[ancients] Pronunciation help-- post your requests here

A thread started by vlaha last year raised many good questions and led to many of us wondering how to pronounce various ancient words.

Ardatirion has graciously agreed to record Latin pronunciations of various emperor names and various other requested words. The audio files will probably have to reside on another site since such files appear not be supported by this forum's platform.

I would love to hear both the proper and Americanized version of most of the Emperors as well as coin denominations.

Some particular names/words of aural interest to me are:

Poppaea
Clodius Macer
Otho
Vitellius
Domitian
Lucius Verus
Elagablaus
Diadumeniam
Vabalathus

Some of these have pronunciations spelled out in that Forvm article by Scott Rottinghaus but the examples seem to use a mix of phonetic and non-phonetic spelling (referencing the Latin pronunciation guide from earlier in the article) and odd syllabic divisions, rendering it hard to understand. I'm also confused about the "th" sound-- the example given is "pot-house". For the Latin pronunciation of Otho he spells out "OTH-oh" but says to use the Latin "th" sound. So does that mean the correct Latin pronunciation is "AHT-hoe"?

Post your requests in this thread.

 

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I'll give just 5..surely there's more..

1. Vespasian
2. Licinius
3. Postumus
4. Trebonianus
5. Otacilia

 

wagon

 

In your case, it is pronounced "whutz-that"

More I'd like to hear from Ardy:

Seleukid
Seleukos Nikator
Ptolemy (is it TOE-leh-mee? TAH-leh-mee? Other?)

 

I suggest going through the first Twelve Caesars, and perhaps the five good emperors as well. I believe I know how to properly pronounce most of them but still use Americanized pronunciations when speaking with people.

 

This may be a case of taking a yard when given an inch, but if it's going to be a resource that anyone and everyone can refer to, you could go for completeness and do the whole list. I'm pretty sure if we leave this thread open indefinitely we'll eventually get to that point via requests. You could take the ERIC list that Steve posted a few days ago, sort it alphabetically and just go down the list.

Sorry to be the one to suggest 207 names instead of 5

 

oh-oh-oh!! => and I get to do the Nero voice!!

 

Court jester perhaps?

 

Now that's my Jerry.

 

Hey TIF ... sorry, that I'm kinda sending this thread a bit South, quickly!!


Ummm => but here is a shot outside my kitchen window (10 minutes ago) ... *sigh*







.... ummm, oh and if you "click on it" then you can see how cute lil' Buster is ... *pinch*


Oh, and "yes" I have plowed a labyrinth in my back yard so my two hounds can go on an adventure (best Dad, *ever*)

 

Wow, that's a ton of snow! Put some ski lifts on those big drifts and I'll come visit.

 

Steve we had 69 degrees here in Seattle yesterday full Sun, the best day ever, today poring down rain..

 

Never fear Steve warm weather is on its way. It is supposed to be double digits tomorrow in the Peg. You may get some in a couple weeks!

 

Thanks Whiz ... hey, my wife just landed in Winnipeg ...

yes, I hope that she gets a good dose of "warm" weather ...

NOTE => ummm, I'm pretty sure that Bing and/or TIF would not consider "double digits" to be considered warm, like we do!!

=> cheers, brother!!

 

Double digits? Naw, but maybe triple digits.

 

cyzicus

chrsmat71 pronunciation: siz IK us, or size ik us...depend on what day it its.

ticinum

chrsmat71 pronunciation: tic in um

Ptolemy ...at a coin show one time I said Tah lim E, the fellow I was speaking two said he's never heard anyone say it like that before. Sometimes I say toe la me.

but like I've said before..I've pretty much given up. but am interesting in hearing how the pros say it.

 

Ptolemy => Bla-dough-me?

 

Here's what I have so far. Everything that was requested, and whatever I could think of on my own.

Poppaea
Clodius Macer
Otho
Vitellius
Domitianus
Lucius Verus
Elagabalus
Diadumenianus
Vabalathus
Vespasianus
Licinius
Postumus
Trebonianus Gallus
Otacilia
Seleukid
Seleukos Nikator
Ptolemy
Cyzicus
Ticinum
Quadrans Quadrantes
Semis Semisses
As Asses
Dupondius Dupondii
Sestertius Sestertii
Quinarius Quinarii
Denarius Denarii
Antoninianus Antoniniani
Aureus Aurei
Follis Folles
Siliqua Siliquae
Solidus Solidi
Drachm
Tessera Tesserae
Lugdunum
Siscia
Skythian
Miliaresion Miliaresia
Fals Fulus
Denier Deniers
Sceat Sceatta

 

Wow, great! Thanks for taking on this project, Ardy!

Next we'll request voices. Let's see... once through the list as Samuel L. Jackson, then Roger Moore, then Arnold Schwarzenegger...