The (koine) Greek Alphabet Song

[christy14141]

@danzac1979 oh...im sorry...i never heard it that way before

[danzac1979]

@christy14141 No problem — I've been called worse !! ;-)

[MrMousmoulos]

I also want to add that I read your description and believe me the Erasmian method is wrong! The ancient greeks used to pronounce the letters in a much more different way(for example they use to say homikron BUT hooomegha)! Anyway I appreciate that you have uploaded a video about my language! thnx! ~ whenwever you want come to Greece, I am buying ouzo and souvlaki! hahaha :-P ~ Take care! :-D

[christy14141]

Pi is pronounced "pie" not "pee"; and phi is "figh" not "fee" and chi is "cai" not "key"; psi is "sigh" not "psee"; seriously what idiot sang this?

[danzac1979]

@christy14141 Thanks for your kind words, I'm the idiot that sang this !! But you may want to ask what idiot taught you :-) I'm utilizing Erasmian pronunciation, used by the majority of Koine Greek scholars. I don't blame your misunderstanding, I actually learned it the way you are describing too, but that is an anglicization of the pronunciation. If you read the comments you'll see that some think we're both wrong !! do you also say ksee for ξ? And eye-oat-a for ι ?

[RevivalHerald]

Thanks!

[twilightaddict1414]

lmao omg this was so funny the accent isnt right but it was so hillarious

[danzac1979]

@twilightaddict1414 I'm an English speaker so I know my accent isn't right. And it was made to be fun, so I'm glad it made you smile :-)

[twilightaddict1414]

@danzac1979 lol its ok if you cant speak it im glad you didnt take offence to it because i didnt mean it to be offencive ! i thought it was very creative and funny :p nice job

[MrLampias]

@danzac1979 just to know this is how you have to pronounce the greek alphabet letters and for the record it made me smile to :-)

[jasmijndkl]

Does Greek really sound so English?

We learn this in Holland too and of course we learn it wrong, with a Dutch accent... But is this correct..?

And by the way... Sorry for my bad English (and Greek:)

[danzac1979]

@jasmijndkl I am an English speaker so undoubtedly my accent reflects that. Please see my description and the comments as well which touch on the method of pronunciation used.

[StockportWesleyanC]

Nice!

[olgaeft]

Alphah, Veetah, Ghamah, Dehltah, Epseelon, Zeetah, Eetah, Theetah, Yotah, Kappah, Lamdhah, Mee, Nee, Ksee, Omeekron, Pee, Rho, Seegmah, Taf, EEpseelon, Fee, Hee, Psee, Omehgah

If u really want to learn the greek alphabet.

[danzac1979]

@olgaeft Thanks for teaching us the modern pronunciation :-) Please read the description and comments to understand why my pronunciation is different.

[danzac1979]

For the nay-sayers, Berkley also has a site for the sounds of attic Greek. This is pretty much the Erasmian method. Search for "berkley attic greek pronunciation"

[johnthetraveler]

Thank you so much for this! I'm learning koine Greek, and this has been a huge help. I'm impressed with your patience with the posters who don't take the time to read comments or the description before posting.

[danzac1979]

@johnthetraveler Thanks. I hope the rest of the songs in the package are helpful for you too !

[SchnauzerGR]

well im greek and i know ancient greek to and the this is totaly wrong pronanciation

[danzac1979]

@SchnauzerGR Please read all of my previous comments. Let me reiterate — I KNOW THIS ISN'T MODERN PRONUNCIATION. It is based on the Erasmian method of pronunciation, used primarily for those who are learning in order to read NT Greek, not speak it. For the record, I am not a native speaker of koine Greek. Neither is anyone else who has criticized— it was 2,000 years ago :-)

I've tried to make this clear in the name of the song, in the description, and comments. Sorry for misleading anyone.

