27 replies to this topic

[R. Mansfield]

pi is pie, more from convention that anything else I think. I've never heard it pronounced differently.

I've heard it pronounced "pee" but I tend to say "pie" to avoid questions.

Edited by R. Mansfield, 11 December 2012 - 04:23 PM.

[Ken Simpson]

And embarrassment...

[Jonathan C. Borland]

LOL!

I watched Life of Pi with some friends recently and in the movie "Pi" was constantly and mockingly called "pee" as a kid in growing up (at least in the Chinese dubbing we watched). He gained friends though when he could, from memory, write out the numbers of pi filling up several chalkboards.

Edited by Jonathan C. Borland, 11 December 2012 - 04:40 PM.

[Ron Webber]

Hey Ken,

If iota is pronounced "eeyota" then why isn't pi pronounced "pee"?

It often is over here in the states. But the anglicization of the mathematical symbol has also popularized the pronunciation as "pie" here as well.

Blessings -- and thanks again for some past advice in the forums.

Ron

Edited by Ron Webber, 11 December 2012 - 07:10 PM.

[Ken Simpson]

Well, saga of π grows ever longer!

Logically to me it should be "pee" or even "piy" (think of that as pig apocopated by dropping the g), it's just that in my experience I have never heard it as such. My copy of Wilding (Greek for Beginners - Attic) makes it clear that at least he thought it should be "pie" (pī)

I couldn't find a pronunciation guide in Abbot and Mansfield, or in my favourite "A grammar of NT Greek" (Moulton) - though it is large...I may have missed it.

Bill Mounce (in his Grammar) has is as pî - which could be "pie" or "pee".

I guess they are all mostly interested in the labial plosive consonant rather than the succeeding vowel...

Always happy to help with advice. Thanks for your kind words.

Edited by Ken Simpson, 11 December 2012 - 07:45 PM.

[Darryl]

FWIW, Mounce pronounces π as "pee." You can get his grammar in Accordance (http://www.oaksoft.c...=Mounce Greek 3). Also, he gives a rational of his pronunciation method on the companion site to his grammar. You can watch the video lecture where he explains his pronunciation, here: http://www.teknia.co...-over-chapter-3

Hope that helps.

Darryl

[Ken Simpson]

To come back at you Darryl, Moulton says (page 37 vol 2 Grammar of New Testament Greek: Accidence and word-fomation) says that pi should be "pay" - he writes it in greek as πεῖ (and in concord with that - xi as ξεῖ, phi as φεῖ, chi as χεῖ, and psi as ψεῖ.)

Now which of the great ones to follow. Since both are different to what I was taught!

My thought is that there is no "correct" way, just some "common" ways, which for all their faults at least means we understand (?!) each other. Vaguely. I agree with Bill Mounce though - avoid modern Greek (language).

Edited by Ken Simpson, 11 December 2012 - 08:57 PM.

[Chuck Schneider]

If your textbook is Mounce, your class is probably going to use the Erasmian pronunciation, since that's what he's using.

"I follow standard pronunciation of Koine Greek (also called 'Erasmian')."

William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar (3d; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), xi.

The Accordance speech feature also uses the Erasmian pronunciation. Apparently the voice of "Alex" from the speech feature has been especially enhanced for use with Greek.

If you select Alex in your speech preferences and put the speech button on your toolbar, you can select some Greek text and press the button to hear Accordance pronounce the words as you read along. Just don't use NA27 as your selected passage, because then it also reads out the names of the special symbols. (I forgot to mention that I use the speech speed of 200 since, around that speed, it seems less robotic to me.)

Edited by Chuck Schneider, 12 December 2012 - 03:01 AM.