Latin pronunciation in English
Basically, do the words pedophile and pediatritian have the same root word in them? I believe that they do, so then should they be pronounced with the same vowel sound? Should you say “PEEDophile” or “PEDiatritain”?
Am I missing something here?
I could be wrong but I think both words are modifications. The originals began with ‘pead’.
And in England, it is pronounced ‘PEED’
And to ensure that this GQ thread has its requisite number of inane nitpicks that don’t answer the question at all, don’t those words have Greek roots and not Latin?
Whoops…there goes what was left of my cred… :smack:
So let me get this straight, in the UK you do say “PEEDaphile”? So are we Merkins the ones mangling things again?
yes, but not ‘aphile’, ‘ophile’
P.s. As usual I have misunderstood the actual question. I am sorry.
I think you mean pæd, no? Compare paedophile (UK) to pedophile (US), encyclopaedia, paediatrician, et cetera.
Correct. And I even knew it was ae, but stupidly said ea. I’m not doing very well at this GQ :smack:
In the original Ancient Greek, the word for child was paido-, sounding like English “pie dough.” Modern Greek pronounces the diphthong ai as a pure vowel /[symbol]e[/symbol]/, like the e in pedal, while the d in Modern Greek is now an interdental fricative /[symbol]d[/symbol]/ like the “th” in breathe. Sounds like peh-though. So nobody pronounces it “right” anymore, not the English, not the Americans, not the French, nobody. Might as well never mind about it, since no one is going to revive the Ancient Greek pronunciation (outside of a classroom or revivals of Euripides that strive for authenticity in the original Greek).
Here in Canada, it’s pronounced either way - “pedophile” or “peedophile”. Like other words with different UK/US pronunciations (e.g. - “Lieutenant”), the pronunciation in Canada depends on the individual speaker.
I usually say peedophile.