Happy Pi day

[swansont]

How do you pronounce Tau?

In modern Greek it is pronounced Taf

 

And Pi? I have seen over the Web that it is said to be pronounced like a pie (hence the cut of a pie on Pi day) , is that accurate?

 

 

 

Tau is pronounce tow (short o, like in town) in American English.

 

We pronounce it pie, but I've heard others (who learned British English as a second language) pronounce it pee. I don't want to be part of that "celebration"

[imatfaal]

How do you pronounce Tau?

In modern Greek it is pronounced Taf

 

And Pi? I have seen over the Web that it is said to be pronounced like a pie (hence the cut of a pie on Pi day) , is that accurate?

 

I would go along with Swansont's use of 'town' - I believe this was also the Koine and if you have any more elderly friends in Greece you can ask if it was the Katharevousa; however I think it unlikely that something as basic as this had two varying pronunciations before the wholesale adption of Demotiki so maybe it was Taf in Katharevousa too.

[Phi for All]

How do you pronounce Tau?

In modern Greek it is pronounced Taf

 

I read somewhere (before I chose my username) that Phi was pronounced "fee" in modern Greek, as opposed to the more sciencey "fye". Is this true?

 

Less than two years till Phi Day!

We pronounce it pie, but I've heard others (who learned British English as a second language) pronounce it pee. I don't want to be part of that "celebration"

 

Pee Day is every day. No need to celebrate THAT (until I'm much older, hopefully).

 

Celebrating Pi Day every day would just make me really fat.

[Sirona]

My teachers always said that I tended to forsake the obvious.

 

Welcome to Geek Central. You will get confirmation you are in the company of nerds when you note that Tau day is celebrated to an equal extent

Wait, what?! How many more 'nerd' days are there?

 

I shall only remember this day if the celebration is marked with the eating of some sort of delicious, buttery, flakey pie. The only reason why I remember my own birthday is because there is cake involved!

[michel123456]

 

I would go along with Swansont's use of 'town' - I believe this was also the Koine and if you have any more elderly friends in Greece you can ask if it was the Katharevousa; however I think it unlikely that something as basic as this had two varying pronunciations before the wholesale adption of Demotiki so maybe it was Taf in Katharevousa too.

I am in Greece after the end of katharevousa, but my wife who suffered it when she was young told me it was taf all along, and also probably these last 3000 years.

 

I read somewhere (before I chose my username) that Phi was pronounced "fee" in modern Greek, as opposed to the more sciencey "fye". Is this true?

 

Less than two years till Phi Day!

 

Pee Day is every day. No need to celebrate THAT (until I'm much older, hopefully).

 

Celebrating Pi Day every day would just make me really fat.

Yes I call you "Fee" since I came here.

And for me Π is pronounced "pee" but not with a long "ee", it is a short "pe". Same for Phi, which is said as a short "Phe".

 

There are other interesting peculiarities, for example for us the letter B is pronounced V (it is the Greek Beta which is pronounced "veeta". One could write a book over these ( or that has been done already).

I remember a conference from an archaeologist about marble quarries in the Egyptian mountains in Roman times. He found hundreds of clay tablets with writings in Greek language (yes under Roman domination in Egypt) and he explained how the orthographic mistakes of the workers on the tablets could gave an indication of the pronunciation at the time. The result was laughable to us as Greek but maybe it was correct, who knows. Interesting stuff anyway.

Edited March 17, 2016 by michel123456

[imatfaal]

...

I remember a conference from an archaeologist about marble quarries in the Egyptian mountains in Roman times. He found hundreds of clay tablets with writings in Greek language (yes under Roman domination in Egypt) and he explained how the orthographic mistakes of the workers on the tablets could gave an indication of the pronunciation at the time. The result was laughable to us as Greek but maybe it was correct, who knows. Interesting stuff anyway.

 

I had often wondered how they worked out pronunciation of such ancient languages - I assumed some of it was from rhymes but that does not help in many circumstances. I had not thought of the mistakes - brilliant.

[John Cuthber]

 

 

 

Tau is pronounce tow (short o, like in town) in American English.

 

We pronounce it pie, but I've heard others (who learned British English as a second language) pronounce it pee. I don't want to be part of that "celebration"

Just for the record, of it was a short o, it would be pronounced like the o in "top".

Wait, what?! How many more 'nerd' days are there?

 

Every day is a nerd day!

[swansont]

Just for the record, of it was a short o, it would be pronounced like the o in "top".

 

 

My level of knowledge here is binary. Long and short. A long o would be as in "no". You can pronounce tow to sound like toe.

 

I'm sure the cunning linguists have many more levels of discrimination between the sounds, but I neglected to consult Prof Higgins or Colonel Pickering.

[Delta1212]

 

 

My level of knowledge here is binary. Long and short. A long o would be as in "no". You can pronounce tow to sound like toe.

 

I'm sure the cunning linguists have many more levels of discrimination between the sounds, but I neglected to consult Prof Higgins or Colonel Pickering.

 

It's not really an o sound at all. It's actually a diphthong and the vowels involved are closer to a short a followed by the oo sound.

 

English spelling is weird and describing sounds in terms of letters is not trivial as a result.