@@DelphicPhilosophy Thanks. Awesome answer! I'm really enjoying your videos. I think how English has utilized the letter C is so confusing and risks losing the pronunciation of the past. Our pronunciations need not be so far from the ancient pronunciation except for our miss-use of C. K and S could do fine for most usages except for the CH sounds I'm thinking. Also I'd love to see a video on the Cynics and Diogenes.
Hi Stephen: good question! (1) Briefly, there's a chance that the ancient 4th-century BCE Athenian pronunciation would have sounded like "Ku-nik-os" (based on the attempted reconstruction of Attic pronunciation by Erasmus, 1466-1536, widely used by modern Anglophone scholars, which in turn builds on guesses from ancient grammars and rhymes). (2) But the modern Greek pronunciation would be nearer "Kee-nik-os", due to the process of iotacism, where vowels take on an iota or "ee" quantity. This was already well underway by later antiquity and the Byzantine period, and some of the later ancient Cynics might have used this pronunciation! And finally (3) in English, the ordinary pronunciation is "Si-nik-os," with a soft C. I think any of them is a good choice! (And sorry for the double reply; it looks like the earlier one was deleted by error).
Very nice video, thank you.
Do you think the cynics were called cynic or would it be closer to kunik using modern English pronunciation?
@@DelphicPhilosophy Thanks. Awesome answer! I'm really enjoying your videos. I think how English has utilized the letter C is so confusing and risks losing the pronunciation of the past. Our pronunciations need not be so far from the ancient pronunciation except for our miss-use of C. K and S could do fine for most usages except for the CH sounds I'm thinking. Also I'd love to see a video on the Cynics and Diogenes.
Hi Stephen: good question! (1) Briefly, there's a chance that the ancient 4th-century BCE Athenian pronunciation would have sounded like "Ku-nik-os" (based on the attempted reconstruction of Attic pronunciation by Erasmus, 1466-1536, widely used by modern Anglophone scholars, which in turn builds on guesses from ancient grammars and rhymes). (2) But the modern Greek pronunciation would be nearer "Kee-nik-os", due to the process of iotacism, where vowels take on an iota or "ee" quantity. This was already well underway by later antiquity and the Byzantine period, and some of the later ancient Cynics might have used this pronunciation! And finally (3) in English, the ordinary pronunciation is "Si-nik-os," with a soft C. I think any of them is a good choice! (And sorry for the double reply; it looks like the earlier one was deleted by error).