Signs and Sounds of Greek

And so we begin with chapter one signs and sounds of Greek Made Simple obviously we need to start with the Greek alphabet. Here is the entirety of the Greek alphabet and encourage you to say it along with me I'll say it slowly so you can repeat after me. Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta 8a theta e OTA lambda nu see Macron Sigma Tao Epsilon qui si Omega say it one more time a little bit quicker. What you see there is the lower case letters. I do want to make mention of the Sigma. Notice in the second row halfway down how I have a second option there. The first one is the sigma. The second one is called the final sigma. Looks a lot like art. And and it sounds like our s as well. And the final sigma is an alternative way that the sigma is written. If and only if the sigma is the last word in this and in the last work letter on the word. Excuse me. So that's called a final Sigma so I can say them through one more time and this time I want you to look at the capital letters letter forms here so they some of them will look similar. Some of them look quite different. So in those cases you need to be able to still recognize them. Capital letters in Greek are used at the beginning of a quotation for proper names or at the beginning of a sentence. Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta 8a theta Iota Kappa Lambda Mew nu C all Macron P Rho Sigma Tao Epsilon the key C Omega. Now obviously it's important to learn the Greek alphabet and I've tried to make it fun so you will find below this video within the chapter 1 section. My Greek alphabet song and it's in higher quality here. If you want to watch it within the video course or feel free to access it via my YouTube channel as well so that's the Greek alphabet song several of those letters were vowels so the Greek vowels is the Alpha Epsilon 8a e OTA Macron Epsilon and Omega both the epsilon and the OM Akron are always considered short. That is because they have always long equivalents. So the always long vowels are the 8a and the Omega. So the aorta is the long form of the Epsilon and the omega is the long form of the Crown. And for instance for the chronic Omega. And that's why they have their names are McBrien micro o mega Omega. Big the rest of the letters can be long or short depending on the usage within the word. So Alpha Yoda and epsilon may be long in particular if they receive an accent which is something that we'll be talking about within this lesson. Now and Yoda also has a form called a sub script subscript means written lower and in the case of some words any Oda will slide underneath the vowel that has come before it but only for an alpha and Ada or an Omega. So in the Yoda will subscript only under these particular letters not under any other letters. So in the case where they sit on the end of a word and they are preceded by Alpha and Omega they will often though not always subscript it's important because we need to recognize that even though it has been sub scripted and therefore we don't pronounce it it is still there and you will understand why that's important as we go on in other lessons. Now there are also things called diphthongs diphthongs are combinations of vowels that's not uncommon in our own language. Think about the word brain a AI together makes the long a sound but if I took the AI out it would be Bran like Bran Flakes. That's because a an AI in English r is a diphthong making sound a unique sound together. Greek has diphthongs as well so we have Alpha and Yoda. That's the brain example I just gave you only in Greek Alpha and Yoda which looks like a and I for us actually makes an AI sound like our English word I'll it's not ale or ACL it's Io So Alpha Yoda diphthong is I. This is one that is frequently trips up students because it looks so much like a and I in English. So we want to say it like brain but it's actually I like the word here. I'll Epsilon Yoda makes an a sound like in our English word 8 Micron and Yoda together make an oil sound like oil Epsilon Yoda makes a wee sound so sweet like sweet Alpha and along make an owl sound like in the word Foust I could find a better English word I'm sorry. And then Epsilon Epsilon make a you sound like that. Like in feud feud Armageddon Epsilon makes and you sound like an hour English group Ada and epsilon will occasionally appear together and it's like an owl sound. Doesn't happen very often. We don't really have any English equivalents like that but occasionally that type of diphthong also shows up so Greek vowels obviously occur on their own have the short sound have long sounds can be either or. Or come in diphthong form the last one is omega Epsilon which is a more of a long o sole like that just a lengthening of the O with a little bit of an O at the end soul now vowels can contract as vowels come together in particular words and you'll understand what I mean by that in the future as we start to understand how words are built up into a particular type of word what happens. For instance let me give you a simple example that doesn't actually include vowels but if I say pet Petey but then I say pets. Well an s at the end we put out at the end there the T and the S is now side by side. But pet is a word by itself we add an s to make it plural in the same way things are added to the back of words or to the front of words in Greek. And when those things are added sometimes means vowels then sit beside each other and vowel when they sing vowels when they sit beside