polýMATHY says BPK is wrong?

Wow thank you! Yes this does help! A few follow-up questions. For your point #1: are these pronunciations captured in your BLC Greek course? I'm currently going through it :) Could you also give me an example of one of these "palatization of velars"? I am very new to linguistic and phonetic terms. For your point #2: Why did you both choose to do this?

Thank you for clearing up the differences in your two approaches. That was amazing. In your first conclusion paragraph, you say he is closer to the "higher register" and you're closer to the "colloquial innovative register". I've watched a few of Luke's videos, I heard him say that he was trying to create a more universal pronunciation that could cover a very broad time range - perhaps classical all the way to (late?) Koine. Does it seem to you like the goal of his "Lucian" pronunciation is to create a dialect that a time traveler could use and have a high probability that anyone speaking Greek from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE would understand? In contrast, would you say that your approach is more to capture the "popular-level Koine of the 1st century CE" that would propagate into later centuries? By the way, do you have a name for your pronunciation system, since it differs slightly from Buth's?

Also I've watched Luke's "Lucian" pronunciation video and I find a lot of his arguments compelling (from my near-zero experience... ha!). If I learn Koine Greek using your system and materials (which I am currently doing!), how easy do you think it is to switch my pronunciation in the future if desired?

Thanks for the question!

Luke and I know each other and we discuss Koine phonology, etc. now and then. I think he is amazingly talented and he does really good work.

I think we both acknowledge that there was a diversity of pronunciations and registers in the Koine period and the first and second centuries CE more specifically.

So a few points that might help contextualize some differences ...

1. My pronunciation is not exactly the same as that described in Buth's BLC article on the topic. I have integrated some of the findings of my own research to make my pronunciation somewhat more historical, such as palatalization of velars before front vowels and the stop pronunciation of β γ δ following nasals. Not all of this has been updated in the pronunciation guide on the website, but I intend to do so by the time my new book comes out (later this year).

2. Neither Luke's pronunciation scheme nor mine is strictly historical for the first century. We both adopt the fricative pronunciations of χ φ θ, which was unlikely to be universal until later in the Roman period, even if certain areas like Anatolia seem to exhibit it earlier than other regions.

3. One thing that is fairly clear to me after analyzing every single spelling of every single word in 4,500 inscriptions and papyri is that there were multiple pronunciation registers that co-existed in the first and second centuries. Most notably, these register differences come to fruition in how various speakers pronounced historical phonemic length. In the more high register conservative pronunciation, phonemic vowel length was maintained. It is probable that maintenance of certain diphthongs (e.g., αι as /ae̞̯/) might also have been part of this register. In the lower more innovative pronunciation, phonemic vowel length was already neutralized for some speakers as early as the first century.

So in short, based on my research, I think Luke's pronunciation is closer to the higher register of the first and second centuries CE, whereas my pronunciation is closer to the more colloquial innovative register of the first and second centuries CE. During the first century itself, both pronunciations were probably fairly common. By the end of the second century CE, pronunciations that maintained phonemic length were not as widespread as they used to be, though they were definitely still present.

So it is quite likely that someone living in the first or second century would hear pronunciations that sounded like both of ours in different regions and different contexts. Note the caveat above about the fricatives, however. This is especially the case because when we do have evidence for a conservative pronunciation maintained at a later date (I'm thinking of a Greek papyrus written in Armenian script), they don't necessarily adopt the fricatives but maintain the aspirated stops.

Hope this helps!