KHAIRE!     Χαῖρε! (click on the greeting for sound)

 

Welcome,  as the Greeks say,  Χαῖρε! 

 

 This first lesson is a guide to pronunciation along with the intro to Athénaze  (xii-xiv).  I'm going to keep things as simple as possible, adapted to American English. And you'll forgive me if I pronounce Greek with a southern accent.  Take the same liberty yourself; speak in your own comfortable style. We can worry about phonetic precision later.  For now the most important thing is:

Just  get it out of your mouth. Say it! Aloud or at least in a whisper.

 

A. First the vowels, a,e,i,o, & u:  these are a little tricky. I'll say each illustration twice: first with transliteration; then again with the Greek letters.

 

Alpha (α) long or short is always more or less like the a in father 

so in Greek pa-têr πατήρ. 

Epsilon (ε) like the short e-s in feather,

as in Greek émblema (our word emblem) ἔμβλημα.

Eta (η) is like the long a in fate, like the second syllables in patêr and emblêma.

Iota (ι) is long or short:  short like the i in fit; as in Greek idiótês (private citizen, our word 'idiot') ἰδιώτης

          long-i is like the double-e in feet, as in îatros, doctor, ἰατρός;

Omicron is short like the o-s in forgotten, as in  ἰατρός;

(Not as the book suggests, like boat or goat; that's for a certain British accent);

Omega  (ω) is our long-o, as in phôto from Greek fôs 'light, φώς.

Upsilon (υ) is long or short: short like the u in full, as in ὕδωρ hudôr water;

long like the double-o in fool: asin hûle forest, ὕλη (or use French u if you like),  

 

  Intro 2   (Diphthongs, etc.) 

Pay close attention to the discussion of diphthongs and digraphs on pp. xiii-xiv of the introduction. I cannot improve on this, so I'll just do the examples:

 

a-i is the long-i in high or fight; so in Greek aigís, our word aegis (symbol of authority) αἰγίς       

a-u is like how or fowl, as in Greek autokratés (self-sufficient) αὐτοκρατής

e-u is unlike anything natural to most Midwesterners. Say the 2 vowels together:

e-u, as in eugenés (well-born, noble) εὐγενής

The long version, eta-upsilon is hard to distinguish-- so for heureka, 'Eureka, I have found it'  the Greeks themselves wrote it both ways ηὕρηκα/εὕρηκα

o-i is easy like boil or boy, as in Greek oikonomia,  (our 'economy' orginally 'household managment') οἰκονομία

u-i is hard to say: stretch it out, oowee; now say it faster as in huiós, 'son', υἱός.

 

e-i is much like eta, a long-a, as in eikosi,  twenty, εἴκοσι

o-u is much like a long upsilon, as in ou-tis, nobody, οὔτις

 

Now for iota-subscript, the little iota written under another vowel, (-ᾳ, -ῃ, -ῳ). Most modern scholars simply ignore it; I have gotten into the habit of pronouncing it as though written on the line (as it was written in Plato's time). I encourage you to do the same--say it. Otherwise it's easy to forget it, and this little iota is often essential to differences in meaning. So we'll see one way of indicating the indirect object, to or for whom you give or do something, is with that iota.

As in, iatrôi, for the doctor, ἰατρῷ;  idiotêi, for the private citizen,  ἰδιώτῃ

And pay just as much attention to the breathing mark, the little hook over a vowel at the beginning of a word. If it hooks right, into the word, it is the consonant h as in hen (one) ν; if it hooks left, to the front of the word, it is simply silent. as in en,  the preposition in (not 'into'), ἐν. 

 

As we close this lesson, try to learn the words we've used to illustrate-- at least those with obvious meaning. Say them aloud: πατήρ, ἔμβλημα, ἰδιώτης, αἰγίς, αὐτοκρατής, εὐγενής, ηὕρηκα, οἰκονομία, υἱός.