Hello,
I'm a complete beginner in Greek, someone offered me a Greek textbook for Christmas so here we go.
The first lesson introduces the alphabet and the 'breathings' (unsure of the English terminology sorry, my textbook is in French). It says that rough breathing consists in adding an H sound BEFORE the letter bearing such sign.
However, among the examples it goes on to give, are words starting with rho, and transliterated as if there was no H. So it phonetically spells rose (which I would assume to be hrodon) as 'rodon', and what I would assume ought to be read 'Hrodos' is phonetically described as Rodos, no H.
What further surprises me is that modern languages have inherited many such Greek words starting with rough rho, and they are invariably spelled rh- instead of hr- (and yet my book says the rough breathing comes befor, not after the letter). Why is that so? It's a hymn, not an yhm, so why is it a rhino and not a hrino?
Also, I'd be extremely curious to hear how words with multiple aspirated consonants are supposed to be pronounced. Like khthon...
Thanks!
I'm a complete beginner in Greek, someone offered me a Greek textbook for Christmas so here we go.
The first lesson introduces the alphabet and the 'breathings' (unsure of the English terminology sorry, my textbook is in French). It says that rough breathing consists in adding an H sound BEFORE the letter bearing such sign.
However, among the examples it goes on to give, are words starting with rho, and transliterated as if there was no H. So it phonetically spells rose (which I would assume to be hrodon) as 'rodon', and what I would assume ought to be read 'Hrodos' is phonetically described as Rodos, no H.
What further surprises me is that modern languages have inherited many such Greek words starting with rough rho, and they are invariably spelled rh- instead of hr- (and yet my book says the rough breathing comes befor, not after the letter). Why is that so? It's a hymn, not an yhm, so why is it a rhino and not a hrino?
Also, I'd be extremely curious to hear how words with multiple aspirated consonants are supposed to be pronounced. Like khthon...
Thanks!