Quote:
Originally posted by MysticCat81
A Greek Urban Myth. Absolutely no truth to it.
"Z-eye" is the totally anglicized pronunciation. "Zee" is the partially anglicized pronuniciation -- the vowel sound is correct according to the Greek pronunciation, but the consonant sound (which is the sound that the letter X represents) is still anglicized. The correct Greek pronunciation is "KSee," pronouncing both the "K" and "S" sound. It is the sound represented by "X" in English. The difference is that in English, when "X" comes at the beginning of a word, we shift to a "Z" sound. In Greek, it is still a "KS" sound, even at the beginning of a word. (Think "KSerxes" or "KSylophone.")
And you're right: Same thing with Phi (and Pi, Chi and Psi, which in Greek is "PSee").
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Ah yes, how i know this well. I took a couple years of ancient greek, and one of the courses was through distance ed - I had to tape record myself reading a text, and what do you know? Xerxes was the main character!