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Is Skitarii

1. Skih tar eee

2. Skih tar eye

3. Skih tar eee eye (pronounce both I's)

The last one, I believe.

Skih tar eee

I've never heard of the other 2.

I've now heard both 1 and 3 in the audio books.

I use Latin pronunciation, which would be the first one.

First one it’s the only correct one. (Could maybe be “Skih Tarr Eeheeh” with an elongated sound at the end but tends to be shortened)

I say Skih tar eee, if it was just one 'i' at the end I'd think the Latin pronunciation would "eye" would it not?

Now pronounce Aaron.

 Fajita Fan wrote:
Now pronounce Aaron.

 Fajita Fan wrote:
I say Skih tar eee, if it was just one 'i' at the end I'd think the Latin pronunciation would "eye" would it not?

Latin only ever pronounces “i” as “ee”. English is just weird in that we have 2 pronunciations of “i”.
You need only look at Spanish or Italian to get an approximate pronunciation.

I've never taken Latin and I was a C+ student in Spanish. Double 'i' in Latin isn't different than a single? Why does Skitaii end in a double 'i' at all?

Inquiring minds want to know!

“I” is just ee, but “ii” is more like an extended eeee. So, skitaree-ee as opposed to just skitaree. Anyway, -us is singular and -i is plural. So you’d have a single skitarius and multiple skitarii. An example of an actual Latin word would be hastatus and hastati. Or triarius and triarii.

Based solely on this thread, I will now simply call them: Skittery.

Or sestertius and sestertii.

I somehow messed up and voted for number three when I meant to press number one, but as has been mentioned, it's "skitaree-ee", not just "skitari" as though the second "i" were silent.

Dandelion wrote:
“I” is just ee, but “ii” is more like an extended eeee. So, skitaree-ee as opposed to just skitaree. Anyway, -us is singular and -i is plural. So you’d have a single skitarius and multiple skitarii. An example of an actual Latin word would be hastatus and hastati. Or triarius and triarii.

Cool!

I usually say it the first way, and if that isn't it, then to heck with who claims otherwise. They probably don't know the riddle of steel either or what is best in life, so I cast them out and laugh at them.

The riddle of steel is predating 70% of the 40K gamers at this point anyway...

Obviously option 1

Reminds me of skaven clan skryre. I went for 30 years and suddenly i ran into someone pronouncing it clan 'scrier-ee,' and I was just baffled.

Then privateer press decided khador was 'Kay-door' and I decided I would never care about official pronunciations ever again.

If GW just had some sort of videos where they said these words, preferably with an included painting tutorial...

Skit, like one of the things they do on SNL, Monty Python or Kids In The Hall.

Followed by Ari, like the agent guy from Entourage.

Skit Ari.

But, like, as all one word.

Anyone who's ever played a Total War game will probably say Skitar-ee-eye, as I used to do before someone on this very forum corrected me. Then again, I'm now convinced that the ancient Romans all spoke with thick, Australian accents.

Sk'TAR-eeh

First vowel is almost inaudible and is basically just a way to move from the "sk" to the "t", "tar" like the word (and the stressed syllable), ideally an elongated "ee" sound with a subtle variation to make it two adjacent vowels (like a diphthong where both vowels are the same) but in practice it's generally shortened to a single "ee" sound.

None of the 3
It has to be Skee-tuh-ree-ee
Source? My Latin lessons.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
None of the 3
It has to be Skee-tuh-ree-ee
Source? My Latin lessons.

This guy's got it. The double "ii" plural has a very specific pronunciation in Latin.

Ski- Ta-rï-(e)i ?

?

Could ask a Rumantsch friend how he'dpronunce it.
Also re latin lessons, it's a dead language, how do you know that you got pronunciation right?

Not Online!!! wrote:

Also re latin lessons, it's a dead language, how do you know that you got pronunciation right?

Just because a particular language isnt spoken everyday anymore doesnt mean it isnt preserved, recorded or otherwise known. There's a great deal of information out there, especially where Roman influence blended with other cultures and language families, with regards to how the language behaves. There's also the Catholic Church, which uses a specific dialectic evolution of classical Latin in its day to day operations.

(On a less serious note I can see this very question causing Mechanicum schisms because thats just how fethed up m42 is)

Sterling191 wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
None of the 3
It has to be Skee-tuh-ree-ee
Source? My Latin lessons.

This guy's got it. The double "ii" plural has a very specific pronunciation in Latin.

Yes, thats how I learned it as well. But my Latin Prof always made sure, we understood that The "Latin" language does not exist. The scope of the language was so huge geographically and it was used for such a long time (Just imagine the changes in a language being in use from the beginning of the roman empire until well into the middle ages)

So things like pronunciation are actualy hard to pin down (Ceasar with a "C" or with a "K" sound for instance)

Sterling191 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:

Also re latin lessons, it's a dead language, how do you know that you got pronunciation right?

Just because a particular language isnt spoken everyday anymore doesnt mean it isnt preserved, recorded or otherwise known. There's a great deal of information out there, especially where Roman influence blended with other cultures and language families, with regards to how the language behaves. There's also the Catholic Church, which uses a specific dialectic evolution of classical Latin in its day to day operations.

(On a less serious note I can see this very question causing Mechanicum schisms because thats just how fethed up m42 is)

The issue is there is NO, authorithy to decide if you are right or wrong in their influence over language.
Unlike french f.e.

Also i brought up rumantsch people because they speak probably one of the closest language relatons that still exist beyond sardinian.


As for your less serious note, didn't they allready want to shoot a certain other techpriest for saving their asses and got stopped by rowboat.

There is historical disagreement as to whether the "ii" suffix at the end of some latin words was pronounced "eeee" or "eee-eye".

The only reason the "eee-eye" speculation exists is because many latin words end in a single i, and they weren't huge on silent letters, so historians speculated it may have been pronounced differently. But "hard and soft" i pronunciations are not known to exist anywhere else in latin.

So the truth is: sorry, there's no right way, either 1 or 3 has reasonable evidence behind it.

the_scotsman wrote:
There is historical disagreement as to whether the "ii" suffix at the end of some latin words was pronounced "eeee" or "eee-eye".

The only reason the "eee-eye" speculation exists is because many latin words end in a single i, and they weren't huge on silent letters, so historians speculated it may have been pronounced differently. But "hard and soft" i pronunciations are not known to exist anywhere else in latin.

So the truth is: sorry, there's no right way, either 1 or 3 has reasonable evidence behind it.

Are you sure it's eee-eye? I don't think the second "i" would ever be pronounced "eye". It is either silent or another "eee"

But this may just be my germen background

nataliereed1984 wrote:
Followed by Ari, like the agent guy from Entourage.
.

This morning I drove to work in an $80k Mercedes and tonight I'm being driven home in a prop car from the Fast and the Furious.