4 ms·

I don’t like how advanced math has always butchered the Greek letters μ is pronounced Me not Mew

by acalzycalzy 6y ago

jaygray0919 6y ago
that's a joke, right?
- stormdennis 6y ago
  Haitch or aitch, zed or zee.
  - Joker_vD 6y ago
    It's "AR-sh" and "zet", obviously (also, in French "i" and "j" rhyme, "ee" and "gee", it's very neat).
- 867-5309 6y ago
  no, it's a yolk
- SamBam 6y ago
  I don't think it's meant to be a joke, but I don't think it's right either, in English. In modern Greek, the top poster is correct, μ IS pronounced "Me" or [Mi] (spelled as μι). Here is a YouTube video of a Greek person going through the alphabet, linked to μ. [1] However, in English this was never used, at least not recently, and its not a "mathematicians" thing. English pronunciation of Greek letters was fixed around the 16th century (see [2] for a tiny bit of history) and was an attempt to use the classical Greek pronunciations, though probably not a very successful one. If you're going to complain about μ, then hopefully you also complain about π, which in modern Greek is pronounced like "pee," not "pie," and so would make π-day very different... 1. https://youtu.be/P85PXR6deIw?t=214 https://youtu.be/P85PXR6deIw?t=214 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek_in_teaching#England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek...
jacobolus 6y ago
I was told that some of these pronunciations have changed over time, and the English versions are an attempt to approximate the pronunciation from ~2000 years ago, because some parts of the Christian bible were written in Greek. I don’t know much about it though.
- Tainnor 6y ago
  The New Testament was originally written in Greek.
  - commandlinefan 6y ago
    Most modern translations of the old testament are based primarily on the Septuagint translation which was also written in (Koine) Greek.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jimhefferon 6y ago
Everybody that I know pronounces it this way, but I could be wrong. If you could send me a bug report with evidence, I'd change it. I have long thought about a web site that contains mathematical pronounciations. A person could click to hear a native German speaker say Entscheidungsproblem, for example. I've never seen one, although I have seen a book online along those lines (written by a blind mathematician?).
- Joker_vD 6y ago
  On the topic of pronunciation, say, "beta", "eta", "zeta" — is the first vowel actually pronounced as "ei" in English, instead of just "e" (as in "bed")? "Mew" and "new" are actually a good approximation for the ancient Greek letter names: actual sound was of course "y", "i Graeca", but it's close enough, the blending of initial "j" with following "u" produces a reduced "y".
  - ogogmad 6y ago
    In BrE, "beta" is pronounced /bi:tə/ ("bee-ta"). In AmE, it's pronounced /beɪtə/ ("bay-ta").
enriquto 6y ago
> μ is pronounced Me not Mew Ouch! I always say "Moo"...

I don’t like how advanced math has always butchered the Greek letters μ is pronounced Me not Mew

jaygray0919 6y ago

that's a joke, right?

stormdennis 6y ago
Haitch or aitch, zed or zee.
- Joker_vD 6y ago
  It's "AR-sh" and "zet", obviously (also, in French "i" and "j" rhyme, "ee" and "gee", it's very neat).
867-5309 6y ago
no, it's a yolk
SamBam 6y ago
I don't think it's meant to be a joke, but I don't think it's right either, in English. In modern Greek, the top poster is correct, μ IS pronounced "Me" or [Mi] (spelled as μι). Here is a YouTube video of a Greek person going through the alphabet, linked to μ. [1] However, in English this was never used, at least not recently, and its not a "mathematicians" thing. English pronunciation of Greek letters was fixed around the 16th century (see [2] for a tiny bit of history) and was an attempt to use the classical Greek pronunciations, though probably not a very successful one. If you're going to complain about μ, then hopefully you also complain about π, which in modern Greek is pronounced like "pee," not "pie," and so would make π-day very different... 1. https://youtu.be/P85PXR6deIw?t=214 https://youtu.be/P85PXR6deIw?t=214 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek_in_teaching#England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek...

jacobolus 6y ago

I was told that some of these pronunciations have changed over time, and the English versions are an attempt to approximate the pronunciation from ~2000 years ago, because some parts of the Christian bible were written in Greek. I don’t know much about it though.

Tainnor 6y ago
The New Testament was originally written in Greek.
- commandlinefan 6y ago
  Most modern translations of the old testament are based primarily on the Septuagint translation which was also written in (Koine) Greek.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jimhefferon 6y ago

Everybody that I know pronounces it this way, but I could be wrong. If you could send me a bug report with evidence, I'd change it. I have long thought about a web site that contains mathematical pronounciations. A person could click to hear a native German speaker say Entscheidungsproblem, for example. I've never seen one, although I have seen a book online along those lines (written by a blind mathematician?).

Joker_vD 6y ago
On the topic of pronunciation, say, "beta", "eta", "zeta" — is the first vowel actually pronounced as "ei" in English, instead of just "e" (as in "bed")? "Mew" and "new" are actually a good approximation for the ancient Greek letter names: actual sound was of course "y", "i Graeca", but it's close enough, the blending of initial "j" with following "u" produces a reduced "y".
- ogogmad 6y ago
  In BrE, "beta" is pronounced /bi:tə/ ("bee-ta"). In AmE, it's pronounced /beɪtə/ ("bay-ta").

enriquto 6y ago

> μ is pronounced Me not Mew Ouch! I always say "Moo"...