Hacker News Reader

Where are you getting an /f/ sound from?

Edit: Ah, it seems the digraph "ευ" is pronounced /ef/ in Modern Greek, despite (by convention) being transliterated "eu".

View on HN

Correct. Thee same pronunciation exists in ancient greek for example ευ ζην is ef zin (the good life).

Also the ευ situation is a little more complex ie sometimes it is pronunciated as ev (depending if the next letter is a vowel).

Wikipedia suggests that "ευ" was pronounced /eu̯/ in ancient greek[0]. My suspicion is that "ευ ζην" is an Ancient Greek "fixed phrase" which is pronounced with Modern Greek phonology.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_phonology#Diphth...

Huh, this seems to be the same linguistic phenomenon observed in British English with the word "lieutenant" but perhaps independently evolved.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com