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Greek Pronunciation in TWI


Oakspear
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A side topic on another thread involved the pronunciation of Greek words.

I figure that you could go two ways: Either admit that you're not really sure of the correct pronunciation and do your best, or make the effort to get it right.

Personally, I never knew how to determine where the accent went in a word, but could usually figure out the sounds by just looking at the original Greek spelling.

Wierwille, and more so Martindale, seemed to pronounce Greek according to English rules of grammar, but would occassionally get adamant about pronouncing something a particular way.

In the mid-nineties, all the local Corps were passing on Martindale's newly learned pronunciation of kratos. They were insisting that it be pronounced "krah-tahs", which was pretty much right, instead of krah-tohs (long "o"), the way folks had been pronouncing it. Which was weird since the accepted Way pronunciation of other Greek words that ended in the same two letters were still be pronounced with the long 'o' sound.

I always thought it was pretty stupid the way Wierwille inserted the 'K' sound when there were two consecutive vowels: exogekomai, pleroko, for ex?geomai, plero?.

WAlter Cummins came out with a guide to Greek in the seventies, with guidelines on pronunciation, but it never seemed to get followed.

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quote:
WAlter Cummins came out with a guide to Greek in the seventies, with guidelines on pronunciation, but it never seemed to get followed.

Oak -- I remember that thing!! icon_eek.gif Think I even had a copy of it one time -- but if I did then, I don't now.

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quote:
I always thought it was pretty stupid the way Wierwille inserted the 'K' sound when there were two consecutive vowels: exogekomai, pleroko, for exe¯geomai, pleroo¯.

I always pronounced "exegeomai" as ex-ayh-gay-oh-my, and "pleroo" as play-raw-oh.

Shoulda gone corps, and learned coy-rect pro-noun-see-ation. icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:--> icon_biggrin.gif:D-->

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quote:
Originally posted by dmiller:

quote:
I always thought it was pretty stupid the way Wierwille inserted the 'K' sound when there were two consecutive vowels: exogekomai, pleroko, for exe¯geomai, pleroo¯.

I always pronounced "exegeomai" as ex-ayh-gay-oh-my, and "pleroo" as play-raw-oh.

Shoulda gone corps, and learned coy-rect pro-noun-see-ation. icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:--> icon_biggrin.gif:D-->


Man, that really got on my nerves. I kept checking in my first pfal to make

sure I was reading correctly, since I kept missing the "k" in

"exegeomai" when he said it. Every time, I kept picturing that little

lizard that's now doing commercials. Except I pictured him with a red tinge

on his skin. icon_smile.gif:)-->

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You're right, Oak. A short course in Koin?reek showed me that. How come I could figure it out in 2 months, and Wierwille couldn't learn it in YEARS? Wierwille got it wrong, over and over again. He couldn't even READ the thing, and we were supposed to trust his ability to make sense of it?

LOL about the K thing... so true, so irritating.

Regards,

Shaz

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Not that I'm an authority on it by any means, but some vowels in Greek have an accent mark to indicate a "rough" breathing, which is kind of equivalent to adding an "H" before it. The pronouns ho and hos look like "o" and "os". Rough breathing is used for some adjacent vowels to show they don't join into a diphthong. That's why pleroo is three syllables and doesn't rhyme with "Peru".

Wierwille was probably trying to over-enunciate the rough "h" so much that he mangled it into a "k" sound.

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Hi everybody.

I taught Greek to a lot of folks and correct Greek pronunciation is important to me. It is just like being able to pronounce other Biblical names, etc. without stumbling over them. (If you intend to teach a passage containing Biblical names, practice them ahead of time so you can pronounce them accurately without stumbling over them.) If you are able to pronounce them correctly, it lends to your credibility. (Although, of course, one could murder the correct pronounciation and still be more accurate on the correct application of a Greek word than someone who pronounced it perfectly, and vice versa...)

The most common mispronounciation mistake is to try to pronounce Greek words the way that Americans would. Usually diphthongs (combinations of vowels, or thongs that diphths thing) suffer the most.

The pleroo thing is different. Zix, that insertion of an H for a "rough breathing" only applies at the beginning of words or with a doubled r (rho) in the middle of a word. What we have with pleroo is what is referred to as a "glottal stop". This is where one should separate the pronounciation of the two vowels as two separate sounds. Pleroo actually ends with an omicron (short o) and an omega (long o) in Greek, and because the English equivalent may not be represented by a long mark over the final o, some might be inclined to pronounce it with an oo sound like in the word loose. But it is actually two sounds like ah-oh.

Exegeomai is made up of ex plus hegeomai, but there should be no h sound between the x and e, but there is a glottal stop between the e and o. As a rule of thumb, if the vowel combination is a valid diphthong, it should usually be pronounced as a single sound. If it is not a diphthong, the vowels should be separated by a glottal stop.

The Greek diphthongs are the vowels plus i or u as follows:

ai = ai as in aisle

au = au as in sauerkraut

ei = ei as in eight

eu = eu as in feud

oi = oi as in oil

ou = ou as in group

ui - ui as in suite

all other vowel combinations should be pronounced as two separate vowel sounds. I hope this helps you keep your vowels loose and not become consonated...

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