Erased by Time and Blockbusters—The Cautionary Tale of Ron Weasley

[HarryT]

It's not Koine Greek, it's Attic Greek - some 500 years older. But yes, you are of course absolutely right in saying that the pronunciation of the language has changed (eg the letter "beta" is pronounced "v", not "b", in modern Greek).

The fundamental point I was making, though, is that the "i" in the name "Darius" is a long vowel, not a short one.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Rizla

And I adopted a semi-stray cat called Hermione. I call her Her--mee--own.

Since it's a cat, that pronunciation, wrong as it may be phonetically, is certainly semantically accurate.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not Koine Greek, it's Attic Greek - some 500 years older. But yes, you are of course absolutely right in saying that the pronunciation of the language has changed (eg the letter "beta" is pronounced "v", not "b", in modern Greek).

The fundamental point I was making, though, is that the "i" in the name "Darius" is a long vowel, not a short one.

True, in the case of Darius, anyway.

That doesn't go for the pronunciation of Aphrodite though, or does it? In particular the "di" syllable there? I've got the impression this isn't pronounced like the English "die" sound in any other language, rather more like the English "dee" sound (and same with the "mi" in Hermione, i.e. it's more like "me" than "my").

[doubleshuffle]

As I may have mentioned before, while English does have the stress right in Darius, it has got it wrong in Hermione, which should be stressed on the "o": Ἑρμιόνη

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not Koine Greek, it's Attic Greek - some 500 years older. But yes, you are of course absolutely right in saying that the pronunciation of the language has changed (eg the letter "beta" is pronounced "v", not "b", in modern Greek).

The fundamental point I was making, though, is that the "i" in the name "Darius" is a long vowel, not a short one.

I mentioned Koine because that's the context in which I've seen the discussion. I suspect they feel the same about Attic, but wouldn't state it without more evidence.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

That doesn't go for the pronunciation of Aphrodite though, or does it? In particular the "di" syllable there? I've got the impression this isn't pronounced like the English "die" sound in any other language, rather more like the English "dee" sound (and same with the "mi" in Hermione, i.e. it's more like "me" than "my").

True. Modern English doesn't really have any pure long vowels - they all changed into diphthongs during the "Great Vowel Shift" which radically changed the sound of the language during the 15th and 16th centuries. Consequently, when we take words from other languages that do contain long pure vowels, we mangle them.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

As I may have mentioned before, while English does have the stress right in Darius, it has got it wrong in Hermione, which should be stressed on the "o": Ἑρμιόνη

Yep - English does badly when it comes to getting the stress on Greek words correct, on the whole. Probably because the stress "rules" for Greek are different to those of English.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yep - English does badly when it comes to getting the stress on Greek words correct, on the whole. Probably because the stress "rules" for Greek are different to those of English.

And modern English is in part a hodge podge of words 'borrowed' from other languages over the centuries which doesn't make it any easier I imagine. Certainly it is said to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest language for non-native speakers to learn. I imagine the stress "rules" only add to that difficulty in general.