Resources for Pronunciation of Restored Koine

προφορά

We do not know specifically how Ancient Greek was pronounced. Today, there are four main schemes followed in pronouncing Ancient Greek.

Modern Greek pronunciation is not recommended because it many vowels have become “ioticized.” The vowels η, υ, οι, ι are all pronounced like “ee” as in the English word “bee.”

Restored Attic pronunciation follows most of the Erasmian pronunciation conventions, but attempts to includes the tonal quality of the accents. This results in an artificial and affected sounding pronunciation that I cannot recommend.

Erasmian pronunciation was originally promoted by the scholar Erasmus, born in the year 1466. It was an attempt to assign a single sound to each Greek letter. It did not rely on the example of the Byzantine Greek pronunciation, still used in his lifetime. Nor did come from a study of historical orthography. It resulted in a pronunciation scheme that is unnatural and difficult to pronounce. Nevertheless, this Erasmian pronunciation is used in most schools today. There are some small variations between countries. The main varieties are German, American, and British.

Restored Koine was created in the 2000’s by Dr. Randall Buth. He studied the history of the way Greek was pronounced, Modern Greek pronunciation, and especially spellings. One example of the value of spellings is that we know και was pronounced κε because it was often spelled that way. The Restored Koine pronunciation scheme results in a natural sounding language that is based on historical evidence. This is the scheme I recommend. Resources for learning the scheme are found below. Some resources for the other schemes are also given below. For more information and justification for the use of the Restored Koine scheme, visit Notes on the Pronunciation System of Koine Greek.

Biblical Language Center, Notes on the pronunciation system of Koine Greek, Randall Buth.

https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/koine-greek-pronunciation/

Biblical Language Center, Sample Greek audio.

https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/greek-mp3-samples/

Ben Kantor - video about koine pronunciation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhuUc3N_Z9o

Restored Koine Chart

Extensive chart showing the Restored Koine pronunciation variation. Corresponding examples are given in English and Chichewa. Author P.D. Nitz

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-AM-KaZGzv2R7n6sZqZRFt0HFc9I1--G/view?usp=sharing

Koine Greek IPA vowel chart with audio, created by Stephen Hughes

http://www.readntg.org/LivingKoine/KoineConsonants.html

http://www.readntg.org/LivingKoine/KoineGreekVowels.html

Alphabet

Here is an excellent tutorial video created by Tim McNinch on YouTube. He reads through the alphabet letter by letter, giving several words as examples. The dipthongs are treated separately in the second link. Double consonants are not treated, but can be seen in many examples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94B26pJM2fg&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyQk8Nz2qwE&t=45s

Writing and listening

A series of four videos on writing some Ancient Greek names. Pronunciation is also given as the names are written. PD Nitz. Each video is about 5 minutes.

Video 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIIPuuL57Zw&t=2s

Video 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zbR5SrrmSI

Video 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gqY4KqwCSU

Video 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXl5v-rYZYI

Ομιλειν

Ομιλειν [Omilein] is a course in Ancient (Koine) Greek newly developed (2018) by Jordash Kiffiak. Kiffiak uses the Restored Koine pronunciation. The first lesson is free after a sign-up. He has good, consistent pronunciation. Taking his first lesson will give a good taste of the Restored Koine scheme.

https://omilein.teachable.com/

Sample Reading

Here is a very well read, but fast reading, of St. Mark, Chapter 1, done by Jordan Day. Reading the text as you hear this reading could be a way to learn to pronounce and read Koine fluently. 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-s4tJGq5Ds&list=PLpxcmJ23ymcUNh5sJBQqbGp-41KeFPgGF

Randall Buth speech on pronunciation at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWOjBulEyrs