From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 31 1996 - 13:54:38 EST
On 1/31/96, Eric Vaughan wrote:
> Upsilon is transliterated as both "y" and "u". What is the correct (or
> accepted) pronunciation of it? I've always (probably incorrectly)
> pronounced it with a sound in between the long and short "u". I
> appreciate any answers.
The "Y" was taken into the Roman alphabet to represent upsilon precisely
because it had a sound that was no longer represented by the Latin "U" (as
presumably it would have been if upsilon's sound had not undergone a
change). Probably by the Christian era it was already being pronounced as
it is in modern Greek: like an English long E (exactly as iota, EI, OI were
also pronounced).
The "proper" pronunciation? The Erasmian standard has always been, I
believe, that it should be like a French U or like a German umlauted U.
There may be some alternative answers to this question; don't be surprised
if there are!
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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