View Message

[Facts] Proper pronunciation of Persephoneia?
From what I understand, Persephoneia is the Homeric variant of Persephone, but I can't seem to find how to pronounce it.per-SEF-uh-NEE-uh?
per-seh-FOE-nyah?TIA.
vote up1vote down

Replies

The actual Hellenic way to pronounce Persephone is not (pər-SEF-ə-nee) like most English speakers think. I'm uncertain what it is. But I know that Artemis is not (AHR-tə-mis) it's more similar to (AHR-tay-meez).
This may help you some:
http://www.hellenicgods.org/pronunciationinhelleniclanguageIt helped me a little but I'm still a little confused on Hellenic pronounciation. Not to mention Hellenic pronunciation may have changed some with time and depending one where you are in Greece. But from what a teacher told me this summer the eia ending is pronounced like (ay-ah). So my guess would be Persephoneia is (peer-SEEF-ohn-ay-ah). Also it seems like e's are sometimes ee and sometimes they are ay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This message was edited 10/3/2011, 8:00 PM

vote up1vote down
The first transliteration you posted, is more correct.
/classical history major
vote up1vote down
I think it should be: per-se-FO-nyah.
vote up1vote down
Hey, you have the same name as me! :) I don't really know the proper pronunciation, but I would pronounce it the first way.
vote up1vote down