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Pi and others

English translation: pi

14:47 Mar 2, 2003
Greek to English translations [PRO]
Greek term or phrase: Pi and others
How was the letter pi (|-|) pronounced? "PAI"? or maybe "PEE"?
On line references would be helpful. Thank you.
ident
English translation:pi
Explanation:
I assume you are asking: How was the name of the letter pi pronounced in Ancient Greek? It was pronounced "pi" - if you give the letters their Italian (or Modern Greek) values, I think this is not too far removed from what the Ancient Greeks would have said. It was definitely not pronounced like the English word "pie". If you want a rough approximation in English orthography, the pronunciation was like the English word "pea" (or "pee") - but of course without the peculiarites of English pronunciation (i.e. the p would not have been aspirated, and the vowel would have been a pure vowel not a diphthong, in Ancient Greek). How do we know all this? The best book I know, giving evidence for Ancient Greek pronunciation, is Vox Graeca by W.S. Allen (Cambridge 1987).
I can recommend Katerina Sarri's pages on users.otenet.gr - there's a table of the Greek alphabet, giving the pronunciation of the names of the letters. I can say (after looking briefly at these pages) that they're thorough, though I didn't find any sound files there.
Other points about the Ancient Greek pronunciation: Ancient Greek distinguished long and short vowels. To the best of my knowledge, the i in pi was long. In Ancient Greek there's also the question of tone (pitch): the i may have had a rising and falling tone. All I can say is that no-one knows for certain what the Ancient Greek tones sounded like.
It has come to my attention that there was an alternative version of the name of the letter in Ancient Greek: peι(pei). I don't know how widely this was used. It would have been pronounced approximately like the English word "pay".

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Note added at 2003-03-04 21:55:29 (GMT)
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John Opsopaus\' \"A Brief Guide to Ancient Greek Pronunciation\" on www.cs.utk.edu tells you how to pronounce Ancient Greek so that it will be more pleasing to the ears of the gods.
Selected response from:

Dylan Edwards
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:42
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +4the letter "Π" is pronounced as "Pi"
Joanne Panteleon
5 +3pie (English pronunciation) pee (Greek pronounciation)
Spiros Doikas
5 +1pi
Dylan Edwards


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +4
the letter "Π" is pronounced as "Pi"


Explanation:
Not "pee" or "pai"

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Note added at 2003-03-02 14:52:22 (GMT)
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Greek capital letter pi, Π, Π, Π, Π, Π, Π. Greek capital letter
rho, Ρ, Ρ, Ρ, Ρ, Ρ, Ρ. ... Greek small letter pi, π, π, π,
π, π, π. ...
www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/ entities/symbols.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-02 14:53:29 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Π Pi - greek capital letter pi

www.utoronto.ca/ian/books/xhtml1/entity/en_symbol.html

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Note added at 2003-03-02 14:54:18 (GMT)
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Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/5945/facts.html

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Note added at 2003-03-02 14:59:01 (GMT)
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***In ancient Greece the symbol for Pi denoted the number 80.**

If you approximate the circle as a square then the value you get for Pi is about 10% out. It just goes to show that you shouldn\'t approximate the circle as a square. Well you wouldn\'t make square wheels would you?

2 Pi in radians form is 360 degrees. Therefore Pi radians is 180 degrees and 1/2 Pi radians is 90 degrees.

www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/5945/facts.html

All quotes takes from the Artcile \"Fun and interesting facts about Pi\" 70 facts, take your time!

There are many sites you could consult at google...take your time..

just enter \"the Greek letter Pi\"....



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Note added at 2003-03-02 15:01:08 (GMT)
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If you look at:
http://www.greekamericanmall.com/Alphaveeto.htm

what you get for the letter \"Π\" in terms of pronounciation is \"Pi\"



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Note added at 2003-03-02 15:04:01 (GMT)
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transliteration table at: www.artsweb.bham.ac.uk/pking/transtopics/topic11.htm

The pronunciation of consonants is easy

π
pi
p
as in pie

www.website.lineone.net/~ntgreek/m04-alph.html


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Note added at 2003-03-02 15:06:38 (GMT)
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In all the above quoted websites you will find the transcription of all greek alphabet letters!
Cheers...

