(10-03-2020, 07:29 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yeah, when I pronounce "anchiton" in my head I say "an[x]iton" with a velar fricative. Kind of like a H with the back of the tongue more towards the back of the throat. For phonetics discussions it's a shame that our lingua franca does not have a sound like this.
If the word is of Greek origin (which we still don't know) this is probably the intended pronunciation.
You know it's funny, after I made that last comment about English, French, and Spanish speakers being the weird ones when it comes to pronouncing "ch", it dawned on me that the UK, France, and Spain all have minority dialects that pronounce "ch" the correct, i.e. velar way.
I'll sometimes use the Greek letter
khi (χ) when I want to specify this sound or something like it.
I've only done a little bit of self-study in Greek, but my understanding is that in many time periods and dialects, the letters
gamma and
ny had some interchangeability, and both could be pronounced as different nasal consonants when followed by certain other consonants. My point is, if we're giving any serious consideration to the possibility that "anchiton" might be of Greek origin, broadening the search to include "agchiton" might be worthwhile. Anyone with much more familiarity with Greek than me, feel free to correct me on this.