BOUDICA, BOUDICCA, BOADICEA – WHAT’S IN A NAME?

[Andreas Johansson]

And do you know what those values were? I was taught upsilon = u (as in but) and eta = air (as in fair) but I don't know if that was Ionic, Attic, early, late or what.

Upsilon as French u, German ü or Swedish y. No close equivalent in standard English, but I'm told some northern dialects have something similar in words like "good".

Epsilon like French è or German or Swedish ä. English air is diphthongal in RP and GA, but if it's a monophthong in your dialect it's likely to be a good match.

(Happily for English tourists, Modern Greek has turned both sounds to "ee" like in fleece.)

[RichT]

Ah thanks - I have in mind, for eta, what Wikipedia tells me is a long monophthong:

Examples of long vowels: ... /eə/ in bear ...

The long mid front vowel [ɛː] is transcribed with the traditional symbol ⟨eə⟩ in this article. The predominant realisation in contemporary RP is monophthongal.

Sounds as if that is right then.

Modern Greek seems to have simplified its vowels but done all sorts of mad stuff to its consonants.

[Erpingham]

Alas, for me the ea in bear sounds exactly the same as the ai in hair.  I obviously can't speak English properly, so therefore I think  I'll give up on the classical languages   

[Imperial Dave]

try Welsh! 

[RichT]

Alas, for me the ea in bear sounds exactly the same as the ai in hair.

Me too - I meant them as two examples of the same thing.

Going back to Boadicea, even if Boudicca is righter than Boadicea, goodness knows how they would have pronounced Bou or dicc or a. Or how stressed it.

[Imperial Dave]

even if Boudicca is righter than Boadicea

(ahem) more correct? 

[Erpingham]

Me too - I meant them as two examples of the same thing.

Oh, good.  All this monopthongal and diapthongal is getting me confused. 

BTW, Andreas, the u in "tu" and the ü in "über" sounded like the oo in "food" when I was at school.  You may strike your palm to head and remark how crap the English are at foreign languages if you wish

[Jim Webster]

Given my pronunciation of English, I have no hope at all of getting any other language right