Classical Compound - Formation, Spelling, and Pronunciation

Formation, Spelling, and Pronunciation

These words are compounds formed from Latin and Ancient Greek root words. Ancient Greek words are almost invariably romanized (see transliteration of Ancient Greek into English). In English:

• Ancient Greek αι becomes e, or sometimes æ or ae in British English.
• Ancient Greek groups with γ plus a stop consonant such as γγ or γκ become ng and nc (or nk in more recent borrowings) respectively.
• Ancient Greek ει often becomes i (occasionally it is retained as ei).
• Ancient Greek κ becomes c (subject to palatalization in English pronunciation) or k.
• Ancient Greek ῥ (rho with spiritus asper) becomes rh.
• Ancient Greek θ becomes th.
• Ancient Greek φ becomes ph or very rarely f.
• Ancient Greek ψ becomes ps.
• Ancient Greek χ becomes ch.
• Ancient Greek υ becomes y.
• Ancient Greek ου becomes u.
• Ancient Greek ω becomes o.
• Ancient Greek rough breathing becomes h-.

Thus, for example, Ancient Greek σφιγξ becomes English (and Latin) sphinx. Exceptions to these romanizing rules occur, such as leukemia (leukaemia); compare leukocyte, also leucocyte. In Latin, and in the target languages, the Greek vowels are given their classical values rather than their contemporary values in demotic Greek.

Ancient Greek words often contain consonant clusters which are foreign to the phonology of contemporary English and other languages that incorporate these words into their lexicon: diphthong; pneumatology, phthisis. The traditional response in English is to treat the unfamiliar cluster as containing one or more silent letters and suppress their pronunciation, more modern speakers tend to try and pronounce the unusual cluster. This adds to the irregularities of English spelling; moreover, since many of these words are encountered in writing more often than they are heard spoken, it introduces uncertainty as to how to pronounce them when encountered.

Classical compounds frequently vary their stressed syllable when suffixes are added: ágriculture, agricúltural. This also gives rise to uncertainty when these words are encountered in print. Once a classical compound has been created and borrowed, it typically becomes the foundation of a whole series of related words: e.g. astrology, astrological, astrologer/astrologist, astrologism.