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Note added at 2003-03-02 18:20:11 (GMT)
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look please at :http://www.inthebeginning.org/ntgreek/lesson2/lesson2.pdf

The Greek letter, pi( , capital letter, ) is pronounced like the \"p\" in \"party\" or \"poet\". Read the following words aloud and practice pronouncing each letter separately

PLEASE GO AND LISTEN THE PRONUNCIATION! just click the bottom to listen to the sound of \"π\"!!!

Joanne Panteleon
Greece
Local time: 14:42
Native speaker of: Native in GreekGreek, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 87

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ino66 (X)
17 mins
agree  Vickie Dimitriadou (X)
4 hrs
agree  FREDERICA
21 hrs
agree  MariaLP
23 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
pie (English pronunciation) pee (Greek pronounciation)


Explanation:
WEBSTERS
pi [1] (pie) n. pl. <pis>
1. the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet (ή).
2. a. the letter ή, used as the symbol for
the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
b. the ratio itself: 3.141592 +.
[1835-45; < Gk pΝ, peΝ; used in mathematics to
represent Gk periphΓrion periphery]



    Reference: http://www.greekamericanmall.com/Alphaveeto.htm
    Reference: http://www.luthersem.edu/jboyce/LG1200/alphabet.htm
Spiros Doikas
Local time: 14:42
Native speaker of: Native in GreekGreek
PRO pts in pair: 1580

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Nadia-Anastasia Fahmi
1 hr
agree  x-Translator (X)
2 hrs
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
2 hrs
disagree  Joanne Panteleon: Πηγαίνεται να ακούσετε στo www.inthebeginning.org/ntgreek/lesson2/lesson2.pdf, η σε μορφή html!!!
3 hrs
disagree  Vickie Dimitriadou (X): Ακουσα κι εγώ την προφορά στο πιο πάνω site. Είναι "πι" και όχι "πάι" (apple- cheese- or χυλο- or ταχινο- pie! :)
4 hrs
agree  MariaLP
23 hrs
agree  Estella
2 days 16 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 day 23 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
pi


Explanation:
I assume you are asking: How was the name of the letter pi pronounced in Ancient Greek? It was pronounced "pi" - if you give the letters their Italian (or Modern Greek) values, I think this is not too far removed from what the Ancient Greeks would have said. It was definitely not pronounced like the English word "pie". If you want a rough approximation in English orthography, the pronunciation was like the English word "pea" (or "pee") - but of course without the peculiarites of English pronunciation (i.e. the p would not have been aspirated, and the vowel would have been a pure vowel not a diphthong, in Ancient Greek). How do we know all this? The best book I know, giving evidence for Ancient Greek pronunciation, is Vox Graeca by W.S. Allen (Cambridge 1987).
I can recommend Katerina Sarri's pages on users.otenet.gr - there's a table of the Greek alphabet, giving the pronunciation of the names of the letters. I can say (after looking briefly at these pages) that they're thorough, though I didn't find any sound files there.
Other points about the Ancient Greek pronunciation: Ancient Greek distinguished long and short vowels. To the best of my knowledge, the i in pi was long. In Ancient Greek there's also the question of tone (pitch): the i may have had a rising and falling tone. All I can say is that no-one knows for certain what the Ancient Greek tones sounded like.
It has come to my attention that there was an alternative version of the name of the letter in Ancient Greek: peι(pei). I don't know how widely this was used. It would have been pronounced approximately like the English word "pay".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-04 21:55:29 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

John Opsopaus\' \"A Brief Guide to Ancient Greek Pronunciation\" on www.cs.utk.edu tells you how to pronounce Ancient Greek so that it will be more pleasing to the ears of the gods.


    Reference: http://users.otenet.gr
    Reference: http://perswww.kuleuven.ac.be
Dylan Edwards
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 576

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Egmont
17 days
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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