[Ancients] How do I pronounce...

Pupienus

 

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What? NOOOOOO! It's Oregon! Spell it with me people, O...R...E...G...O...N...
O...R...E...G...O...N...

 

Pupienus.

My wife is from Upper Michigan. Our daughter lives in Miami (South Beach) and when she watched "Fargo" she called us up: "You have to watch this! Everyone talks like Grandma and Grandpa!" I forgot about that until last week when I got a call from a corporate recruiter in Minneapolis. Flat: questions end down , not up.

Percinius Niger. (In Latin)
Julius Caesar is not "Djoolius Seezar" but EE-you-lius Kay-zar"

 

Pupienus => pronounced poopy-anus

kaparthy => I noticed that you'd posted it three times without a comment, so I felt obliged to take the bait and swallow the ol' hook (I kinda want one of these coins now, just so I can use the gag on my wife)

 

I want to go to a big coin show later this year. Realizing I had no idea how to pronounce any of these Roman and Greek names-- having only read and typed them-- I remembered this thread.

Gulp.

I have been mispronouncing everything. Every. Single. Name.

Thinking I should learn the correct pronunciations, I hit this Forvm page and various audible pronunciation dictionaries. Now I'm just more confused.

For starters, the first lesson on that Forvm page shows vowels with written English examples. I couldn't even understand the first two lines!



Sigh.

Plugging along, I used this Forvm guide to determine how to pronounce "Vespasian". Got it. "wes-Pah-see-ahn".* Good to know; in my head I've been saying "veh-SPAH-see-un".

But wait... in the recent Heritage video ad the narrator says "vehSPAYzhun". Stupid guy. He didn't read the Forvm guide. Hah.

Argh, apparently he's correct! Other audible guides pronounce it "vehSPAYzhun" as well.

Bigger sigh.

Perhaps while at the show I will pretend to be mute. That would probably cause less embarrassment. I'll be the tall brunette with a clipboard and marker.

*Edited. I even failed at reading the Forvm article-- didn't scroll down to the part where they somewhat phonetically spell out each of the twelve caesars. As per the article, it is "wes-pas-i-AHN-us", or "ves-PAYSH-i-an".

 

Wear a pretty shirt




... just jokes, Sister

 

Everyone should relax on about pronunciation. Almost no one pronounces these things in classical Latin. In fact, when I ask for sestertii, I get weird looks. "Oh, you mean ses-TER-shes. Ya, we got those."

 

i've mostly given up on this.

 

I agree pronunciation is tough. We are in a hobby where many of us can never talk to other collectors much, so we read and "self pronounce" words incorrectly. I have done this a TON Tif, please do not think you are alone. My ancient club was lucky enough to have Kerry from the Celator in and we discussed this very issue informally. Kerry said its even worst since Ammericans tend to pronounce many ancient words differently than Europeans, so its even more confusing than you first thought. I am getting better due to my ancient club, which has some long time famous collectors, along with some authors like Bill Daehn who just wrote the authoritative new book on ancient references, (greek at least), so I am lucky. There are some podcasts of ancient collectors which can help, or go to a good show and talk as much as possible with ancint dealers is my best suggestion.

 

It would be nice to know how the words should be pronounced though.

(Warning! Begging and pleading follows!)

Ardatirion... dear sweet Ardy... would you consider uploading little audio clips to a third party such as Soundcloud? (There is no way to directly upload sound files to CT.) It's easy, just record directly to Soundcloud or if you prefer, record on your computer and then upload to Soundcloud. One word per clip, with "correct" pronunciation and if you desire, alternatives or "real world" pronunciation. I tested this to see how it would work and it only took a few minutes to set up the account and record a clip:

https://soundcloud.com/tif-10/emergency-pronunciation-system

 

Gee, I'm starting to feel stressed and I'm not even the one going for the coin show.

It really may be a case of just thickening the skin and pretending to be from the provinces

 

pot
orb
antoninianus

 

Just do what I do: pronounce everything your own way, in a strong authoritative voice which implies that you are right and everybody else is wrong.

 

go as TIF, the drunk Newfie ... eh, boy?

 

Considering that Classics is a subject divided among so many nationalities with so many different pronunciation rules, this may be be best answer after all. I never could understand how the Italians could get so far from the Latin spellings of just about everything compared to the British. I have no idea what is correct and would not want to be the one to tell at least 3/4 of the Emperors that they were pronouncing their own names incorrectly.

 

Try pronouncing "antoninianus". Kind of a tongue twister.

 

No problem, I'd love to! I'll send Scott Rottinghouse a message later this week to see if we can get it appended to the Forum article. Keep in mind that I am by no means the final word on the subject. I only too about five semesters of Latin in college, of which enough remains for me to read some catalog entries. But I did always try to pronounce it correctly. I figured, even if I had no clue what I was saying, I should at least say it well!

 

YAY! Thanks, Ard! Even if there is not universal agreement on pronunciation, it would be nice to know the "proper" pronunciation as well as common Americanized pronunciations.



Maybe we should start a request list?

 

I have taken enough Latin to get most pronunciation correct but will always 'Americanize' many words because if you pronounce it correctly in Latin you will sometimes get an awkward look with a lack of understanding. The most common places for confusion is pronouncing the V with the correct W sound or using a soft C instead of the correct the hard C sound.

It is easier to say of-fi-CEE-na than of-fi-KEE-na.

 

Yes, and we say Seezer, when the actual pronunciation is much closer to the German Kaiser.