[HPFGU-OTChatter] Pronunciation Police! (was Re: Spelling Police)

[John Walton]

> Personally, I find it a little tedious when English speakers pronounce
> ancient names in the 'classical' manner, when there is an accepted
> anglicization.  To me, it simply sounds affected, though YMMV.  Are we
> to pronounce Lucius as LOO-kee-oos?  So why DRAH-koh?

Hear hear! Of course, when wanting to sound erudite and lexically-enriched,
I will often make LOO-sh(schwa)ss into LOO-see-(schwa)ss

>> Of course, I probably pronounce "Severus" all wrong (seeing as it's
>> Latinate, perhaps it should be "seh-VEH-rus" instead of "SEH-ver-russ"?) so
>> I'd better not get too dogmatic.
> 
> The 'correct' pronunciation (with anglicization) is suh-VEER-us (where
> 'uh' represents the schwa), but from what I've seen over the years, most
> English speakers prefer 'SEH-ver-us'.  That includes classicists who
> should (theoretically) know better. *g* (I'd still like to know whether
> British classicists (Latin teachers, etc.) get this wrong too...
> anyone?)

Umm...only example I can think of is the I CLAVDIVS-popularised Sejanus
(Captain Jean-Luc Sejanus, in fact :D), which my Classics teacher pronounced
S(schwa)-JAY-n(schwa)ss, but which some people pronounce
SEH-j(schwa)-n(schwa).

--John
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John Walton -- john at walton.to

"Prick us. Do we not bleed?
Tickle us. Do we not laugh?
Poison us. Do we not die?"

"Nope. That's what *immortal* means."
-John
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