Customer Reviews

Pronunciation and Reading of Ancient Greek: A Practical Guide (Living Voice of Greek and Latin Literature Series)

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If you've looked for audio samples of ancient greek, you've probably found that there is very little. I'm sure this has a lot to do with the fact that there is disagreement over how much is known about the way it was spoken and about whether it makes sense to try and speak it.

This tape is good in that it is very clear, easy to follow, full of examples, and you are given a good overview of all details of greek pronunciation. I would recommend it on that basis.

There is another tape associated with the JACT "Reading Greek" set of books, but the lack of clarity in that tape makes this a better reference. I would recommend both for some perspective, but definitely this one over the JACT.

Stephen Daitz' manner of speaking is a bit affected (even in English), but I guess that is not bad from a pronunciation teacher. The tapes are very clear and complete, and that is what is important.

Daitz comes across, to me, as a gifted and even passionate teacher. And he is well known for his long time devotion and expertise on reconstructing the sound of ancient Greek. The tape is clear and covers all the basic sounds of letters and accents in ancient Greek, plus some treatment of sentence rhythms. It deserves the attention of anyone interested in ancient Greek pronunciation. And it is indispensible to anyone studying Greek on their own because you have to say the words to yourself somehow.

In fact Daitz's English pronunciation is very odd on this tape, as another reviewer complains. But I think he is trying to help you learn. He pronounces English with faint but discernible pitch accents! The note of his voice rises and falls as in Greek. And he speaks in meter, as in Greek only less obvious. I'm not sure it is a successful technique. The few attempts at humor are awkwardly jammed in too. But that is his passion for the subject and for making it attractive to learn.

The main thing I wanted after listening to this, was simply more. More on pronouncing whole words. More on whole sentences. The tape gives complete explicit instructions on these, plus extensive readings from ancient authors, but a lot more step by step examples would be useful.

This is a very interesting and useful introduction to the pronunciation of Attic Greek as it was spoken in Athens around the fifth century BC. It comprises a booklet with theoretical explanations and the Greek examples read by Prof. Daitz, and two one hour cassettes.

Far from being boring or pedantic, Prof. Daitz comes across in this recording as a very passionate, knowledgeable and humane person, the kind of teacher I would have liked to have when in secondary school. He knows how to make his explanations more comprehensible for the listener by using interesting and even humorous anecdotes and one simply regrets that the tapes are so short.

The only shortcoming of this crash course in Attic pronunciation is the lack of simple and contrasting examples to learn the pitch accents. The list of 20 words read by Prof. Daitz is definitely not enough and one wishes that he would have illustrated the pronunciation of ancient Greek in a sentence with very simple examples like "the man rides a mule to the market" . Instead he recites a passage from the Apology of Socrates by Plato, which is fine except that the sheer complexity of the sentence structure makes it very difficult for the befuddled beginner to pay attention to the pronunciation.

Can one learn the pitch accents? I think it is possible with time and intelligent effort and the best way to do it is to follow Prof Daitz' own recommendations by listening to pitch variations in one's own native language. As a matter of fact, I have noticed that I use pitch accents instead of stress when talking with my pets and young children and I do it effortlessly. Pitch accents obviously represent a more emotional and childlike stage in the development of language, one which is very close to singing.

For me, learning to sing the pitch accents has made the study of ancient Greek a thousand times more attractive, for who would deny that most of the charm of any language resides in its sound? One can only thank Prof. Daitz for all his labors in bringing to light this otherwise neglected aspect of Greek genius.

The author is very thorough. His style in English is so affected that you cant help but wonder what his personal background was. Will you be able to speak greek in the "classical manner" after hearing this tape--NO! . Some of best tapes are in books related to learning biblical or new testament greek. There is even an excellent CD.