# Latin: Foci



## LMatt88

Hello everybody. Does anyone know if the genitive of focus is pronounced as "fokee" or "fosee"? Thanks in advance.


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## bearded

Hello
As far as I know, 'fòkee' was the pronunciation in classical times, whereas 'fòchee (Engl.ch)/fòtsee' is a more recent pronunciation (late Latin, Church Latin, Italian reading) that was adopted following the 'palatisation' of the consonant c before vowels e and i.


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## Scholiast

Greetings

Am I being idiosyncratic, or do other native English speakers here pronounce it as I do 'folk-eye' (which as far as 'authenticity' or 'correctness' is concerned is neither fish nor fowl)?

Σ


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## Snodv

I agree with "folk-eye." I believe that's what they teach in math classes.  And I'm pretty sure some say "foe-seye."  The pronunciation of the last syllable reminds me of _alumni_ and _alumnae_, whose pronunciations have traded places since classical times.


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## bearded

I must say that pronunciations such as 'folk-eye' or 'foe-seye' are so far away from any Latin correctness (and only are to be found in Anglo-Saxon countries) that they give me and all Romance speakers goosebumps. In particular, rendering a long i with 'eye' (like in Engl. ''ivory'') is not acceptable.  (Point of view of an outraged 'Latin').


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## Scholiast

@bearded (# 5)

Of course in any classical context I would never dream (except in a nightmare) of pronouncing _focus_ or _foci_ with _fō-_, let alone -_i-_ to rhyme with 'eye'. I was only drawing attention to what I believe to be the usual, if erroneous, pronunciation of geometrists in English today.

Σ


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## bearded

I certainly misunderstood your folk-eye ''as I do'', and Snodv's ''I agree with folk-eye''...Sorry


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## Snodv

Yes, as Latinists the Anglicized pronunciations make us shiver too.  But we (English speakers) also did that violence to our own language, during the Great Vowel Shift of 1350 to about 1600 or so.


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## bearded

Snodv said:


> we.. did that violence to our own language, during the Great Vowel Shift of 1350 to about 1600 or so.


Yes, I know, and the violence was terrible for the poor victim. There is no reason, I think, to apply that same violence to Latin by greatly shifting its vowels..


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