each other will end up contracting. Now you do not need to memorize this at all so don't be intimidated by it. I just wanted to show you it as an example of what can happen if you look at the very first example if an alpha and an epsilon come together sometimes this is not all the time it will result in just the alpha the Epsilon will be dropped. Same with if it contacts an ETA but if an alpha and Yoda are together well they stay together. But forget that is now. If thong that will make a different sound. Yeah. I so again we don't need to memorize all of this but it does mean is that vowels contract that's really what you need to remember. Sometimes it results in a diphthong a new type of sound. Sometimes it results in one of the letters dropping out. Sometimes it results in EOD subs scripting and sometimes it results in something else entirely. Again in this section 4 Chapter 1 you'll notice another video that I have on my YouTube channel that I encourage you to look at that talks a little bit more about vowel contraction now within Greek. There are lots of things called dire critical marks these are marks in and around the word that are important to understand. They are primarily about how to say or speak the language so the first is an acute accent. Notice the word acute. Think of it this way acute goes up acute. And that's because notice that the accent is like this above the letter. Acute acute accents only ever occur on vowels which means that wherever that vowel is the word and the syllable will be accented there grave accent. Think of going down to the grave. Notice how now the angle of the accent goes downwards and that's the role of that accent. It makes your voice go down like that rather than up like an acute accent. A circle flex accent is a squiggly line over top of a vowel or sometimes but ten ten depending on the type of Greek font that a book may be using or an author might be using sometimes it's a half arc like a half moon on its side is also the circle flex accent that is just a font variation so a circle flex accent is again just placing particular emphasis on a particular vowel and its syllable there's something called Rough breathing rough breathing is where we would add a sound and h sound in English and we would go. So you may have a word that begins with a vowel. Notice how it sits over top of an alpha there or over top of a diphthong. So Alpha Epsilon. Notice how in that case it sits over the second vowel because those two together in this case are functioning together as a diphthong. So the rough break which means it's it's a singular sound it's making together. And so the rough breathing sits on the second letter. Our this is the one exception to the vowel rule. Greek dire critical marks are always occurring over vowels. The one exception is if a word begins with a row an r row r sound in English it on occasion. If a word begins with that we'll also have a rough breathing Mark if the first letter of a word also has an accent. Then the accent and the rough breathing Mark will just sit together. If it is on a capital letter so if it's the beginning of a sentence and the first word in the sentence begins with a vowel well then the vowel will be capitalized and then in that case the rough breathing will happen just prior to the letter so in the case of the very first sound in that rough breathing so would be there either b r or it would be ha it would be adding a sound a breath sound overtop of the letter if a word begins with a row. You may have like that. Rather than just refer accent and capital letters would sound the same for the diphthong. It would either be out or b how like that. So again adding a sound to it. There are also things that we call smooth breathing smooth. Breathing is still a breathing accent but notice how it's just curved the other way. So it looks like an apostrophe. The way that we write apostrophes like that. It's again over top of vowels only at the beginning of words. So that's the case for all rough breathing. All of our rough reading accents only occur if a word begins with one of these letters or in a one exception with row for smooth breathing. It's only ever over top of a vowel a diphthong and that Valve may have an accent or maybe a capital letter a smooth breathing causes no changes in how we pronounce that particular word or a vowel. It was just a breathing marker. In other words they would take a breath. So it's considered a breathing Mark a question mark in a Greek text. Looks like our semicolon. I'm not really sure how this came about. I haven't taken the time to look at the history of it but for whatever reason they've chosen the colon semicolon marker to be the question mark within our modern Greek texts a semicolon would be just the top dot of what we consider a colon. Same with a colon rather than a semicolon. Would be the same type of marker. And then there is something called diarists diary. This is two dots horizontally and it is over top of what looks like a diphthong. So if you remember back to the previous slide Alpha and Yoda when they are together form a diphthong and the sound is I. However if you come across a word and it has what looks like a diphthong but it has a diarists on top. What's that is saying is it is saying don't pronounce this like a diphthong pronounce it as if they are separate letters together. So if you came across this in Greek it would not be I. As in the diphthongs in sound it would be on a r e as in ALPHA sound and then e o to sound separately not