Which is the correct way to pronounce this?

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John L
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Which is the correct way to pronounce this?

Post by John L »

I have seen GINOMAI pronounced with the ending AI sounding like a-hee. But then again I have seen it pronounced as AI just like the way it looks "ai" as in aisle. Are both pronounciations correct? Why would there be a difference between some grammars?

chad
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Post by chad »

hi john, both the ai sound in aisle and the a-hee sound you mention are ways of representing a glide from alpha to iota. as english speakers we don't think of the ai in aisle as a glide or diphthong, but it's there, it's just subtle. it's unclear how subtle the glide sounded in ancient times... so the authors of those 2 grammars are just taking different guesses i think. :)

John L
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Post by John L »

Chad,

Thank you! I use to pronounce it as a-hee until I got Mounce's course. I like the ai sound as in aisle much better. It is not only more natural for me as an English speaker but also seems to be more consistant simply because even in the other grammar they pronounce ai in the aisle sound when ai was used in the beginning or middle of a word, but did the a-hee only when it was at the end of a word.

Eureka
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Post by Eureka »

According to this webpage; when alpha was long, it was originally "a-hee" and then became "aai".

Although it only gives the one sound for the short alpha; it could still be that, even for short alpha, the pronunciation changed over time.

Where did you see GINOMAI pronounced with an "a-hee"? Could it have been a different dialect?

John L
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Post by John L »

Here is the web page that has it, it will even pronounce it for you. http://westover.searchgodsword.org/lex/ ... umber=1096

John L
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Post by John L »

I don't know if I have just lost my mind or what, but I did just now listen to the pronounciation and it did it as "ai" in aisle. They must have changed it recently, though it is still spelled out as ahee on the lexicon pronounciation. I am 99.9999% sure that they have just changed it recently.

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