At 11:31 pm -0400 12/5/01, Muke Tever wrote:
>From: "Raymond Brown" <ray.brown@...>
[snip]
>> Quasi-modern pronunciation with Henninian stress! How can you so distort a
>> language I love? ;)
>
>*hangs head in shame* ;p
Just kidding.
>[schnipf]
[und schnipf]
>> retained. I had thought that German influence in classical scholarship had
>> ensured that the Henninian pronunciation had not found a foothold on the
>> American side of the pond and that the Byzantine oral stress was still used
>> there. Young Muke's email had shattered yet another myth I entertained
>> about Americans: so the Henninian barbarism have reached there <sigh>
>
>Oh, I severely doubt it... I never learnt Greek pronunciation *from* anywhere
Good ;)
Let's hope the Henninian heresy never crossed the Atlantic.
[snip]
>letters what they look like... But the accents, it is a very *strange*
>system to
>me, and they're always where I never expect them (nearly as bad as
>Russian, but
>at least Greek stuff is usually _marked_):
Always marked - and it's a bit easier than Russian.
There are rules, and the accent on verbs can always be determined, as it
can generally on neuter nouns. It's true that with other nouns and
adjectives one just has to learn where it is in the nom. singular; its
position on the other cases & in the plural can then be determined.
>generally I am forced to just ignore
>them or tongle my tangue. ...and that's why it comes out like Latin--simple
>incompetence, not willing heresy.
If it's not willing heresy, there's hope :)
Don't be a Henninius! Forget the Latin rules - and persevere with Greek.
It could be useful if you get chance to use the modern form.
Ray.
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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
[J.G. Hamann 1760]
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