as a diphthong notice in the little animation that's been going on perhaps catching your eye right below me here is how at times we will find in Greek the same thing that happens in English namely that a apostrophe. But in this case for Greek called a Coronas Coronas can take the place of a vowel that is ending at the end of one word. If the next word begins with a vowel as well so we do this for. Do not or don't we put the D O in the end and then apostrophe t takes the place of the second. Oh don't. In this case we have the same thing happening. So the word that you see there are poor POS safes are the key US are the words that we see in the animation and in some cases a Cronus can actually take the place of not only the vowel at the end of a PA. Our very first word that you see there but we'll even replace a whole nother word. You don't really need to guess the word. It can just happen at times. You don't need to worry about searching for the word. But notice that when that happens it is not only the disappearing of one word but it is replacing the all Macron that was at the end of the first word. So a Coronas when we see that is often in place of a vowel that is now missing so we've talked about vowels. And now we need to move on to consonants because consonants like vowels can also interact one with another. There are different classes of consonants that we need to recognize. The first is siblings. Now the word sibling it has a very sound and that's the point because siblings have some form of S or s sound in them. Sigma Zeta C and C all of these have some form of an S sound in them. There's also something called liquid letters now liquid letters or all of these consonant classes really are about what happens in your mouth with the air as it moves through your mouth. A Sibyl and at some point has your tongue doing that little this sound whereas liquids have the air continuing to flow through your mouth. Lambda nu nu ro lunar. The the the air in your mouth continues to flow. So it's called a liquid letter that's opposed to stops where at some point in your mouth when you say these particular sounds the air is partially stopped in some way. Now these stops because there's a lot of them are further categorized down into what we call the table of stops or the square of stops so labels use your labial your lip to stop the air for a point within your mouth. So say the word say the sound that a P makes. You're stopping it with your with your lips. Same with Ba ba ba ba. Different sound still using my lips but I'm stopping the air for a time and then a little bit different it's not a total stop but it's doing something again with the labial now palatable means you're touching your palate in some way the top of your mouth that's your palate and so. And again all of those are palatable sounds and then dental. Now notice how your tongue is touching your teeth in some way not the palate and not your labial not your lips. So that's a delineation of these different types of stops. This is going to become important on the next slide so it's important to recognize these different types of stops because different things can happen when they come into contact with certain letters. So let me show you what I mean right now and that is what I call the sinister stigma. So sigma is that sound and the sinister Sigma can do lots of things. First off stigmas have what I call an invisibility cloak. What I mean by that is sometimes a sigma can disappear and that happens when it follows a liquid. Think of it as it slips on the liquid. Imagine a mop tumbles over and a Sigma is walk in by slips on it and disappears. A Sigma can have an invisibility cloak. Sometimes the only trace that might be left is it will just as it's dying. It will throw a circle flex accent over top a vowel nearby that doesn't always happen sometimes. So that's the first thing sometimes a sigma will just disappear from a word. If it follows a liquid letter next. Is that a sigma will stop the stops in their tracks. So a Sigma has special interactions with all of the different stops. So let's go back again to our example word Pet. Pet ends with a T if I want to make it plural I take on an S and I add it to the end pets. Well if I had that equivalent type of word in Greek and I added a sigma to the end of the word like pet because a t is a dental it's a stop consonant. When the dental and the Sigma come into contact something is going to happen. So Kappa. Oh the other thing. Sorry is that Kappa and theta are what I call Sigma wannabes. In other words sometimes they will also do the types of odd things that Sigma can do in words. So here is the first boxes is what you came to in what you were introduced to in the previous slide. The table of stops OK so the labial is palliatives and Gentiles. So those three rows are are consonants that are the stop. Now what happens if a word ends with a P Bata or a fee and then a sigma is added. What ends up happening is that those two letters together will turn to sea. Now you can understand how that can happen and why. So for instance if I said CAP C AP like a ball cap is my last sound. And then if I said the plural not just one ball cap but two caps caps. Notice how the sound is s caps. What if I said cab like taxi cab cab or plural cabs cabs in English not quite the same but in Greek still sounds a lot like s s. Well this is is the very sound that a C makes. That's the sound for the C consonant. So when you have a word that will have end with a p a beater or a fee