The Wrath of Ach
TODESSA SEASON 01, EPISODE 08
Livestream from Todessa
Camera: Tman
Cast: Totleb & Co.
Editor: Todito
Soundmix: Todonsky Junior
Directed by: T.L.
Hints & Definitions
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form.
Because of the passage of time, the original pronunciation of Ancient Greek, like that of all ancient languages, can never be known with absolute certainty.
In Ancient Greek one syllable of a word was normally accented. Unlike Modern Greek, this was a pitch accent, meaning that the accented syllable was pronounced at a higher pitch than the other syllables.
The Homeric bard sang his songs to the four-stringed phorminx, improvising his four-note melody at the same time as he improvised his text, which was unique in every performance. His monotonous melody, far from interpreting the text, served only as a medium to transport the words and to catch the listeners’ attention by their intrinsic rhythm.
Ancient Greek literature sometimes contains representations of animal cries in Greek letters. The most often quoted example is “βῆ βῆ”, used to render the cry of sheep, and is used as evidence that beta had a voiced bilabial plosive pronunciation and eta was a long open-mid front vowel.
Acknowledgements
SOCIETY FOR THE ORAL READING OF GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE (SORGLL) – Homer, Iliad, Book 1, lines 1-52, read in the restored pronunciation of classical Greek by Stephen G. Daitz, City University of New York.
Allen, W. Sidney. “Vox Graeca. The Pronunciation of Classical Greek”, Cambridge, University Press,(1968)
G. Danek / S. Hagel, “Homer-Singen”, Wiener Humanistische Blätter (1995), 5-20.