NOt an “s,” a “k.”
Are they? Another great example of people not being relativists when they need to be. It isn’t “right” vs. wrong. The classicists probably have it right WRT how people pronounced it in ancient times (though it’s hard to believe that anyone ever submitted to be called “Kickero,” especially such a pompous prig as He who is more ecclesiastically and euphoniously named Cheechero). But the living tradition of Europe developed in a different direction. Archaeology or living tradition? It’s a bigger issue than just pronunciation.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but this reminds me of when I learned that the correct pronunciation of Philistine was not fill’ is tine or fill’ is teen, but fi lis’ tin…I have read this thread with interest. The line that said why teach the pronounciation of “church” as “kurch” when they will say in the neighborhood the word as “church”?
This reminds me of the word “chlorine”. I am a retired Chemistry Teacher having attended four major universities and studied Chemistry at all of them. The University Profs all said, “Clo-rin” while my untutoted students would say," Clo- reene". Accent on “reene”. When I heard ,“Clo-reene” I would scratch my fingernails on the blackboard.
Today, some years later, I still hear, “Clo-reene” on the radio and T.V. Was it worth correcting these students. If you walked in my room and said,“Clo-reene” to me I’d not approve of it. It sounds to me to be a “Hill-Billy” pronounciation. Let’s suppose the meaning outweighs the way we say it.
Or to similarly hijack: Years ago, when we took prepared child-birth classes, it took the looooongest time to figure out that when the OB/GYN nurse-instructors were saying “sahn’meters” they really meant what the rest of the English-speaking world refers to as “centimeters” – They were all just inexplicably using French pronunciation.
)I recall that Cardinal Newman said that when people began to make a fuss over the pronunciation of what was no longer a vernacular tonque, then that is when Latin began to die as a common currency of European scholars.
Hijack continued…