Pyrrhus... hmm...

[Ares]

Ok, I want to get this straight:

Is "Pyrrhus" PIE-rus or PEER-us (or PIE-roos or PEER-oos)?

Eric

[Redwilde]

Well, its a Greek word, so the letter y in English and Latin spellings represents the letter upsilon. Pronounced like a French or Swedish 'u' (like in French 'tu'). When Latin uses the letter 'y' instead of 'u', they are retaining the Greek pronounciation. However, the ending is Latinized to '-us' (as in the English word 'us') from the Greek '-os' (as in English clock) The 'h' is not actually a consonant, but represents an aspirant, or rough breathing. In both languages, the double 'r's are pronounced separately, and trilled, marking a break between the syllables.

So for a Greek its Poor-rhos

Or for a Roman Poor-rhus

In English, you can mangle it however you like!

[Ares]

Thanks for that information - I'm no classicist (as my original post makes plain), so that is interesting to me. These guys might be dead and gone, but I like to attempt to get their names right.

Makes me want to stay away from Book 2 though. smile.gif

Eric

[ March 30, 2005, 15:36: Message edited by: Ares ]

[Redwilde]

Originally posted by Ares:

Makes me want to stay away from Book 2 though. smile.gif Nah, just make a Boiotian hoplite Greek army -- Aristophanes ribbed them for having such an atrocious accent.

[Andrew Ford]

Okay, can you tell us how to pronounce:

Ptolemy
Euboea
Boiotia?

Thanks

Andrew Ford

[Redwilde]

Originally posted by Andrew Ford:
Okay, can you tell us how to pronounce:
Ptolemy
Euboea
Boiotia?
Here's transliterations of the actual Greek spellings broken into syllables with pronounciation:

Ptolemaios
Pto-le-mai-os
(pto-le-maye-os)
Get the 'pt' out quick and clipped without any aspiration, that's a tricky one for native English speakers. The o's and e are short like in English, the diphthong ai is like in 'aye aye sir'

Euboia
Eu-boi-a
(ew-boy-a)
The eu diphthong is a short e sliding into an oo
as in 'ewww yuck', oi as in 'oy vey', and a simple English short a

Boiotia
Boi-o-ti-a
(boy-aw-tee-a)

The o here is a Greek omega which is a bit more rounded sound and held out for a longer time than an omicron. The i is like in 'pizza'.

Note that these are the reconstructed Attic pronunciations, which is different than modern Greek. Its pretty well agreed on by scholars outside of Greece. There's a lot of written evidence -- texts written to teach the language to foreigners -- and other linguistic techniques to support it.

However, native Greek scholars hold that the language has never changed, and modern Greek sounds just like ancient Greek, and any Greek knows in their blood that it has always been so.

[Andrew Ford]

Thanks

Much appreciated

Andrew Ford