and a Sigma is attached in some way they will transform and become a C. So that's why in that column there it says plus sigma. So if you have any of these letters and then a sigma is attached directly after it will turn into c. So consider that same formula now with the Palatine is with a Kappa Gamma or a key. If you add a C they will change to C because they sound again. Imagine the word snack and then I plurals it snacks. Wilkes asks. That sounds that that sound is what a C that continent that's the sound it makes. So it turns into c if you add a sigma to a dental. This is where a sigma really does auto damage that sinister sigma. That's why I call it that. In this case a dental wheel just completely be dropped out so there's no trace of its sound at all. So if you add a sigma to a word so go back to our pet analogy pet or pets. In the case of Greek if pet were our word in Greek and we added a sigma it would just kick off the T entirely. This happens for a Tao. Then a Delta or a Theta. All of the gentiles will be kicked off with just the Sigma remaining. And notice how I have put in a new in parentheses right in front of the Tao. That is because there are a number of words that end with new Tao like many of our words that end with n t like want. And if a sigma is attached to a word like that the Tao when it gets kicked off will sometimes also take the new with it. And so that's why I've added that new in the parentheses there. Now remember that I said that Kappa and theta are Sigma wannabes. What I mean by that is they also like to interact and do a little damage with the stops. So if a word ends with any of the labels P beta or fee and if a kappa is added right beside it what it will do will it is it will transform both of them over to the rough form of the table of stops. In this case fee you'll notice in our third column fee and key and theta are all called our rough portion of the stops and so if a word ends with P and you add a Kappa. So you have ft P and kappa. Those two will transform and become a fee. It will slide over to the third option. Same thing happens if you add a Kappa. That and it's added to a word that ends with Kappa Gamma or key you add a Kappa. It will become a key it'll become the rough equivalent in the example of a Kappa being added to a word that ends with a dental. It will kick it out entirely just like the Sigma did. Kicks it out entirely and it's just Kappa left. In the case of a Theta so you have a word ending with any of these stops and if you add a Theta it both transforms the letter so it would transform a P or a beater to a fee. But it would stick around. Unlike the Kappa which transforms together and then goes away the theta still sticks there. So if you have a word that ends with a P or a beta it would transform those letters to fee but it would stay so it would become if you have a Kappa or gamma and that is the end of the word and the theta is attached. They would become the rough form the key but the theta sticks around. And now here's the weirdest one of all of this entire sinister Sigma and the wannabes. If a Theta comes at the end of a word or is attached to a word that ends with a dental what ends up happening is the dental goes away. Sigma takes its place and the theta stays. That's the weirdest one of all. And so you see here this is the table of stops and interactions. And this is an important table. So I actually encourage you in learning exercises to be able to replicate this table because these are frequent interactions that we see further. You will find a video within this section that helps to recap this and state state and once again so let's talk a little bit about those accents again. We introduce them quickly accent positions we don't need to know this necessarily it's just some good information to have in that it helps us with the pronunciation of the language remember accents are all about the proper pronunciation of language as you're reading. If a word in Greek has more than three syllables the accent is only going to appear on the last three and the sill three syllables. The last three syllables of the word always have names. There's the Ultima. That's one syllable word. If you have a two syllable Lord it has an Ultima and a penalty if it's a three syllable. It has an Ultima it has a penalty. It has an end to penalty and then if it has more than three syllables the rest of those syllables just aren't named. OK so it's always the last three. So you name them from the back of the word penalty Ultima penalty and a penalty. OK so you name them from the back of the word and a cute accent. Only ever can be only on the and a penalty if the ultimate long and a circle flex only appears over long vowels so it has to choose between penalty and Ultima. It likes to be on the altar. We don't need to again really remember this. It's more just for information's sake. If I were to break it down at a table it looks like this. So the acute accent can be on any three of the last syllables. Same with a circle flex the grave will only ever be on the last syllable. Again I want to emphasize more than having to remember something like that. This is more just for information sake. What's important for accents is that this is where the emphasis goes on the word. That's why knowing your accents are important so for instance if I took my country and I placed accents on it Notice how I placed an accent on a different syllable for each example. How would this change how we pronounce it means that I would emphasize