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Help[Facts] Greek Mythology Names proper pronunciation
I'm into greek mythology names and I have a list of ones I really like, but I really want to make sure I'm pronouncing them right, so I can narrow down.
Arethusa (air-a-thoo-zuh): was a nymph and daughter of Nereus
Ianthe (yay-en-thee): ocean nymph
Xanthe (ks-an-thee): was an Okeanis Nymph whose name meant yellow
Eos (eh-aw-s): goddess of the dawn
Arethusa (air-a-thoo-zuh): was a nymph and daughter of Nereus
Ianthe (yay-en-thee): ocean nymph
Xanthe (ks-an-thee): was an Okeanis Nymph whose name meant yellow
Eos (eh-aw-s): goddess of the dawn
This message was edited 11/15/2019, 8:40 PM
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It depends which dialect and which period. In Classical Greek, these are all wrong, in post Classical and modern Greek, you're closer. Classical Greek "a" is always the |a| in "art" (in BtN's guide "Ah"), not "air", and eta in Ianthe and Xanthe had the sound in "air" (Eh in BtN). In post-classical (koine or biblical Greek) and modern Greek, it was iotacised, and is pronounced the same as a long iota, i.e. as in "fee". This is why BtN gives both the Classical pronunciation Eh-aws (Eh as in "air") and Ee-aws for Eos. Sigma is not voiced to Z (Zeta) except before certain other consonants.
So, Classical Ah-reh-thow-suh (the Greek spelling is Arethousa, indicating a diphthong as in "row"), Roman A-ree-thoo-suh (A as in Barry, as a result of umlaut before the iotacised eta - this umlaut affects Ianthe and Xanthe as well - and a shift in emphasis from the |o| to the |u|).
Classical EE-ahn-theh, Roman EE-yan-thee (this character appears in the Roman Ovid's works and may have had a completely different name in the original Greek-Cypriot version)
Classical Ksahn-theh, Roman/Koine Ksan-thee
Classical Eh-aws, Roman/Koine Ee-aws (rhymes with hoarse/horse)
So, Classical Ah-reh-thow-suh (the Greek spelling is Arethousa, indicating a diphthong as in "row"), Roman A-ree-thoo-suh (A as in Barry, as a result of umlaut before the iotacised eta - this umlaut affects Ianthe and Xanthe as well - and a shift in emphasis from the |o| to the |u|).
Classical EE-ahn-theh, Roman EE-yan-thee (this character appears in the Roman Ovid's works and may have had a completely different name in the original Greek-Cypriot version)
Classical Ksahn-theh, Roman/Koine Ksan-thee
Classical Eh-aws, Roman/Koine Ee-aws (rhymes with hoarse/horse)
This message was edited 11/16/2019, 7:24 AM
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Thank you so much for this in detail information. I didn't realize there was so many different variations.
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Those are only the main ones. Even now there are still a few speakers of isolated Greek dialects/languages (e.g. in Italy and along the Black sea) other than the standard modern Greek, and in Ancient times there were more, who used alternate orthographies to accommodate their own pronunciation (e.g. preserving H to indicate |h| instead of |e:| or replacing θ (th) with φ (ph), as θ is a particularly difficult phoneme to learn).
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