Can anyone help me? A question about language.

[Kephalos]

This summer I began to learn Attic Greek. However, I am really confused about the pronunciation, namely the pitch accent that the Greek in that time had. What I have found on accent seems to me to be more about linguistics and explaning the nature of the accent, which is interesting, but useless to learn how to pronounce it.

The textbook that I am using is in English and it merely mentions that in contrast to Greek, which had a pitch accent, English has a stress-accent. It also mentions that for the purposes of learning it might be advisable to simply substitute an English stress accent for the Greek. Now, I know that with ancient languages the pronunciation is reconstructed and that what can be said about it is in a way conjecture, but I would like, so to speak...

My native language is Spanish but it is of no use because it also has a stress-accent. I found that Lithuanian, Sanskrit and Chinese are languages that also use an accent similar to Greek, but I found only material on Sanskrit pronunciation, overall explained slowly and in detail for the uninitiated, but what I found on the accent confuses me as much as what I read about Greek.

I know that if I could only hear this so-called pitch accent I would be able to understand it better. Does anyone know about any audio available out there, for either Greek or Sanskrit or general that illustrates this accents?

 

[kyuuei]

You lost me at "attic". Sorry

 

[Wiley45]

There are a few podcasts on itunes designed to help people learn Greek. I'd suggest checking them out to see if any of them have what you need.

 

[demimondaine]

i can't promise i'll be much help, but a quick internet search pulled up this:
Greek Audio Links to Listen to Greek

and this might be going overboard, but if your book makes use of the IPA (international phonetic alphabet), learning the symbols that apply to greek might be useful for pronunciation.

International Phonetic Alphabet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ancient Greek phonology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

good luck!

 

[wildcat]

This summer I began to learn Attic Greek. However, I am really confused about the pronunciation, namely the pitch accent that the Greek in that time had. What I have found on accent seems to me to be more about linguistics and explaning the nature of the accent, which is interesting, but useless to learn how to pronounce it.

The textbook that I am using is in English and it merely mentions that in contrast to Greek, which had a pitch accent, English has a stress-accent. It also mentions that for the purposes of learning it might be advisable to simply substitute an English stress accent for the Greek. Now, I know that with ancient languages the pronunciation is reconstructed and that what can be said about it is in a way conjecture, but I would like, so to speak...

My native language is Spanish but it is of no use because it also has a stress-accent. I found that Lithuanian, Sanskrit and Chinese are languages that also use an accent similar to Greek, but I found only material on Sanskrit pronunciation, overall explained slowly and in detail for the uninitiated, but what I found on the accent confuses me as much as what I read about Greek.

I know that if I could only hear this so-called pitch accent I would be able to understand it better. Does anyone know about any audio available out there, for either Greek or Sanskrit or general that illustrates this accents?

You do not need to learn the pitch, my friend. My advice: Forget the pitch. It is lost in Greek altogether, a long time ago. It is not coming back. Speak your Greek, Attic or modern, it does not matter, without the pitch. It is not only legitimate, it is the only solution.
You know, we Finns do not use it when we speak Swedish, but in the Stockholm area it is very marked. Who cares. The Stockholm people understand us perfectly, we may sound a little landish, that is peasant-like. But everybody knows we come from the forests.

You are all right as it is. Do not worry about the pitch. It is a luxury item.
Yes, the Indo Europeans had it. Very distinct. It marked them, too. Everybody wanted to ape it. But they could not. As the non Indo Europeans adopted Indo European, it was lost.
Because the Indo European, you see, was not the native tongue of most of the Europeans.

Most of the Greeks were not Indo European either, they adopted the language. The pitch became soon lost. The Greeks even tried to preserve it in writing, in part. It was not a success story.
In Lithuania they have a trace of it left. The Lithuanian women married Finnish men, but they did teach Lithuanian to their sons.
Alas, North of Kaunas, the Lithuanian men, sons of Finns, married Finnish women. The pitch was gone: A new language, Latvian, was born.

Even in Sweden the people have lost it, in many parts of the country, because of Finnish and Sami influence.

They say it is lost in Spanish. It is understandable, the Spaniards are, for the most part, descendants of the Basque people. But if you are very careful, you can hear a tiny little trace of the pitch, in Castilian. It is not really a pitch, just a trace of an ancient pitch.