My wife pronounces it three different ways, each of which she can support. I pronounce it one, but other than that it’s the way I’ve heard it I can’t support my pronunciation even after some searches. What’s yours and why?

  • kuneho@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 days ago

    Ken (as the name) - ta (with a hard T and A as in catapult) - ur (with an u like in Vonnegut’s name)

    tho I’m from europe speaking a weird ass language

  • Darohan@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    Senn-torr

    The “taur” is probably the same root as in “Taurus” and "el Toro"¹, which I’ve only ever heard said like torr, so I say it the same. The first part I don’t think is ever said anything other than “senn” right?

    ¹I can’t back that up, since they mean bull not horse and I have no sources. We do see the same root pop up in “Minotaur” from the same language though, and that is a part bull part man.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      Tauros in greek is bull, yeah. The minotaur was the Bull of Minos. It may link back to the pre-greek people of crete, known for bull-leaping.

      The “ken” in “Kentauros” is thought to mean piercing, but why is a piercing bull a half man/horse? There’s no obvious explanation.

      I love the idea of -tauros coming to mean a monstrous combination, like franken- in english. But if there were any evidence of that some very excited nerds would’ve told us, I’m sure.

      • Darohan@lemmy.zip
        0·
        8 days ago

        I love the idea of -tauros coming to mean a monstrous combination

        That is a great theory and until an excited nerd tells me otherwise it’s what I’m going to choose to believe (albeit without telling anyone else just in case)

    • nesc@lemmy.cafeEnglish
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      8 days ago

      That’s like the most correct one if there even could be a ‘correct’ way to pronounce a word of foreign origin in most languages.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        In English, it’s a matter of honor to mangle foreign loan words, unless you’re the kind of twit who pedantically pronounces foreign words as though you’re not speaking English, but the language of origin. That’s most common with French loanwords, since French was once considered higher-prestige than English. But I’ve even heard people attempting to pronounce Arabic words like that, despite having no idea of Arabic phonology or case inflection, with ridiculous results.

    • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 days ago

      Well, apparently my answer (“sen-chwar”) is also very incorrect. Someone else in this thread also answered “sen-a-tar.” I would argue both beat yours for incorrectness, as they don’t fit the spelling.

      I thought mine was based on something French, based on almost nothing, but another person in the thread has corrected that theory.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days ago

    Sin tar is the usual way, though it’ll sometimes come out more sin tawr, where the au is a bit more drawn out.

    Sin tore is a fairly common one.

    However, sin tar is more common, at least with what I’ve heard in meat space. That’s a fairly limited thing though, since most of the people I have talked to over my fifty years have been fellow southerners. We do tend to use softer vowels in most cases, and tar is softer than tore in the way we tend to do vowels.

    However, with the latin and Greek origins of the word, I’d argue that the tar or tawr would lean closer to that than tore, just because of similar words. When an au is present in medical terminology (which is where almost all of my latin and Greek comes from) it usually gets pronounced aw or ah, not oh.

    But, I never hear anyone pronounce the initial C as a K, and that’s the way it would have been in both of those languages originally. The Greek version is spelled with a K, when written with the usual alphabet rather than Greek. Kentauros.

    Which is an aside.

    Wikipedia lists the two I did as the usual pronunciations, fwiw. And all the dictionaries with audio options are either those two, or slight variations of them, where the au sound is rounder or flatter than the norm.

    Thing is, it’s a word in a living language. Whatever the original English pronunciation may have been, that can change, so supporting a pronunciation is kind of meaningless. What matters is consensus over time, and by location.

    So, a regional accent that sounds more like cent-ur is just as valid in that region, it just isn’t standard. So would any other variant be, if there’s enough people using it to be called a consensus.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      Personally, I say sen tore.

      According to my classics professor ~20 years ago, we can’t know how “au” would’ve been pronounced in the greek.

