Re: Byzantine Greek

Peter Clark scripsit:

>         The consonants are a little harder. The easy ones: /p/ = pi, /t/ = tau, /d/
> = delta, /k/ = kappa, /m/ = mu, /n/ = nu, /f/ = phi, /T/ = theta, /s/ =
> sigma, /x/ = chi, /l/ = lambda, /r/ = rho. That leaves /b/, /v/, /S/, /K/,
> and /j/. (/tS/ and /ts/ could probably be written as a digraph.) Now, my
> understanding is that beta was (and is) pronounced either /v/ or /B/. So I
> suppose I could use it for /v/, but that still leaves /b/. Does anyone know
> how Greek would have transcribed foreign sounds (_besides_ just dismissing
> them as "bar-bar"!)
>         Although as I understand it, delta was once pronounced /D/. Would it have
> been pronounced /d/ by the 8th century?
Originally beta and delta were [b] and [d], and so it was when the Latin
script developed from the Greek one.  Then they became [B] > [v] and
[D], and so remained.  This was true when Cyrillic developed from Greek.
Cyrillic uses a variant of beta for [b]; the Greeks, when they needed
[b], wrote it with the digraph mu-pi, and still do.  Similarly, Greek [d] is
written nu-tau.

Coptic, yet a third derivative of Greek, uses a letter adapted from
Egyptian Demotic script for [S].  Greeks typically mapped [S] to /s/
and wrote it with sigma (as in Iesous < Yehoshua).  Cyrillic adopted
the Hebrew shin for [S].

I don't know of any Greek-derived script with a letter for [L].
[j] has always been written with iota.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_