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Posted: **January 11th, 2023, 1:19 pm**

tl;dr:
Please help me with the pronounciation of this snippet:

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος

//-----//

Hi language friends,

Can someone help me with the pronunciation of this snippet? It appears at the beginning of Lord Byron's poem "Epitaph to a Friend"?

https://archive.org/details/hoursofidlenesss00byro/page/7/mode/1up

I did some investigation and (although the text is slightly distorted and the font is script-y) I came to the following Greek text:

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος

After extensive searching, I discovered that the source is Laertius' "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers". The original Ancient Greek text is viewable at http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/dl/dl03.html and the excerpt in question is located at section 29.

I found the English translation on Gutenberg, and the section of the excerpt is located on page 124
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/57342/pg57342-images.html#Page_124

I put it through Google translate to use the text to speech feature so I have a hint of how to pronounce it. But I want to be sure I'm giving the correct intonation and overall inflection. Also, the TTS engine seems to pronounce the "μπ" in έλαμπες as /b/ resulting in something like /élabes/.

Anyway, it's technically not part of the poem so I don't have to read it but I thought it would be fun to include, since it does appear in the text.
Although - on further inspection, the excerpt appears to be an incomplete fragment of the sentence that is completed in the next line in the original text... so maybe it's best to skip it...

Thanks in advance!

Posted: **January 13th, 2023, 12:27 am**

quartertone wrote: ↑January 11th, 2023, 1:19 pm tl;dr:
Please help me with the pronounciation of this snippet:

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος

Based on the printed text on the page, which doesn't have accents:

As-teer prin men e-lam-pes e-ni dzo-oi-sin he-o-os

The single e's above are the short e in epsilon, the double e is a long e as in eta (same sound as English eater).

The "o" in dzo and the single syllable in the last word is the long o sound said the same as the letter o in the ABCs.

The o in "os" (the last syllable) is a short o as in the English "Land of Oz".

Posted: **January 19th, 2023, 6:46 pm**

quartertone wrote: ↑January 11th, 2023, 1:19 pm I put it through Google translate to use the text to speech feature so I have a hint of how to pronounce it. But I want to be sure I'm giving the correct intonation and overall inflection. Also, the TTS engine seems to pronounce the "μπ" in έλαμπες as /b/ resulting in something like /élabes/.

Google Translate doesn't work well for Ancient Greek. The combination "μπ" can be used to represent the /b/ sound in modern Greek, but not Ancient Greek. In this case, the word is "elampes" ("you were shining", from the same root from which we have "lamp") and "elabes" would mean "you took".

Michael

Posted: **May 31st, 2023, 2:38 am**

Hello,

quartertone wrote: ↑January 11th, 2023, 1:19 pm tl;dr:
Please help me with the pronounciation of this snippet:

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος

//-----//

Hi language friends,

Can someone help me with the pronunciation of this snippet? It appears at the beginning of Lord Byron's poem "Epitaph to a Friend"?

https://archive.org/details/hoursofidlenesss00byro/page/7/mode/1up

I did some investigation and (although the text is slightly distorted and the font is script-y) I came to the following Greek text:

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος

After extensive searching, I discovered that the source is Laertius' "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers". The original Ancient Greek text is viewable at http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/dl/dl03.html and the excerpt in question is located at section 29.

I found the English translation on Gutenberg, and the section of the excerpt is located on page 124
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/57342/pg57342-images.html#Page_124

I put it through Google translate to use the text to speech feature so I have a hint of how to pronounce it. But I want to be sure I'm giving the correct intonation and overall inflection. Also, the TTS engine seems to pronounce the "μπ" in έλαμπες as /b/ resulting in something like /élabes/.

Anyway, it's technically not part of the poem so I don't have to read it but I thought it would be fun to include, since it does appear in the text.
Although - on further inspection, the excerpt appears to be an incomplete fragment of the sentence that is completed in the next line in the original text... so maybe it's best to skip it...

Thanks in advance!

Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος·
this part is from Plato and means : Like the morning star you once shone among the living
if you still wond I can read it for you
Penelope

Posted: **May 31st, 2023, 5:42 pm**

pvmg wrote: ↑May 31st, 2023, 2:38 am Αστήρ πριν μεν έλαμπες ενί ζωοίσιν Εώος·
this part is from Plato and means : Like the morning star you once shone among the living
if you still wond I can read it for you
Penelope

The section this sentence went with is all recorded and catalogued, but thank you! I decided to leave it out in the end.
The actual translation is so much nicer than the automated Google translation I found.

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