɔ] (ie [lɔgɔs] instead of [logos]). The usual relationship in German between the length of vowels and their openness or closeness (or tension or tension) therefore influences the pronunciation of Greek vowels:

Short Greek vowel	Short German pronunciation	Long Greek vowel	Long German pronunciation
Epsilon (Ε, ε) [e]	[ ɛ ]	Eta (Η, η) [ɛː]	[ eː ], mostly [ ɛː ]
Iota (Ι, ι) [i]	[ ɪ ]	Iota (Ι, ι) [iː]	[ iː ]
Omicron (Ο, ο) [o]	[ ɔ ]	Omega (Ω, ω) [ɔː]	[ oː ], also [ ɔː ]
Ypsilon (Υ, υ) [y]	[ ʏ ]	Ypsilon (Υ, υ) [yː]	[ yː ]
Omikron - Ypsilon -Digraph (Ου, ου)	only occurs long	Omikron - Ypsilon -Digraph (Ου, ου) [O]	[ uː ]

It is extremely unlikely that ancient Greek (unlike German or English) made a distinction between tense and relaxed vowels, as it had a musical accent.

When reading epics and poems, it is customary to reproduce the verse metrics with a strong dynamic accent on the long syllables, contrary to the natural accentuation of the words.

Italy

Ancient Greek is pronounced Erasmus in Italy without exception. Italian speakers usually find it very difficult to speak the tonal accent of Ancient Greek. There is no distinction between circumflex and acute . Poems are read according to the metrical rule of stressing long syllables. As in Italian, single and double consonants are differentiated, in contrast to modern Greek.

Some sounds in detail:

Beta (Β β,) is [ b ], as in ital. B iliardo or in dt. B lut pronounced
Gamma (Γ, γ) is pronounced [ ɡ ] as in Italian g atto or in German g ut . However, if the gamma comes before kappa, gamma, chi or xi, it is nasalized to [ ŋ ] as in German ba ng .
Zeta (Ζ, ζ) becomes [ dz ] as in Italian z olla .
Theta (Θ, θ) becomes [ θ ] as in engl. pronounced th ing or span. c ine , sometimes like [ts].
Kappa (Κ, κ) is pronounced [ k ] as in Italian c ane, German k affee .
Tau (Τ, τ) is pronounced [ t ] as in Italian t utto or German T od .
Ypsilon (Υ, υ) is [ y ] as in dt. Ü ben or double. pronounced u nique . The digraph ou is pronounced [ u ] as in Italian u no or in German M u t .
Phi (Φ, φ) is pronounced [ f ] as in Italian f uturo and f isica or in German f all .
Chi (Χ, χ) is [ χ ] as in Germany. Ku ch s very

The diphthongs are pronounced as follows

αι = [ai] (similar to German ei )
ει = [ei] (similar to ey )
οι = [oi] (similar to German eu )
αυ = [au] (similar to German au )
ευ, ηυ = [eu] (e + u, not German eu )

Spain

Corresponding to the fact that most Spaniards are unable to pronounce [b], [d] and [g] consistently as a plosive , as in the Erasmus pronunciation , the Greek letters beta , delta and gamma become fricative in most positions in Spanish schools pronounced, which means that the pronunciation there is similar to the pronunciation used by the Greeks.

literature

W. Sidney Allen: Vox Graeca - A guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek. 3rd edition, University Press, Cambridge 1987, ISBN 0-521-33555-8 .
Engelbert Drerup : The School Pronunciation of Greek from the Renaissance to the Present. Schöningh, Paderborn, 1930–1932 (reprinted by Johnson, New York, London 1968).
- Part 1: From the XV. until the end of the XVII. Century. 1930 (= studies on the history and culture of antiquity. Supplementary volume 6).
- Part 2: From the XVIII. Century to the present. 1932 (= studies on the history and culture of antiquity. Supplementary volume 7).

Web links

Overview of the German school pronunciation of the Greek letters