RESTORED PRONUNCIATION OF THE GREEK

A text by Jerise Fogel

The pronunciation of the ancient Greek texts of the Requiem follows the Restored Pronunciation researched and codified by W. Sidney Allen in Vox Graeca (Cambridge Univ Press 1968). Restored Pronunciation is a set of "rules" that describe, as accurately as possible, the sounds of spoken Greek of the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE, roughly speaking. It was identified primarily through analysis of epigraphy and statements by ancient grammarians; it attempts to present an accurate representation (“restored” from the Erasmian and English) of the pronunciation of Greek during the Classical period.
The choice to use Restored Pronunciation was made for historical accuracy, and also for euphonic reasons--it is quite beautiful, if a bit strange to our ears now. Most listeners who know Greek will be more familiar or comfortable with either modern Greek or Erasmian pronunciations, in which “ph” = “f,” “ch” = “tsch” or a guttural “ch,” and “th” is pronounced as in “thing” or “thank.” The fact is, these changes in pronunciation of Greek were introduced rather late—and in the case of “ch” not at all—in the history of the language. During the time when the texts used here were being written, the spoken language in Greece was a language of no fricatives; instead, aspirate letters (as they are called: namely ph, ch, th) were pronounced as the letter upon which they were based, with the addition of a puff of air at the end (the “aspiration”). Vowels too had not yet shifted toward the “i” sound, as they would later, especially under the influence of the language of the Ottoman Empire. Ancient Greek before the 2nd century CE was also a pitch accent language, like modern Chinese or Hindi, rather than a stress accent language, such as English.

The pronunciation of the Latin texts, which are mainly liturgical, appropriately follows Church Latin pronunciation.