Pronunciation: Astraea
In response to my reply to Lisa: http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=109371&board=baby.So, how does one pronounce Astraea? Did any of my guesses even come remotely close?Miranda
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ae is a variable diphthong...rendered variously as ay, eye, or ee.There is no 'correct' pronounciation for this diphthong - you can choose. Enjoy your freedom :)
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In Classic Latin, "ae" was pr. like "eye" and in Medieval latin like ai in "fair"...but since this is a Greek name, I'm not sure. In Teresa Norman's A World of Baby Names , the pr. is ast-REE-ah.
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It's conventionally ast-REE-ah for the title of the Restoration poem too - Astraea Redux. That is what Latin pronunciation had turned into in Britain by the 19th century, but what they said in the 17th century I just don't know.
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Imo, ah-strah-eh-ah, for "a" never gives "ay" in Latin, and "e" can't be "ee". :)
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Continental and English pronunciation of classical Latin are two very different things, as I discovered the hard way doing second-year Latin under a Belgian professor! Took weeks to realise that Chichero = Cicero, and that was just the beginning.The way I understand it, the ae combination is a diphthong, like the one in high or eye. So you get three syllables, not four: as-try-a. But, that's modern English classical Latin!! Until the start of the 20th century it would probably have been pronounced as-tray-a or as-tree-a; I'm a bit rusty I'm afraid!
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