Me too. Daphne, do Greek speakers discern a difference between χ and γ? Like, I think I mostly can pronounce "gyro" correctly (starts with the same sound as "Hannukah") and it sounds to me like the same consonant at the χ in Eftychia (which in turn I think of as more-or-less the same sound as the "ch" in "Bach"). Is that because I can't perceive the difference or because there isn't one?
With the caveats that the Greek I hear is Cypriot Greek and I do not know whether the pronunciation is exactly the same as Mainland Greek, and I'm not fluent, just picked up the alphabet as a child and a few words here and there from relatives (and a couple years of Homeric Greek in middle school, but that's pronounced differently):
I'm pretty sure I do hear a difference between χ and γ but I'm not 100% sure. To me, γ is a faint-but-distinct consonant and χ has the merest ghost of a 'k' or 'kh' sound before the breathy part -- which is counterintuitive considering how hard a sound it is in Ancient Greek, its transliteration as 'ch', etc. It feels like γ lasts a smidgen longer, too. Um, I should Skype one of my cousins and try to pin this down.
Which pronunciation do you use for Bach? I hear everything from 'bahk' to 'bah(k)h' with the Scottish 'ch' sound from 'loch' in between.
There's at least one pronunciation-guide website that has a synthesized voice saying "eff-ti-kee-ah", but all the human-voiced ones I found had it closer to "eff-ti-(k)hee-ah" with that ghost of a kh.
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(Calluna and I hunted down a few audio versions of Eftychia, just because we like to be as accurate as possible even when not very.)
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I'm pretty sure I do hear a difference between χ and γ but I'm not 100% sure. To me, γ is a faint-but-distinct consonant and χ has the merest ghost of a 'k' or 'kh' sound before the breathy part -- which is counterintuitive considering how hard a sound it is in Ancient Greek, its transliteration as 'ch', etc. It feels like γ lasts a smidgen longer, too. Um, I should Skype one of my cousins and try to pin this down.
Which pronunciation do you use for Bach? I hear everything from 'bahk' to 'bah(k)h' with the Scottish 'ch' sound from 'loch' in between.
There's at least one pronunciation-guide website that has a synthesized voice saying "eff-ti-kee-ah", but all the human-voiced ones I found had it closer to "eff-ti-(k)hee-ah" with that ghost of a kh.
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Which pronunciation do you use for Bach?
Honestly, depends on to whom I'm speaking, but when doing it right, with the same "ch" as in a German "ich".