[alt-photo] Re: ware cyanotype paper sensitivity

[Tomas Sobota]

Hi Christina,
oh no, I don't want to go into the difficult issue of pronunciation of
classical Greek, my point rather was that there already exist modern English
words with the root 'argyro-', so that presumably there must have been an
accepted pronunciation even before the word 'argyrotype' was created by
Mike.
Is it a 'dumb' question? I don't think so. Not fundamental, surely, but
quite pertinent. At least for me, since as a person who eternally struggles
with English pronunciation, I'm very interested in how words are said.
As for Nevada, it is a Spanish word deriving from 'nieve'=snow, so I have a
good idea of how it was originally pronounced. This is probably different
from actual pronunciation by locals, but I think Nevahhda is closer.
cheers
Tom Sobota
Madrid, Spain


On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 1:01 AM, Christina Anderson <zphoto at montana.net>wrote:

> Tom,
> In deference to Mike, he did mention the etymology of the word, etc.  Here
> was his reply:
>
>
>
> "I don't think there is a 100% answer to that "DUMB question" because the
> word is transliterated from the Classical Greek - and who knows how they
> pronounced?
>
> I did consult with a Professor of Greek many years ago: the 'g' could now
> be sounded soft or hard, although the original Greek word for silver
> 'arguron' is pronounced hard.
>
> I personally pronounce it with a soft 'g' and long 'y': ah-jire-o-type
> (like your arJIrotype, maybe?) - by similarity to other -gyro-  containing
> words."
>
>
>
> So just because I am comfortable pronouncing it the way the originator of
> the process pronounces it (giving credit where credit is due) doesn't mean
> it is, or he thinks it is cut in stone.
>
> However I do think it is a more important matter than pronouncing tomato as
> tomayeto or tomahto or Nevada as Nevaaaada or Nevahhhhda (which I do the
> former and the latter respectively).  It'd be like pronouncing giclee
> "gickley" instead of "zheeeclay" :)
> Chris
>
> Christina Z. Anderson
> christinaZanderson.com
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 11, 2010, at 4:43 PM, Tomas Sobota wrote:
>
> > I don't think that it's so simple as to say "Mike pronounces it that way
> > so..." because the root 'argyro-' has been used well before  'argyrotype'
> > has been coined, so there is or should be an established way of
> pronouncing
> > it in English as there is in other languages. For example, histologists
> use
> > 'argyrophilia' to denote the affinity of some tissues to be stained by
> > silver. This usage goes probably back to the XIX century if not before.
> > Just out of curiosity, how is 'argyros'  pronounced in modern Greek? I'm
> > familiar with classical Greek pronunciation, but not with modern Greek.
> Is
> > the sound of the gamma similar to the sound of the 'g' in Italian
> 'argento'?
> > BTW you cannot understand English. Only a good memory, a long practice
> and a
> > bit of luck can help you :-)
> >
> > Tom Sobota
> > Madrid, Spain
> >
>
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