[sdiy] I can't decide....

[Czech Martin]

There´s some confusion.

The point is: todays pronunciation of Latin and ancient Greek words 
is completely different from the original and grossly distorted or garbled.

At least in most modern languages.

Homer or Cicero would have greatest trouble to understand this garble,
if they could understand it at all.

The current usual dictionaries of modern languages reflect the average usage of today. They do not tell us how it was spoken back then. Also dictionaries made for
todays speakers won´t tell in most cases, because people would then have great trouble to read this. 

So only special literature will do this.

So the answer is twofold:

-yes, today it may be spoken as jig by some native speakers in some modern
 languages
-no, the original pronunciation was different

Some modern languages may be closer to the original, some are farther away.
Italian language is sometimes quite close to Latin (well, not really surprising), English is very far away (also not surprising, considering the enormous change
in the last 1000 years or so). Modern Greek is also closer to ancient Greek,
compared to the usuall English pronunciation.

m.c.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Scott Gravenhorst
Sent: 25 October 2004 15:41
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: RE: [sdiy] I can't decide....


And as long as we are playing lexicon games, and since I've seen it misspelled
more than once in this thread, I'd like to point out that the correct spelling
is "pronunciation".  It's one of the famous English rule exceptions (of which
there are more than the rules!).

"Czech Martin" <Martin.Czech at Micronas.com> wrote:
>well, the pronounciation of Latin spoken from todays English, French
>and sometimes also Italian speakers has only little to do with the
>original pronounciation.
>
>These modern languages have undergone a trumendous change during the last 1000
>years.
>
>veni vidi vici
>
>vainai vaidai vaiccai is certainly wrong in terms of ancient pronounciation.
>
>Perhaps some people from the roman catholic church have still the original
>pronounciation ....
>
>
>m.c.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Colin f
>Sent: 25 October 2004 12:06
>To: 'diy >> synth diy'
>Subject: RE: [sdiy] I can't decide....
>
>
> 
>> this word stems from ancient greek. We have no .mpg files
>> or other recordings, but after all that is know, and from
>> the practise os todays greek languagae we can pretty safely assume
>> that 
>> 
>> gig-ah is the correct pronounciation and not jig-ah.
>
>Maybe originally Greek... but came to us via Latin, which certainly uses a
>soft G before i, e, ae, or oe.
>The French established the metric system, and they surely pronounce it as a
>soft G.
>It's never safe to assume ;-)
>
>Colin f
>
>
>

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