As you know,the entire spectrum has been written concerning accents. I have read, completely ignore them, to speak them out completely.
My question is, what are the rules concerning accents as one adheress to your system of pronunciation of Koine Greek?
Thank you for your time!
I should also add, that though the general distinctions between ῀ and the other accents had all been levelled so that they simply represent stress, there are a few places in which the distinction is still important. For example, in the following two sentences:
λαμβάνω τὸν ἄρτον 'I take the bread' [lamˈbano ton ˈarton]
ἅπτομαι τῶν ἄρτων 'I touch the breads' [ˈaptomɛ ˈton ˈarton]
It is likely that the τὸν in the first sentence would have been run together as one stress unit with the following word ἄρτον, whereas in the second sentence, τῶν and ἄρτων would likely have had distinct stress units.
The accent system, in the sense of different tones and lengths, had probably faded away early on in the Koine period. What remains, however, is a stress system. To put it simply, stress the words wherever you find an accent mark (ά, ὰ, ᾶ).
It is, of course, possible that the Koine stress system was slightly different than the standard accent marks that we have come to appreciate in our texts. However, the accent marks are reflective of an authentic system from some time and place in the ancient Greek world.
In any case, it is very very very important when learning a language to have a consistent stress. Many modern scholars and professors of Greek, who do not speak the language, often ignore stress when they are reading. This is not at all helpful for language acquisition. Maintaining a consistent stress will help you better internalize the language and maintain linguistic opposition.