[LamerdA]

@SchnauzerGR you studied ancient greek in school in Greece and you did it using MODERN pronunciation. On the other hand worldwide generally ancient Greek is studied with the Erasmian pronunciation, that is different from modern pronunciation. Neither modern nor erasmian pronunciation are the way Greek was spoken back 2000 or 2500 years ago. The same occurs with modern and classic latin pronunciation

[danzac1979]

@LamerdA Finally, someone to my defense :-)

[jona457]

awesome song... thank you so much for sharing. I'm trying to learn how to pronounce the Greek alphabet and you make sound very easy... other videos I found confused me more... Thank you again.

[ashleythemaxie]

MORE cOW BELL!!! xD

[danzac1979]

@silenteyesspy That depends on whether you have been alive for 2,000 years :-) Just because my mother is native doesn't mean I know the dialect of the Cree nation before Columbus arrived in Canada :-)

Here is a good page to introduce you to the issue, as well as the major differences in the ancient pronunciation systems. Erasmian tends to be "the teachers" choice because it emphasizes unique sound for each letter.

[thewakkydude]

needs more cowbell

[silenteyesspy]

what is with all these English that upload the Greek alphabet and then butcher it...this is why the majority of the English people can't ever learn another language correctly..

[danzac1979]

@silenteyesspy Thanks for your kind (and slightly racist) words. If you would take a minute to read both the description and the comments, you would see that this is part of a package for teaching koine Greek, in order to read the New Testament. There are numerous theories and modern reconstructions for how Greek at the turn of the era may have been pronounced. The most popular method used for Koine Greek is called "The Erasmian Method" of pronunciation. That is what is used here.

[silenteyesspy]

@danzac1979: You're welcome :) so the greeks themselves don't know what it would have sounded like? and how did these theories come about

[missfairytale2011]

half of the letters were pronnunced wrong!!!!

[danzac1979]

@missfairytale2011 As the description states, this is for the teaching of ancient Greek (koine) utilizing the Erasmian pronunciation system. It is not modern Greek :-)

[JakeOfAllTrades17]

@missfairytale2011 They were not pronounced wrong, these are how they were pronounced a long time ago

[morfeasgd]

the koine or demotike are the modern Greek language as Greek i agree with danzac1979 but if that how u learned it u are not to blame and ty vm for learning greek alphabet

the correct pronunciation for the differences we detect is ,β = Vita, μ= Me, ν = Ne, π = Pe ,τ = Taph, υ = ypsilon, ψ = pse

ok keep at the try we spend 7 years ++ learning grammar and we still don't know all :P if you have any questions i would gladly answer

them bye

[ashleythemaxie]

:D i learned the greek alphabet in 4 days!!!!!!!

[JakeOfAllTrades17]

@ashleythemaxie I learned it in 10 minutes...

[Sugarbabii27]

the song that my english teacher taught helps more..

[TheMineManiac]

Lol I love that half of our alphabet as  you say it in English is wrong in Greek (Like Beta in greek its more like Vita)

[danzac1979]

@TheMineManiac you mean modern Greek?

[TheMineManiac]

@danzac1979 I mean that the way you SAY the Greek alphabet is a bit weird. Not that you know it wrong or something. If you still don't understand what I mean search for the Greek alphabet but from someone who is Greek so you will understand the difference between the ways we say the Greek alphabet. And when I said Beta--> Vita I meant that in Greek it is said like Vita not beta.And yes modern Greek.

[danzac1979]

@TheMineManiac Thanks for the info. It isn't quite clear from the title or description, but this is part of a package for teaching koine Greek, specifically for those wanting to read the New Testament. We don't really know how they spoke dead languages. Most koine Greek teachers follow Erasmian pronunciation, others follow modern Greek. All that to say, it wasn't meant for learning modern Greek :-) I make no claim to knowing modern Greek — I wish they were identical though !

[TheMineManiac]

@danzac1979 Well, ok then.

[mongoose308]

What fun.

Thanks for the Greek lesson. :)

[danzac1979]

@mongoose308 you're welcome :-)