The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

[finlay]

they look pretty identical to me...

[Rui]

as for preface, I think it falls into a category of stress-shifting noun/verb pairs, such that you get /ˈprɛfəs/ for the noun and /prɪˈfeɪs/ for the verb. but neither is very common...

Really? I have first syllable stress for both the noun and verb form, and I'm trying to think if I've ever heard someone say "Let me /prɪˈfeɪs/ that statement with..." but nothing comes to mind.

[finlay]

as for preface, I think it falls into a category of stress-shifting noun/verb pairs, such that you get /ˈprɛfəs/ for the noun and /prɪˈfeɪs/ for the verb. but neither is very common...

Really? I have first syllable stress for both the noun and verb form, and I'm trying to think if I've ever heard someone say "Let me /prɪˈfeɪs/ that statement with..." but nothing comes to mind.

no, come to think of it, i think you're right. But it certainly seems like it "should" be the case...

[Travis B.]

I am pretty sure I have /priˈfes/ > [pʰɰˤiˈfes] for preface v., but it is such a literary word that I could very well say I really do not have any verb of that sort truly natively.

[Viktor77]

How do you pronounce the name Cyrenius? There was an American named Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb Sr. whose name, apart from being simply epic, has always tripped me up. I say [saI.r3:~.ni:Vs] or something to that effect.

[Herr Dunkel]

/kyreniʊs/
or
/səɹɛni.ʌs/

[Bob Johnson]

How do you pronounce the name Cyrenius? There was an American named Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb Sr.

however he said it

[Viktor77]

How do you pronounce the name Cyrenius? There was an American named Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb Sr.

however he said it

Yea well he died a 100 years ago so no one knows. I'm looking for the standard American pronunciation of this Greek name.

[finlay]

/sairiniəs/ probably

[Travis B.]

Cyrenius: /səe̯ˈrɜniɪs/ > [səe̯ˈɰˤɜ̃niːɨs]~[səe̯ˈɰˤɜ̃(n)jɨs] or /səe̯ˈriniɪs/ > [səe̯ˈɰˤĩniːɨs]~[səe̯ˈɰˤĩ(n)jɨs]

[Travis B.]

/kyreniʊs/

I doubt anyone pronounced it that way, ever.

[----]

I would say that name [saɪˈɹinijɨs] if I read it.

How do you guys pronounce 'kept', 'fifths', and 'strengths'?

[finlay]

in isolation, [kʰɛp̚tʰ], [fɪθs], [stʃɻɛŋʔ͡kθs]

connectedly, who knows.

Cyrenius: /səe̯ˈrɜniɪs/ > [səe̯ˈɰˤɜ̃niːɨs]~[səe̯ˈɰˤɜ̃(n)jɨs] or /səe̯ˈriniɪs/ > [səe̯ˈɰˤĩniːɨs]~[səe̯ˈɰˤĩ(n)jɨs]

I doubt anyone pronounced it that way, ever.

oh, well then.

you know i think the ancient greeks would like to disagree with you

even though it was maybe more like [kyrɛːnios]. what's a length marker between friends eh

[Bob Johnson]

How do you guys pronounce 'kept', 'fifths', and 'strengths'?

<kept> [ˈkɛp]~[kɛp.t‿] e.g. <kept him> [kɛp.tɪm]
<fifths> [ˈfɪs(ː)] -- I can enunciate [fɪf.θ.s] if I want but I usually don't bother
<fifth> [ˈfiθ]
<strengths> [ˌsˈtʃɻɪŋkˌs(ː)] -- as above
<strength> [ˌsˈtʃɻɪŋkˌθ]

likewise <isthmus> [ˈɪs(ː).məs]

[finlay]

likewise <isthmus> [ˈɪs(ː).məs]

isthmus is a bit different from the other ones, though; it's a bit like asthma (/asma/)

[Travis B.]

oh, well then.

you know i think the ancient greeks would like to disagree with you

even though it was maybe more like [kyrɛːnios]. what's a length marker between friends eh

Ancient Greek dialects had [ʊ]?