      He told us that ancient greek diphthong pronunciation is just made up. Apparently it’s much harder to reconstruct those sounds confidently, but that didn’t stop past classicists from claiming their reckonings as incontrovertible facts. Oxford and cambridge used to expell students for following the diphthong pronunciations of the other, but both are basically guesses.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
        0·
        8 days ago

        Even English has wide variations in how diphthongs are pronounced. I’m living in southwestern England, and the old boys pronounce the sounds in diphthongs almost separately: “boy” is two syllables: “bwooey.” But like regional dialects everywhere, that’s fading in the younger generation.

    • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      8 days ago

      I thought this question would get almost no attention, but so far I’ve gotten almost one response per minute. Well predicted.

        • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          8 days ago

          It’s still so interesting noticing comments from you, as I used to be frustrated by the bubble letters in your name. Since my client started suppressing that, I find you often contribute to conversations and I appreciate it.

          I tried to express this once before, but at that point my client was still somewhat immature and randomly put my comment in a different, irrelevant thread.

          Anyway, thanks for being a classic and long lasting part of lemmy and for showing up in my thread! I’m glad it provided you with some enlightenment.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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      8 days ago

      I pronounce it centaur, as in it rhymes with faur, kaur, boobaur. You know, the “aur” sound, like “ooohhuuuurrr” but more dynamic.

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        0·
        8 days ago

        I recognise that “kentawur” is correct, but reject it because “sentar” just sounds more correct.

        • howrar@lemmy.ca
          0·
          7 days ago

          Just because an English word was originally Latin and is written the same way, doesn’t mean it’s pronounced the same way. It’s an English word now. It has an English pronunciation, pluralisation and definition that can all be different from the original. “Kentawur” is not correct for the English word.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    If it’s in a Greek or ancient Latin context I pronounce it with a hard C, but if it’s a general English context I pronounce it with a soft C.

    I’m not sure what the third way would be.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
      0·
      8 days ago

      The third way would be a difference in how the diphthong is pronounced: “-aur” or “-ower.”

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            8 days ago

            I’ve never heard it that way but I get it. A combination of (the relevant bits of) suture and jaguar. Only problem is, it’s not spelled centuar, it’s spelled centaur.

            However, until one shows up to personally correct your spelling and pronunciation, I think you’re free to call imaginary creatures whatever you call them.

          • tyler@programming.dev
            0·
            8 days ago

            I told my wife about this thread and about how you said you pronounced it differently and she jokingly said “sen-CHWAR” in a funny voice. When I read your comment off to her she laughed incredibly hard. Her joke turned out to be spot on lol.

            • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
              0·
              8 days ago

              Rude.

              But I’m glad I could add some levity to your day! I can often make my wife chortle, but when I can make her laugh incredibly hard it’s a good day.

            • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
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              8 days ago

              Maryland. Maybe it’s regional, like you said. However, I was sheltered growing up, so maybe not.

              • ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works
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                8 days ago

                That very well could be regional. Are you near Baltimore? I grew up around DC, but mostly in Annapolis, and I’ve always said it like cen-tar

                Edit - I agree with the person below, your brain probably decided that’s how it was pronounced at a young age. There’s a bunch of words I’ve read but never say out loud because I know I will say them wrong! I should just own them, there’s too many great words out there!

                • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
                  0·
                  8 days ago

                  I am no longer in Maryland, but yes, I spent most of my life within an hour of Baltimore. I was indeed an avid reader, so it’s possible that I made my own decision about its pronunciation (that has certainly happened with other words), but I think I got this one from hearing my mom say it. I can’t prove that, though.

                  https://youtu.be/LkjxO9OVwNs

          • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
            0·
            8 days ago

            So on the one hand, I think you are going to find almost nobody agrees with your pronunciation. On the other hand, you should wear your mispronunciations with pride because what that tells me is that you were a reader growing up and likely came about this word the first time in text without any other context, maybe even many times before you heard it spoken. Your brain made an educated guess (I’m guess pulling from the pronunciation of “jaguar”?). It got it wrong, but understandably so, and it has cemented in your brain. Fix it if you care to, but no real need. Either way, kudos for being a young reader.