# How is the Roman name Cicero pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366 "2007-08-12T19:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/1 "2007-08-12T19:36:02Z")
As in the statesman and philosopher? I’m reading a novel surrounding his life. Wikipedia gives the answer, but it is in some form of symbolic language that I’m not schooled in (IPA?). Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/2 "2007-08-12T19:41:44Z")
I always thought it was pronounced siss-er-row. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/3 "2007-08-12T20:01:18Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] I always thought it was pronounced siss-er-row. [/QUOTE] We have a Cicero Avenue here in Chicago and it is always pronounced by reporters and everyone else I hear it from as **Rayne Man** suggested. That does not make it the correct pronunciation I suppose but certainly is the common usage. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/4 "2007-08-12T20:03:51Z")
The "c"s are pronounced as "s"s in English, but the traditional Latin pronunciation is with "k"s. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_the\_Bug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@Jack\_the\_Bug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_the_Bug)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/5 "2007-08-12T20:04:15Z")
It would have been pronounced more like kikero, I think, much the way caesar would have been pronounced more like kaiser. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/6 "2007-08-12T20:24:44Z")
My guess is that the Latin pronunciation would be something like KEEK-eh-row. Everything else (towns, streets, little pigs) would be SISS-eh-row. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/7 "2007-08-12T21:33:17Z")
The Wikipedia entry for [Cicero](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero) says that the classical Latin pronunciation is ['kikeroː]. Doesn’t seem that difficult to read to me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/8 "2007-08-12T21:45:14Z")
Is the book you’re reading called Imperium, by any chance? I read that a while back, and I really enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/9 "2007-08-12T21:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] Doesn’t seem that difficult to read to me. [/QUOTE] Yes, but to be fair it is a coincidence that it is more or less read as someone who doesn’t know IPA would read it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/10 "2007-08-13T06:02:56Z")
Generally, it’s believed that those c’s were pronounced like k’s, thus “kikero” or “keekero”. But that’s really just a guess by Classical Scholars. We have various Roman texts, but only in a written form. No real ‘pronunciation guide’ to go by. (And it probably changed over the 1200-1500 years of Roman history.) Now the scholars do have some reasonable indications to support their conclusions. Like the pronunciations of words in the modern languages descended from Latin, knowledge of how pronunciation tends to change over time, and some clues from Roman poetry indicating which words rhymed. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/11 "2007-08-13T06:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] Now the scholars do have some reasonable indications to support their conclusions. Like the pronunciations of words in the modern languages descended from Latin, knowledge of how pronunciation tends to change over time, and some clues from Roman poetry indicating which words rhymed. [/QUOTE] And also common misspellings, I believe. Which means scholars studying this era should have plenty to go on. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/12 "2007-08-13T16:25:58Z")
The “hard” K sound was represented in Latin by the letter C. That this is so may be demonstrated by a couple of factors: - The names Caius and Gaius were used almost interchangeably, indicating that the initial sounds were similar enough to be confused. - Words containing the “hard” K sound that entered Latin from other languages were typically spelled using the letter C. Thus, Corinth, Cerberus, Calliope, etc. A Latin speaker from the classical era, would likely have pronounced Cicero as “KICK-eh-roe” ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/13 "2007-08-13T18:58:41Z")
The first syllable is long, so it would have been _keek_, not _kick_. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/14 "2007-08-13T19:03:32Z")
Oddly the same rule holds for Tolkien’s elvish- there are no soft C’s. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-roman-name-cicero-pronounced/415366/15 "2007-08-13T19:19:04Z")
This has been argued over by scholars for centuries. Witness these lines from Alexander Pope’s Dunciad (1742). (‘Aristarchus’ is speaking, a satirical portrait of Richard Bentley, 18th century classical scholar). “Tis true on words is still our whole debate Disputes on _me_ and _te_, or _aut_ and _at_, To sound or sink in _cano_ _o_ or _a_ Or give up _Cicero_ to _c_ or _k_”