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Quick pronunciation question - Printable Version

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Quick pronunciation question - Chris95242 - 09-17-2016

The pronunciation of Thucydides has been bothering me for a while now. I always hear it with a soft c, but from my very, very basic understanding of ancient Greek, it should be a hard c. Can anyone fill me in on this?
Thanks,
Chris


RE: Quick pronunciation question - caiusbeerquitius - 09-17-2016

K it actually is a k.

Θουκυδίδης


RE: Quick pronunciation question - Chris95242 - 09-17-2016

I have been wondering, so thanks! So it should be pronounced Thukydides then? Does anyone know why its normally spelled with a c then?


RE: Quick pronunciation question - caiusbeerquitius - 09-17-2016

Because classicists used the latin form. In Latin k=c. But the Romans used to pronounce the c as k, so nothing changes. 
Pronouncing it correctly would be a bit like too-keew-dee-des


RE: Quick pronunciation question - Renatus - 09-17-2016

It's the same principle as that in which, in Britain at any rate, names like 'Caesar' and 'Cicero' are pronounced with a soft 'c'. Interestingly, however, we now pronounce 'Scipio' with a hard 'c', whereas an older generation of classical scholars, such as Howard Scullard and Frank Walbank, elided the 'c' and pronounced it 'Sipio'.


RE: Quick pronunciation question - Giannis K. Hoplite - 09-18-2016

I would suggest that the pronunciation of the name in classical times would be more like "thow-ku-'di-des"
Θ Ο Υ Κ Υ Δ Ι Δ Η Σ
th o u k u d i d e s
Khairete
Giannis