Please how to pronounce the "υ" in ancient Greek?

Question

Γεἰα σας πἀλι!

I am trying to learn Ancient Greek by myself through you tube series and a book I have. The first problem I am facing is the pronunciation:   the professor in the video pronounces the "u" as "o", the book says it is like the "u" in English also, but in examples such as " μυστηριον,παραλυτικος" it is pronounced as "i" in the modern Greek. Your help please!

Answer 1

The pronunciation of  ancient Greek alphabet is not a simple matter. It varies in different eras of history and even linguists cannot agree for the exact pronunciation of some letters of the alphabet. Unfortunately, we have very little evidence of how the ancient Greek language really sounded. This explains the two different versions you came across.

Most of the linguists agree that in attic Greek (5th century B.C.) the pronunciation of the letter υ was quite close to the current pronunciation of the English letter u.

Answer 2

There is evidence enough of how the ancient Athenians talked.  Search in the univ of New York and Berkeley.  They have a magnificent bank of info. U was close to the french contemp u .go to socrates.berkeley.edu .

Comments

Thank you, and sorry for being late, but can you specify  the link more , i couldn't find the pronunciation!

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Stephen G. Daitz, City University of New York is a great expert.

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Thank you! it is really useful!