What are the correct English pronunciations of (Roman emperor) names such as Theodosius, Anastasius, Decius, Leontius, Gratian, Marcian…
I am having difficulties with -tiu vs. -siu, -tia vs. -cia. Should those be pronounced as [ʃə], [tɪə] or [sɪə]?
I was unable to find anything online. "tchrist"'s Wikipedia link on traditional English pronunciation of Latin does not provide an answer. My question is pretty specific about the pronunciation of proper Latin names containing -tiu, -siu, -tia and -cia. No such information is to be found anywhere on that webpage.
Best Answer
The short answer is that we pronounce them as though they were English, so for the most part all of those get [ʃ] there. Marcian sounds like a little green Martian.
The values of the vowels are of course different, too, so you get things like Gratian becoming [ˈgreɪʃən]. And you have Cicero becoming [sɪsɨɹoʊ] instead of [ˈkɪkɛɹo] — well, or Tully, which is decidedly odd.
A longer explanation can be found in the Wikipedia article on the traditional English pronunciation of Latin.