How to pronounce "Nicomedia"?

I'm basically wondering how to pronounce "Nicomedia"?

Is it "Ne-ko-mae-da-ya"?

Or "Ne-ko-mi-dia"?

Thanks for any help you can provide

 

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Not sure of the exact pronunciation but I say it as if it is of Irish origin -
Nick O'Media ( no, I am not trying to be funny )

 

That's how I say it as well. I believe that's how I first hear Robin Pierson say it on "The History of Byzantium" podcast so that's how I've rolled with it.

 

Here is the answer; they repeat it 20 times in this video...

 

The city was Greek, therefore this is evidently wrong, you don't pronounce Δ like D in comeDy.

 

I've heard plenty of people with Ph.Ds say Nick o'Media, and 'correct' English pronunciation needn't match correct Greek or Latin pronunciation (else we're really butchering some Imperial names).

 

The correct pronunciation is with the stress in "me" like the video of the asterix pal above. The difference is that you don't provide Δ like a "d" in the word comedy but like a "thee"

 

Nicomedia sounds like an easy one considering all the other ancient cities and names I've been reading lately!

 

If so there is nothing more to discuss everybody can pronounce it as they like in English there's no rule to follow. I am ready to vomit every time I hear Alan Walker pronounce Abdera like cholera even though he speaks Greek

 

I'm just wondering how you pronounce Paris.

 

Nick O'Media is fine so long as you say it with a British accent. Everyone knows that real Romans always had British (or Australian) accents.

 

Like in Paris,Texas. I thought this was the strand of a forum dealing with ancient Greek coins, so I supposed the question was how the city is pronounced in Greek

 

I think it was a Greek city founded in what is modern day Turkey. You haven't noticed how the posts on here tend to wander? No offence intended.

 

I'll tell you a story.

In 1986 I attended the International Numismatic Congress in London. I knew most of the big names would be attending, and I was, at that time, living in remote Montana and never hearing lots of Roman names and Latin terms pronounced. I had not studied them in college; I developed my interest on my own. So, over time, I made a list of about 100 names (Is "Severus" SEV er us? Se VERE us?) and words (is "cuirass" cure ASS?, QUIER ass?) I wanted to know how to pronounce and then took a tiny tape-recorder with me.

At the Congress I asked big names from Britain and the continent if they would be willing to pronounce the words on my list into my tape recorder. Everyone agreed. They could not have been nicer.

The result was, in summary, that I got so many different pronunciations of almost everything that I gave up. You might be surprised how many different ways there are to say
"Antoninus Pius" including
an TOE KNEE nus, an TOE NINE us
PEE us, PI us

Domitian(us)
DOE mih TEE on us
DOE mih TEE un
DOE mish un
and others

Try saying "Pupienus" with one syllable per vowel.

I figure if the pros whose names are on the books on my shelf can't come even close to agreement, then it can't matter too much how those names and words are pronounced.

 

How would the cigarette companies pronounce it? ~ Chris

 

Since the pronunciation person says 'Turkey', she is obviously saying the modern name. There was no Turkey when our coins were made. I tend to look down on experts who correct pronunciations as if they were the source of all truth. That includes people who say they know how something was pronounced in antiquity. There were as many dialects of ancient Greek and Latin as there are of modern English especially if you are comparing both time and place. It is reported that Septimius Severus had a 'severe' accent when speaking Latin. I suggest, were you too time travel, that care be taken when making fun of his speech.

 

Interesting thread, as I was contemplating this yesterday in how to pronounce the names of certain emperors. IE. Caracalla - the (C)s are naturally hard (C)s, but my American brain has me still wanting to sound it out as 'Care' 'ah' 'Sulla'.

Much applies in the same was for 'Seleucid' ('Sell' 'Lou' 'Sid') or Seleukid ('Sell' 'Lou' 'kid')

In that thinking, is the correct form of 'Caesar' meant to also be pronounced with a hard (C).. akin to Kaiser in German?

 

There is a similar problem with biblical names. I had a preacher friend who, when someone would question his pronunciation would say, "They're all dead, so they don't care!"

As for the correct pronunciation for the purists who speak Greek and Latin today, just think how differently English was pronounced 600 years ago (think Chaucer) or even now in different places. There are very few surviving recordings of speech from ancient Greece or Rome, so 2000 years might just have made a difference. And for that matter, even 2000 years ago there were regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

We really don't know for certain what they said in ancient times. The point is that we understand what is meant when someone speaks today, and have a little good humored patience with anyone who does not pronounce the names exactly as we were taught. They may even be more correct than we think.

 

I’m almost embarrassed to speak when I’ve found myself at a coin show and the ancients dealer asks, “what are you looking for.” I’m a horrible name butcherer, but invariably they always figure out what I’m asking for.

 

I have more trouble with the proper pronunciation of names like Elagabalus