How would one say “Sparta Lives” in Greek? What about Ancient Greek? Bonus points for proper characters along with transliteration. Thanks in advance!
For modern Greek:
Η Σπάρτη ζεί. Phonetic: Ee SPAR-tee zee. UN transliteration: I Sparti zi.
Ancient Greek:
ἡ Σπάρτη ζᾷ
Pronounced:
hay SPAR-tay ZDAHH (or use a z: zahh but try to get a d sound added to the z sound)
In the Doric dialect of the Spartans themselves:
ἁ Σπάρτα σδᾷ
Pronounced:
hahh SPART-ahh SDAHH
Spartans probably would say Lacedaemon instead of Sparta (or maybe Lacedaemonia?)
ἁ Λακεδαίμων σδᾷ
hahh Lak-e-DIE-moan SDAHH
In all the above, by ‘ahh’ I mean the pronunciation as used in ‘ahh, yes, I see’.
Syllables in all caps are accented. Give them a higher pitch, or just use regular English stress accent. The accent on SDAHH/ZDAHH starts fully accented and tapers off as you say the syllable.
Thanks guys. I was not aware that they actually used the word Sparta at all. I knew they called it Lacedaemon, but I thought that was the only word for Sparta. I figured the name Sparta just came later or straight from English like the way we call Deutschland Germany or something like that.
As an aside, can you elaborate on why they called it both Lacedaemon and Sparta? Was it a nickname or something like that?
“Sparte” or “Sparta” was the proper place name of the city state.
“Lakedaimon” was the name of a mythical king. By referring to the state as Lakedaimon or Lakedaimonia, they evoked past glories and legends. It was a personification of the state, like Britannia for Britain, Marianne for France, or even Uncle Sam for the US.
Are you sure they added those “y” sounds? Seems rather unlikely to me.
By ‘tay’ I just mean to represent phonetically a long ‘a’ as in the word ‘fate’.