The term itacism refers to the process of change in the Greek language, whereby a great many of its dipthongs and vowels changed to become indistinguishable in sound from the letter eeta, η. The “points of articulation” moved forward in the mouth and more closed. Even the letter η itself had changed from what it sounded like in ancient Greek toward the “ee” sound. And the term “iotacism” refers to the process of the letter η changing to become pronounced the same as iota, along with all the dipthongs and vowels previously mentioned.
Thus we see some changes (errors) in some later Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that can be attributed to the scribes hearing the wrong word because it sounded the same as the correct word. Here is an example in the book of Revelation:
2:25 txt αχρι ου αν ηξω ℵ C 2329 2351 SBL TH ECM ‖ αχρι ου εαν ηξω 1611 2053 ‖ αχρις ου αν ηξω P 792 1828 1888 2065 2070 2074 2081 2814 TR AN HF BG RP NA28 αχρι[ς] {\} ‖ αχρισου αν ηξω 922 ‖ αχρις αν ηξω 1678 1778 2050 ‖ εως ου αν ηξω A 241 2681 ‖ αχρις ου ελθω 469 2846 ‖ αχρις οταν ηξω 2080 ‖ αχρις ου ανοιξω 046 91 93 911 1006 1424 1734 1841 ‖ ου 1854 ‖ lac 051 2062 2344. The ανοιξω 046 reading means “until such time I will open.” The HF edition, Hodges & Farstad, would normally align with 046 1424 1734, which they footnote as Ma.
Thus, αν ηξω, “I will come,” came to sound the same as ανοιξω, “I will open,” as found in the majuscule 046. The οι in ανοιξω came to sound the same as the η in αν ηξω. So both readings came to be pronounced “aneexo.” The letter η in modern Greek is called “eeta.” This is where the term “itacism” came from. “Iotacism” is the umbrella over that, how the vowels and dipthongs including η came to be pronounced that same as iota.
Download Revelation with Greek here.