[Ziz]

oh, well then.

you know i think the ancient greeks would like to disagree with you

even though it was maybe more like [kyrɛːnios]. what's a length marker between friends eh

Ancient Greek dialects had [ʊ]?

No. Ancient Upsilon was pronounced either [ʉ(ː)] or [y(ː)], with [u(ː)] retained in some dialects, IIRC. The Ancient Greek vowel system was something like /i iː y yː e eː o oː ɛː ɔː a aː/, with a whole slew of diphthongs.

[Travis B.]

Well yah there.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

<kept> [kʰɛp]~[kʰɛpt] (basically like how Bob Johnson mentioned it, depending on what follows)
<fifths> [fifs]
<fifth> [fif] (or maybe [fiθ])
<strengths> [stʰɹɛŋks]
<strength> [stʰɹɛŋθ]
<isthmus> [ˈɪsməs]
<asthma> [ˈæzmə]

[Herr Dunkel]

oh, well then.

you know i think the ancient greeks would like to disagree with you

even though it was maybe more like [kyrɛːnios]. what's a length marker between friends eh

Ancient Greek dialects had [ʊ]?

No. Ancient Upsilon was pronounced either [ʉ(ː)] or [y(ː)], with [u(ː)] retained in some dialects, IIRC. The Ancient Greek vowel system was something like /i iː y yː e eː o oː ɛː ɔː a aː/, with a whole slew of diphthongs.

And it also had /u/

[Herr Dunkel]

/kyreniʊs/

I doubt anyone pronounced it that way, ever.

Look at German orthography: <c> is /k/ before <ä ö e i> and <y> can be read as /y/ when nuclear (that's what I do atleast)

[Ziz]

oh, well then.

you know i think the ancient greeks would like to disagree with you

even though it was maybe more like [kyrɛːnios]. what's a length marker between friends eh

Ancient Greek dialects had [ʊ]?

No. Ancient Upsilon was pronounced either [ʉ(ː)] or [y(ː)], with [u(ː)] retained in some dialects, IIRC. The Ancient Greek vowel system was something like /i iː y yː e eː o oː ɛː ɔː a aː/, with a whole slew of diphthongs.

And it also had /u/

No, it didn't. The raising of ‹ου› to is postclassical (a feature of Koine Greek), and the pronunciation of ‹υ› as a is dialectal, or preclassical in Attic.

[Herr Dunkel]

No, it didn't. The raising of ‹ου› to is postclassical (a feature of Koine Greek), and the pronunciation of ‹υ› as a is dialectal, or preclassical in Attic.

I think it indeed was dialectical

[Alces]

<kept> [ˈkʰɛpt]; I do drop the [t] in certain environments, but this is a pretty universal thing with any words ending in [Ct], e.g. <last one> is [las(ː)wɒn]
<fifths> [ˈfifːs] ([ˈfifθs] when speaking carefully, but all of my pronunciations with [θ] are somewhat artificial)
<fifth> [ˈfifː]
<strengths> [ˈstɹ̱ʷɛnθs]~[ˈstɹ̱ʷɛɱfs] (For me, the /k/ is definitely absent phonemically. In fact I talked to my brother about this and he found it hard to believe that anyone else pronounced the /k/.)
<isthmus> [ˈɪsθməs]~[ˈɪsfməs]~[ˈɪsːməs]
<asthma> [ˈasθmə]~[ˈasfmə]~[ˈasːmə]

and for Cyrenius, [saːɪˈɹ̱ʷiːniəs] would be my intuitive pronunciation

[Travis B.]

/kyreniʊs/

I doubt anyone pronounced it that way, ever.

Look at German orthography: <c> is /k/ before <ä ö e i> and <y> can be read as /y/ when nuclear (that's what I do atleast)

Except that <c> as /k/ in most of those positions is in Germanic words; in anything remotely Latinate-oid, loans from Greek through Latin included, <c> before a mid to high front vowel indicates /ts/ to the best of my knowledge...