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Pronunciation seems to vary depending on the source, usually either SPY-kuh or SPEE-kuh. Which is correct?

lucas
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    It might depend on global locality or language being used. As a native English speaker I pronounce it as SPY-kuh. Then again, with the current omicron variant of Covid 19, most non British speakers of English pronounce it as OM-ikron, whereas many British speakers of English pronounce it as Ohm-ikron. – Fred Feb 21 '22 at 12:27
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    I moe or less considered Spica prounced "spick ah". You might want to watch the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles"; in the first bar scene Cyrano Jones and the bartender discuss "Spican flame gems". – M. A. Golding Feb 21 '22 at 19:12
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    There's no reason to close this question and block anyone from adding an answer. Communicating about astronomy may include speaking and challenging words may need some pointers since Astronomical names can have interesting stories. voting to leave open to allow others to continue to post answers because this may have several interesting ones! – uhoh Feb 21 '22 at 21:19
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    @Fred You should write answers in the answers section so they can be voted on and corrected if necessary, instead of writing it in the comment section where it's pushed in front of every legitimate answer and can not be discussed or refuted. – pipe Feb 22 '22 at 06:01
  • @pipe: thank you for your comment. I posted my statement as a comment because I didn't think it was good enough to be an answer. It was a comment based on observations over time. I have no idea if there is an "official" pronunciation amongst astronomers of Spica. Anyone can refute or discuss my comment by doing just what you did - addressing a comment to me. But if you think it's worthy of classification as an answer, fine, I'll post it as an answer & we can note what happens. Feel free to "discuss or refute". – Fred Feb 22 '22 at 09:50
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    Where does this H in uH and aH in all of these answers come from? I haven't heard any H in any of the possible pronunciations. – Vladimir F Героям слава Feb 22 '22 at 12:54
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    @Fred I've mostly heard "Ohm-ikron" in the US as well, but then I'm also more used to hearing that in relation to computer science. People who say "OM-ikron" are either flustered over learning a new word, or sometimes just pretending not to know how to pronounce things in a form of subtle mockery - they're just as likely to add that superfluous 'N' in there, and call it "Omnicron". – Darrel Hoffman Feb 22 '22 at 14:10
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    @Close voters: pronounciation may vary regionally and by language, but definitely is not opinion-based... – planetmaker Feb 22 '22 at 15:13
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    @uhoh: Do you have enough reputation score to protect this question so it can't be closed, or is that the domain of the moderators? If you do, use your powers. Save it from closure. – Fred Feb 22 '22 at 15:35
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    It would depend on the language, but in Spanish it would definitely be pronounced SPEE-kah. – Hollis Williams Feb 22 '22 at 15:53
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    @Fred Omicron as in small o, compared to omega, as in large o, I suppose. – Andrew Morton Feb 22 '22 at 17:25
  • @Fred One can protect a question from certain things (like too many comments from rep=1 users I think) but not from closure. There are however already three re-open votes (one is mine) so we're almost open again. From FAQ see What is a “protected” or "highly active" question? – uhoh Feb 22 '22 at 21:14
  • This sets a poor precedent. I regret providing an "answer". – ProfRob Feb 23 '22 at 07:44

3 Answers3

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There is no general accepted pronunciation. Spica is a Latin word and there is no globally uniform pronunciation for Latin. How you pronounce Latin depends on your mother tongue as Latin most often is pronounced as if it were pronounced in the most familiar way to the language you speak. Yet, Wiktionary gives the pronunciation as /ˈspiː.ka/ or [ˈs̠piːkä], thus spee-kuh.

Many foreign words are pronounced in English as if they were English words (which is fine, of course - especially for a word like Spica which has been in the English language for centuries, found even in its original Latin meaning), so in the English-speaking world you might most often find it pronounced as Spy-kuh [ˈspaɪkə].

Yet if your mother tongue and / or your audience is of different language background, you will find it pronounced differently. From a very limited sample size, yet most people from different European language backgrounds I met would pronounce it similar to the quoted Latin above, thus Spee-kuh [ˈspiːka]. Listen to the name pronounced here in different languages.

sumelic
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planetmaker
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  • Oh, I also wanted to clarify, [ˈspɪ:kə] seems to be for German, but in French it'd be more like [spiˈkɐ]. – wjandrea Feb 22 '22 at 17:05
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    That's why I linked the sound samples :) - and it stresses the first paragraph: no general accepted pronounciation :) – planetmaker Feb 22 '22 at 18:06
  • I disagree with your affirmation that “there is no globally uniform pronunciation for Latin.” It is obvious that there was a (presumably) single way to pronounce it in Antiquity, as it was the mother tongue of most (West-)Europeans back then. This is called Classical Latin. It then “evolved” to Middle Latin, then Renaissance Latin, and I guess that’s when local accents started appearing. I prefer to pronounce it the Classical way: “Ave” would be “ah-way” and “circa” would be “kir-kah,” for example. – Pierre Paquette Feb 25 '22 at 02:59
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It might depend on global locality or language being used. As a native English speaker I pronounce it as SPY-kuh. Then again, with the current omicron variant of Covid 19, most non British speakers of English pronounce it as OM-ikron, whereas many British speakers of English pronounce it as Ohm-ikron. The British and Americans can't agree on a common pronunciation of tomato, leisure or oregano. They even have different words for capsicum/bell pepper, zucchini/courgette, freeway/motor way, pavement/sidewalk (elsewhere foot path), diabase/dolerite.

Then there's the tricky issue amongst English speakers of how to pronounce Uranus and how the word is divided into syllables. American pronunciation is usually Uran-us, elsewhere it can be pronounced You-ranus - something very close to a part of the anatomy, which is unfortunate.

Fred
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Pronunciation seems to vary depending on the source, usually either SPY-kuh or SPEE-kuh. Which is correct?

SPY-kuh!

The Oxford English Dictionary or "OED" calls itself:

The definitive record of the English language

It gives two pronunciations:

Brit. /ˈspʌɪkə/, U.S. /ˈspaɪkə/

The page has little audio players, one for each. They both sound pretty much "SPY-kuh". "Spy" like with "my little eye" (I'll call it a long "I" vowel) and kuh like in "cusp".

The Oxford English Dictionary for Spika (noun)

uhoh
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  • We can direct all future pronunciation questions to this question and close as duplicate. In other words, just go to the OED and be done with it! – uhoh Feb 24 '22 at 10:58