For Greek readers/speakers...

French n English share the same alphabet n even some vocab, but recognition of words in French is purely random for me.

i get the same feeling looking at modern Greek--i see all the familiar characters, but o boy, where's a familiar word? which is a noun? is that a particle? ew, better get back to reading the NT! :BangHead:

 

In terms of speaking, no authoritative source exists in determining how Greek was pronounced during New Testament times. In addition, a variety of Greek dialects were spoken during that era because of geographical isolation. Erasmian Greek is a pronunciation system today that is taught in many institutions (which is like neither NT nor modern).

The written Greek has changed in various ways throughout history. The Ionic alphabet (dialect spoken mainly in the Greek city-states directly across the Aegean Sea from Athens) became a standard by about the middle of the fourth century BC. Alexander carried the Attic(classical)-Ionic form of the language into the Near East where it normally was adopted as a second language by the native people of these regions and was ultimately transformed into what has come to be called the Hellenistic Koiné (common Greek). The Koiné Period extends from about 330BC to 330AD. Some diacritical markings were added and some dropped as recently as 1982. The modern Greek capital letters are almost identical to those of the Ionic alphabet. NT Greek letters were also used as numerals.

[FYI - lower case letters (minuscules) didn't appear until about the eighth century AD, and would not have been used by the Apostle writers]

 

I don't speak modern Greek so I don't know much about this, except that the koine verb system is more complicated. Modern Greek has simplified the verbs down through the years.

 

I learned a little conversational Greek when I lived on the
Island of Crete for 18 Months with my rich uncle.

When I was in Athens, I was accused of speaking with
a Cretian accent

 

I guess you could understand my Greek with a Cockney accent then,eh guv'nor.

I had the toughest time just pronouncing the Koine Greek whilst in seminary. It was almost like speaking high school French in Quebec.

Cheers,

Jim