[Benjamin Bruce]

Χαίρετε πάσιν,

I know many people pronounce Koine Greek with the "Erasmian" (traditional American) pronunciation, but I'd like to tell why I pronounce it using the reconstructed pronunciation of the Koine period. The way I pronounce Greek is explained in a well-written paper by Randall Buth which can be downloaded here (PDF).

First of all, I like this pronunciation because it is historic. The Erasmian system was originally devised for Classical Greek, not Koine, and even there it is not entirely accurate. Also, when I hear Greek spoken with the Erasmian system, it sounds very much like English, whereas the reconstructed pronounciation sounds distinctly different (you can listen to 1 John chapter 1 in reconstructed pronunciation here). To me at least, it sounds like a different language--Greek.

So anyway, what do you think about this? How do you pronounce Greek? I've attached a poll to this post, so please vote.

Έρρωσθε,

-Βενιαμίν
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Όσον ζης φαίνου, προς ολίγον εστί το ζην.

[Klaas]

I pronounce Greek (Classical or Koine) more or less in the Erasmian way:

- stress on accented syllables.
- αι [sai (Italian)] ᾳ [sai, but longer ] αυ [ow, auto (Italian) ]ει [grey] ευ [ey+oo, meu (protuguese)] ῃ [open like in ‘fair’ followed by ‘ee’] ηυ [céu (Portuguese)] οι [oy] ου [oo, tout (French)] υι [u (French) + ee/y].
- ρ [as in Italian] ῥ [hr/rh, as in Icelandic/Welsh]
- θ [as in ‘think’] φ [as in ‘photo’] χ [as in ‘loch’]
doubled consonants [ἄλλος], doubled as in Italian ‘bella’.

I teach Classical Greek and in this way I try to avoid differently written (combinations of) letters to become identically pronounced by my pupils.
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כח גַּם אֱוִיל מַחֲרִישׁ, חָכָם יֵחָשֵׁב
(משלי פרק יז)