the syllable for the where the accent is. So I may say Canada. Notice how I've emphasized that first a and then I run over the other ones quite quickly. Canada. It's almost like those two A's don't exist. It's like a little down Canada. Now what if I wanted to emphasize the second syllable. Canada Canada. Well I don't really know anyone that says it like that. But notice how I rush over that first syllable to get to the second syllable that has the accent. And then again that last syllable is run over quite quick. So Canada. And then if I accent the very last syllable. Canada. Canada again. Notice how we rush over the other syllables to get to the accent and syllable. That's the nature of accents. So now let's look at some Greek here. I'll do it nice and slow but I do want you as we go through each one to take note of where the accents are. You will also see some breathing accents. We have a rough breathing accent. Actually we have several and we have several smooth breathing accents. Again I'm going to go slow. So POW loss POW loss. Notice how the accent is over the second letter in that diphthong alpha epsilon. So they together make a unique sound because they're different. And so the accent goes over the second of those two letters in the diphthong. If the accent was over the all Macron would be POW loss POW loss. Notice the accent on the oars instead but it's POW loss POW loss a possible loss. So notice how I've emphasized the are a possible loss not a possible loss or a possible a loss. It's a possible loss so you emphasize the syllable that has the accent and you kind of rush over the rest Apostolos. Chris do not crease do not crease do but Chris do. Notice how I rush over in the first part. Chris do. Sue D. Now notice my D here because it's a grave accent. Notice it's going down to the grave. It also means that your voice goes down in the emphasis rather than up. So a possible loss. Notice how I'm going up but Dia I'm going down DIA fillet my toss the a toss that you by the way I should have said this at the beginning. Make sure you're saying these along with me that you toys Huggy voice. Now notice here this is our first rough breathing so it's not I give you ice. It's Huggy ice because it's a rough breathing so we add a huh. That's unlike the second word which had a smooth breathing so it resulted in no sound it was just a possible loss but the next one here is Huggy ice so I got to emphasize the syllable that has the accent the E part ghee ice toys loosen and effect so now notice here the one in brackets that the first word in has no accent but you need an accent on a word group or on a word. But some words in Greek will have no accent. What that means is that it is relying you. Well it's almost always on a very short word. First of all second of all it means that it will rely on the next accent that is going to come. Which means that you rush over it and you almost connect it. Now we do this especially native speakers and we we jam words together all the time. If you're speaking to a new English speaker for instance they often ask you to slow down because they can't tell where your words are ending and beginning. That's kind of what's happening here. It's not an F Fest so it's an effect. So we put them together. By the way that's not why I have the brackets in there just to make note of that. I'm going to talk about the brackets in a second and the Fest so Kai so notice I'm going down there Kai distorts and Cristo again and has no accent. So it's combined increase sto yay Sue caddies who mean. Notice there are another rough breathing who mean Chi a rainy a PA that Petrobras. Hey Mon chi ku you e Sue crease do. I'm gonna say it all one more time I'll still go slowly but I won't stop and comment along the way try and say it along with me pal loss a past the loss crease do you a Sue D. So lame a toss that you toys Huggy choice toys loosen and effect so Chi Pistorius and sto e ay Sue Caris who mean Chi Hey Ray nay a Paul Stross Hey Mon chi ku REU e a su crease to now I hope that you can actually recognize a number of these words. That's because as you'll see at the end of chapter one you actually know a lot of Greek words already because so much of english is based on and if you know the Bible well a lot of the words are transliterated made to sound like they do in Greek. So power loss is Paul a possible loss is apostle Chris do that's Christ e a Sue that's Jesus who is God. Theology Fessio that is Ephesus Christo Christ ESU we saw that again. What else might you recognize Chi Reese is Grace a rainy like ironic and is peace. So this is the very beginning of the book of Ephesians. This is Paul greeting the Saints and in the name of Jesus he's an apostle of Christ the just one last little note on FSM so and if so the reason it is in brackets is because our earliest manuscripts of Ephesians don't actually have those words. And so it has been suggested by many that Ephesians was something like a circular letter not specifically to the church in Ephesus but rather to the church and emphasis and many other places. And so and the FSA was added perhaps later and that's why it's in brackets and would be in brackets in your Greek New Testament. So one last point in terms of accents and syllables is just recognizing that they're like in English there are syllables in Greek Greek words have as many syllables as they have vowels or diphthongs. And that is again the same as English. So for every vowel or vowel sound like a diphthong you have a syllable