5 ms·

The accent is on the initial o, why would you stress the second syllable? (1) And why would Greek MI be pronounced MY? That’s a very English specific pronunciat

The accent is on the initial o, why would you stress the second syllable? (1) And why would Greek MI be pronounced MY? That’s a very English specific pronunciation of I. It definitely wasn’t a diphthong in Greek. What is even your point? Nobody really knows just how it was actually pronounced, so we rely on standardized reconstructions. But that’s not really related to being able to read it. Also, omicron and the Greek letters have become English words, and their pronunciation as English words doesn’t necessarily correspond to the (reconstructed) Greek pronunciation, these are different things. 1 Yes I’m aware that the accents originally denoted a melodic accent rather than a stress accent, I did take four full-time semesters of Greek, but something tells me that’s not the reason your teacher taught you that way.

denton-scratch 5y ago
> What is even your point? Nobody really knows just how it was actually pronounced, so we rely on standardized reconstructions. I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry. > something tells me that’s not the reason your teacher taught you that way. I imagine he taught it to me that way because that's how he learned it. I don't know how far down the turtles go, but this was at a school that has traditionally emphasized classics; all the teachers pronounced it that way, including those teaching science and maths. The BBC variant jars, because I have never heard it pronounced their way until this damned virus cropped up.
- Grustaf 5y ago
  > I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry. Yes, and from Modern Greek, contemporary loan words etc. It's a whole science. Erasmus was an important scholar here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek_in_teaching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek... But that's not related to being able to understand a written text. And again, the name of the letter omikron is an English word, so it's a different question really. Sort of like we pronounce the letter "CHI" with a k-sound and rhyming with "high", even though we know very well that the consonant Greek CHI was pronounced more like ch in Loch Ness, or Spanish J. So even people who say oMYcron don't think that's how it was pronounced in Greek.
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    > So even people who say oMYcron don't think that's how it was pronounced in Greek. I agree; and I also agree with the earlier commenter that the "ai" diphthong is an English thing (I don't know if it's restricted to British English, or whether it's also currency in the USA). It might even be a thing that's bound to English private schools; but note that English state schools have rarely taught classics. This is why the BBC Pronunciation Unit's version jars; it sounds to my ear uneducated. Incidentally, Boris Johnson pronounces it the BBC way; he studied Greek at the same kind of school, and then at Oxford, and must have learned to pronounce it ohMYcron, as in MYcroscope. I only did a term of Greek; I don't remember being taught anything about accents.
- kgeist 5y ago
  >I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry It can also be induced from loanwords into contemporary languages, and you can find ancient works on language which explained how things are to be properly pronounced, including the pitch accent.

denton-scratch 5y ago

> What is even your point? Nobody really knows just how it was actually pronounced, so we rely on standardized reconstructions. I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry. > something tells me that’s not the reason your teacher taught you that way. I imagine he taught it to me that way because that's how he learned it. I don't know how far down the turtles go, but this was at a school that has traditionally emphasized classics; all the teachers pronounced it that way, including those teaching science and maths. The BBC variant jars, because I have never heard it pronounced their way until this damned virus cropped up.

Grustaf 5y ago
> I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry. Yes, and from Modern Greek, contemporary loan words etc. It's a whole science. Erasmus was an important scholar here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek_in_teaching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek... But that's not related to being able to understand a written text. And again, the name of the letter omikron is an English word, so it's a different question really. Sort of like we pronounce the letter "CHI" with a k-sound and rhyming with "high", even though we know very well that the consonant Greek CHI was pronounced more like ch in Loch Ness, or Spanish J. So even people who say oMYcron don't think that's how it was pronounced in Greek.
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  > So even people who say oMYcron don't think that's how it was pronounced in Greek. I agree; and I also agree with the earlier commenter that the "ai" diphthong is an English thing (I don't know if it's restricted to British English, or whether it's also currency in the USA). It might even be a thing that's bound to English private schools; but note that English state schools have rarely taught classics. This is why the BBC Pronunciation Unit's version jars; it sounds to my ear uneducated. Incidentally, Boris Johnson pronounces it the BBC way; he studied Greek at the same kind of school, and then at Oxford, and must have learned to pronounce it ohMYcron, as in MYcroscope. I only did a term of Greek; I don't remember being taught anything about accents.
kgeist 5y ago
>I imagine that ancient pronunciation can sometimes be induced from things like poetry It can also be induced from loanwords into contemporary languages, and you can find ancient works on language which explained how things are to be properly pronounced, including the pitch accent.