# topoi - pronunciation



## joanvillafane

Hello, everybody - This is my first post in this Forum (I usually hang out in Italian-English, French-English and Spanish-English) and I hope I don't violate any of your rules.

I'm curious about the Greek pronunciation of the word in the thread title.  In English it's used as a literary term and it's pronounced with an English pronunciation, with a diphthong in the final syllable (rhymes with boy, toy, etc.)  But I was wondering what it sounds like in Greek - I seem to remember from my ancient study of Greek (not ancient Greek, just ancient in terms of my lifetime, many, many years ago) that it should be a simple /i/ - am I right?

Thanks so much


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## Perseas

Hello,


joanvillafane said:


> it should be a simple /i/ - am I right?


Yes, you're right. It's [tópi].


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## chatkigazouille

Hello - I'm resurrecting a 2-year old thread, my apologies. But my question is also related to the pronunciation of the -oi

The ending -oi is pronounced as just /i/ in both Koine and modern Greek, would that be correct?

Eg 
Ἱκετεύσατε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἅγι*οι* Ἀπόστολ*οι* καὶ ἅγι*οι* πάντες
Iketevsate iper imon, ay*i* apostol*i* ké ay*i* pantes

Appreciate your help. Thank you


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## Phoenix rises

chatkigazouille said:


> Hello - I'm resurrecting a 2-year old thread, my apologies. But my question is also related to the pronunciation of the -oi
> 
> The ending -oi is pronounced as just /i/ in both Koine and modern Greek, would that be correct?
> 
> Eg
> Ἱκετεύσατε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἅγι*οι* Ἀπόστολ*οι* καὶ ἅγι*οι* πάντες
> Iketevsate iper imon, ay*i* apostol*i* ké ay*i* pantes
> 
> Appreciate your help. Thank you


i don't know about Koine but in modern Greek yes, the sound is ι


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## bearded

According to some linguists, in the Koiné the ancient pronunciation of -oι as a diphthong was retained. Others say it was pronounced as ü, and still others say as ii. Probably there were regional differences.


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## Perseas

To my knowledge, the diphthong οι became ü by the second century B.C. and i by the 10th century.


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## bearded

Perseas said:


> ü by the second century B.C. and i by the 10th century.


Do you mean to say that it was pronounced ü during more than 1000 years - even when -oi was an ending?
(I must say that pronouncing e.g.  Ἀπόστολ*οι* as apòstolü sounds so strange/unnatural... but of course I may be mistaken).


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## Perseas

bearded said:


> Do you mean to say that it was pronounced ü during more than 1000 years


More or less yes.


bearded said:


> (I must say that pronouncing e.g.  Ἀπόστολ*οι* as apòstolü sounds so strange/unnatural... but of course I may be mistaken).


I don't have an evidence that οι was pronounced differently as an ending.


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## clamor

The YT channel ScorpioMartianus (and its counterpart Polymathy) deals a lot with reconstructions of classical and Koine pronunciations, so you may find deeper informations there


bearded said:


> Do you mean to say that it was pronounced ü during more than 1000 years - even when -oi was an ending?
> (I must say that pronouncing e.g.  Ἀπόστολ*οι* as apòstolü sounds so strange/unnatural... but of course I may be mistaken).


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