Philemon Zachariou on Pronunciation

I've been able to glance through it a bit on Google books. This looks like it could be a very helpful book and it is good to see more being published on pronunciation.

I didn't get a chance to see what exactly the end result/historical pronunciation is, though. I think I should probably get the book :)

But feel free to share your opinion on the book as you look into it more. I know I, for one, would appreciate it.

Just finished the book - so thought I would share my thoughts.

This is a forceful and closely agued case for the use of historical Greek pronunciation (HGP) for κοινὴ Greek. Though I must admit, I struggle to see any differences between this HGP and Neohellenic (Modern Greek) pronunciation. There is quite an overlap with Chrys Caragounis’ lines of reasoning (The-Development-of-Greek-and-the-New-Testament).

The thesis presented here is that Greek pronunciation has remined essentially unchanged since classical Attic. That there is a longer continuity with the 5 vowels of current Greek going back as far as Linear B. He proposes a psilotic Attic Greek, fully ioticised – as today. He also furnishes arguments for HGP (modern) Greek pronunciation and orthography going back at least as far as the introduction of the Ionic spelling reforms of 5th Century BC Athens.

On the plus side, this is an impassioned argument for the Neohellenic pronunciation with a clear history of the introduction of the Erasmian pronunciation system and a forensic refutation of many of the reasons given in support of the continued use of Erasmian pronunciation. Particular highlights were chapter 4’s demonstration of the inconsistencies in textbook recommendations for US Erasmian pronunciation and also chapter 5’s long list of the multiple English graphemes for homophones to reject the idea that the modern Greek pronunciation would be too difficult for English speaking students. The section on prosody (often ignored) was also very useful. The suggestion to include Neohellenic and medieval usage in lexica of κοινὴ Greek to have a fully diachronic approach seems reasonable.

On the negative side, there are a number of inaccuracies, these range from errors such as referring to “Chaucer’s Anglo Saxon” (p xvii), presenting theories such as the Doric invasion as a proven fact and somewhat out of place political statements like the “heroic Greek struggle to throw off the Turkish yoke” (p 77). Though not central to the arguments on pronunciation, these inaccuracies make me wary of facts described elsewhere at face value. More concerning where I have checked references there are also problems. For example, there is a partial quote in 2.2.2 (page 20) from Plato’s Kratylos (418c): the partial quote in the book is used to support the sounds of η=ι=ει. However, on checking the full quote (Perseus) , it seems to me to clearly to support the opposite conclusion and refer to sounds in speech and not to spelling. There are also omissions such as not discussing to Hebrew/Greek transliteration nor changes in Greek Grammar/vocabulary diachronically, nor geographic variation or effect on pronunciation of other languages such as Coptic or Aramaic. He also does not mention Randall Buth or a κοινὴ pronunciation, but chooses instead to present a dichotomy between Erasmian and HGP.

In general, I find many of the arguments for HGP going back as far as 5th Century BC Athens unconvincing. For example, Zachariou assumes that if there is a spelling switch between η, ι, ει, οι or υ in 5th C inscriptions then this counts as evidence for all these letters being pronounced as [i] from that time onwards. This effectively assumes as soon as you find the first example of an interchange of graphemes in a misspelling then that is when those phonemes began to be pronounced identically. There a need for better quantitative analysis of orthography that takes into account probability of an error, phonetic environment and geographic effects.

I also remain unconvinced on the arguments about historical (pre-classical Greek), such as the linear B script being good evidence for only 5 vowels existed in Mycenean Greek or that the “ε” grapheme in the Attic alphabet pre-ionic reform represented both the [i] and [e] phonemes. Though I do not know enough on these subjects and would need input from others to comment more on this.

Overall, though challenging, this book has not really changed how I think of κοινὴ pronunciation. I still consider it best to pronounce κοινὴ as modern Greek except where there are compelling reasons in Grammar, vocabulary, clear historical evidence or pedagogy not to. The most obvious example being modern pronunciation not tolerating identical pronunciation of υμεις and ημεις rather than εσεις and εμεις – this has already been discussed extensively in these forums (questions-on-pronunciation-in-relation-to-modern-greek) – so I would not pronounce “η” as [i]. A separate (non [i]) pronunciation of the οι/υ phoneme also seems reasonable.

I remain undecided about Psilosis, ω/o, or Χ, φ, θ as fricatives or aspirated stops. But actually, just as all languages have different accents and pronunciations – it’s good that a historically informed κοινὴ has different accents.

Having said all that, I must admit I will be listening to my modern Greek course again and considering my next holiday in Greece to practice my Neohellenic.

Thanks Mathew, I would not want to put you off as I certainly found in a challenging and somewhat bracing read. Although with its mixture of polemic and selection of materials would not necessarily recommend this book as a first introduction to this field. This said there are some useful introductory explanations to many of the terms used.

Apologies if I am teaching grandmother to suck eggs - but if you are looking for a more introductory book I would recommend either Chapter 9 of Con Campbell's "Advances in the Study of Greek" (https://books.apple.com/gb/book/advances-in-the-study-of-greek/id949574182) for a quick introduction or Geoffrey Horrocks' Greek: a History of the Language and its Speakers" (https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Greek-by-Geoffrey-C-Horrocks-author/9781118785157) for a more detailed introduction.

Apologies again as you have probably much better read than I on this subject..