I'm wondering what would be the best koine pronunciation style for someone who might take seminary classes but also is interested in the eastern church. Was learning Erasmian, but see advocates for modern for ecumenical purposes and also that seminaries have moved towards reconstructed? ⚓️
I see both in my field (New Testament studies). Hard to say what’s most popular. I was trained in Erasmian, and I’m glad because I’m definitely an aural learner (in part) and the differentiated vowels are helpful. But I also feel like all the coolest people use modern, and I want to be cool, so…
Calling on @adalehunt.bsky.social what say you?
I learned reconstructed Classical but since Greek is a living language, I can appreciate the case for modern pronunciation. Just a slight bummer that the vowel sounds are more limited
I switched biblingo to reconstructed but its way harder at this point to try to learn than erasmian 😬 so Im going back to erasmian. Ultimately ill mostly be reading and not speaking and not listening much so... Maybe if I ever become fluent reading then Ill try to learn a new pronunciation.
Like, I know you’re not learning it, but Homer, for instance, gloriously sings in reconstructed. If most vowels were reduced to “ee” it wouldn’t ring the same
It would be slightly difficult to start learning a new pronunciation but now would be the easiest time, I still dont know a ton!
honestly: even within the same school I encountered profs who had different pronunciation preferences. I was never graded on pronunciation & it's not common to do so. Whatever you have is probably good!
What do you think was the most common you came across?
reconstructed
I took one Greek class where we were encouraged to use modern pronunciation & one that used Erasmian, which was most people’s default. I don’t think it matters hugely. If you learn with modern pronunciation and do composition you’ll probably make itacistic spelling mistakes (historically accurate!)
Interesting! Where did you go?
These were in a reading class at Yale Div (Erasmian) and the Patristic Greek class in Yale Religious Studies (modern). Everyone in the class where we used modern pronunciation only knew Erasmian except one Greek-American woman and the professor; it’s definitely more common.
(Btw I studied Greek on my own for a few years, which is what I you’re doing right? and then jumped into some upper-level classes. If you are ever considering taking a class in the future feel free to reach out! My advice would be: have confidence in what you’ve learned, you’re not an impostor!)
I’d say modern is harder for a beginner because so many different words are pronounced identically in a way that doesn’t help you learn to spell them: hoi (mp article) and he (fs article) and e (or/than) for example.
OTOH I think Erasmian sounds pretty bad 😅