What is the source for the Pronunciation Tool sounds?
Is it collated from independent language authorities, or is it created in-house within Faithlife?
Please advise with any citations. Thanks.
If you select the Information option in the panel menu you will be able to see details about the currently selected pronunciation group. Hopefully this will help answer your questions.
Andrew, thanks for that.
Information inside Pronunciation Tool returned the following:
Language
Hebrew and Aramaic
Style
Israeli Biblical Hebrew
Reader
Dr. Randall Buth
Greek
Koine
Prof. John Schwandt
Modern
Interesting as this info is, it doesn't answer my query.
Not seeing any evidence of where the pronunciations are sourced from.
Where did the Readers get their
I believe the pronunciation choices were made by the readers.
The information includes some details about those choices.
Thanks for that, Andrew.
Yes, I read their explanations for how certain words were voiced.
Still surprised that there is no citation which verifies the source for the pronunciations!
How does Faithlife/Logos know if the pronunciations provided are accurate?
We have sound citations/bibliography for the books and media data, why not something similar for the pronunciations?
I'm not really an expert on this subject, so maybe I shouldn't be trying to answer, but I'm not aware that there is any consensus on what pronunciations are "accurate". That's why the information is descriptive about the pronunciation scheme that was chosen by the reader.
@Andrew Batishko is right. There is often not a consensus. Furthermore, there were regional differences regarding pronunciation as well as variation through history.
Fortunately, a search within Logos of "Greek phonology" should provide some answers.
Finally, there is a strong notion (nothing in biblical scholarship is ever a consensus) that both people mentioned above are very good at what they do. Buth, for example, IIRC, can speak conversational Koine and has taught it as well.
@Andrew Batishko is not only right, he is RIGHT. And @Lew Worthington's point is also well-taken.
There is no such thing as "accurate" or "inaccurate" pronunciation. While words can be mispronounced, any pronunciation that is understandable is reasonable and to say that the person (often with a regional accent of some type) is 'saying it wrong' is simply short-sighted. Words can be pronounced differently and not be less 'right.'
For example, there is one man alive who can recite Shakespeare in the accent/style that was used at the time he was active, and even he will admit some of the pronunciations are best-guesses. And early modern English has a lot more resources for researching pronunciation than Koine Greek has.
Since there are no recordings, if you want to pronounce Greek as it was pronounced in first-century Palestine, you'd have to live in first-century Palestine. You don't (and can't), so you do the best you can with the tools you have, and language experts (such as Dr. Schwandt) are the best tools we have.
In a classroom, the professor … "well, yes, the Logos Hebrew reader does have some good points in pronunciation. But I wouldn't recommend it overall."
Just illustrating a student's problem (and yes, I think even George discussed the above conundrum).
Should Logos/Faithlife put a disclaimer, or caveat statement, within the Pronunciation Tool explaining that the voices/accents provided are not definitive?
Other Readers, or Hebrew/Greek teachers, may disagree with the pronunciations provided by Logos/Faithlife.
I don't know why they would or why that would be helpful. There is rarely any semantic significance in one's accent. And as @Doc B points out, we can't really find out exactly how words were pronounced. But those who have studied ancient phonology are really pretty good and they really have enough of an idea of pronunciation that we're not going to lose any significant meaning with what we've got.
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