so if I showed you head out to and anthro POS head out to how many vowel sounds do I have there. I have I have an epsilon then I have an alpha epsilon which is a diphthong then I have an all Macron ups along which is also a diphthong. So even though I have five vowels here I only have three vowel sounds I have a short Epsilon sound and then two diphthongs which means I have three syllables in the next one I have three vowels no diphthongs so I would have three syllables. This is again the same rules as English so it would be split here now two and throw POS now remember the last three syllables in every word are the ones that have names. These are the ones that will also receive the accent. They an accent won't be any earlier than that in a sentence. So in some cases it's good to start at the back of a word to do your syllable splitting. You don't need to worry about this too too much. But if you are especially if you're having difficulty in pronunciation you can work on syllable splitting. So remember the names and to not Pendleton Ultima. So to take all of the words that I've shown you so far and then two more out two and half you would see how they would break down and you always name them from the back so if I were to take our Greek beginning of fusions again and say How should we split this up. Well we could go through and remember our rule that it always if it has a vowel or vowel sound that means one syllable. If you were to draw a line and it includes two vowel sounds then you've drawn the line incorrectly so it would look like this. Pow loss POW loss POW loss PA style loss Pa da loss notice as we're splitting you have to have a vowel in between each crease to e a Sue e a Sue e is one vowel ayes another vowel and then you e Sue DIA Oh I missed note there it is for Lee Ma toss said to toys is all one because there's only one diphthong there and it's together how ye voice choice choices its own scene and if so if so Chi is its own P toys piece toys and Crisco again e a su like above car Reese who mean Chi's its own a ray may are Paul there who PA trust. Hey Mon chi ku Ri you e a Sue Cream stew so that's how we would take that and split it up notice in between all of the breakups in those words there's always only one vowel or vowel sound one diphthong so that's how you would break up syllables again it's just good practice as you're reading I do want to remind you and I'll make a note in the description of this that Lagos should you make the good choice to invest in a little bit of logs Bob a software that there is a Audio Bible in Lagos that I heartily recommend to you. The nice thing about Lagos Audio Bible is obviously it's the Greek New Testament so you can have it read to you as whatever section you're in but also you can actually slow it down or speed it up which is nice especially when you're in a learning mode. You can slow it down and hear it. The other thing I do want to mention I'll mention the description as well is that I've chosen through the textbook and in this class to use something called a Rasmussen pronunciation harassments was an early scholar of the Greek New Testament and he formulated the pronunciation of Greek New Testament as he was learning. Now those of us who use arouse me in pronunciation we know that it is higher the same as it was in the ancient world. In other words the way I'm reading it to you is not exactly how it would have sounded in the ancient world as Paul the apostle was speaking. If you are really interested in trying to get back at kind of the closest reconstruction which is closer to modern Greek though not exactly the same. It's called reconstructed coin a and you can find information on that online reconstructed coin a in the Greek Audio Bible for Lagos. You can actually have it read to you in a reconstructed coin a or you can choose a Rasmussen pronunciation which is the one I choose. Now what's the rationale for choosing a raspberry and pronunciation. Basically I think it comes down to for me is the ability to teach you arrest me and pronunciation makes distinctions between every vowel as best as I can but the reality in reconstructed coin a. In other words they way they probably pronounced it back then is that there were a number of diphthongs and vowels that ended up sounding almost identical. And what that means is that as you're learning and looking at something for instance if you look at our second line here a fourth word in. So who mean Chi a rainy poor. Notice how I'm saying a poor the Macron I leave short or a poor but it probably in the ancient world was just pronounced APO APO which sounds like an Omega but I would rather because I'm teaching you this language how to read and understand it from scratch I would rather be able for you to differentiate the sound between Micron and Omega. So I say a poor instead of APO you'll actually find this is the nature in English too is that we tend to lengthen letters so many of my students would actually read that as a Poe and I try and remind them say it short so that you can recognize that it's the short form not the long form of the sound. So that's just a little bit on my pronunciation. I do mentioned this in the textbook but if you do go to use the log US audio Greek New Testament you can choose between those two options and have it read to you your Greek New Testament. So that's it for Chapter 1. Take note in this section of the other videos that I've made available for learning this and move on to your learning exercises for the chapter.