www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Whew! I just had the worst nightmare!

Quote: I love the word -- but I just wish we could all say it the same way. People around here have a tendency to say "Theee-a-tokus".

I think it should be pronounced similarly to Theologian. This is the first and preferred pronunciation in the New Webster's Collegiate.

Theotokos is generally pronounced in Greek with a short epsilon: "Theh-oh-TOE-kos." (NOT Thay-o-to-kos) There is a long list of words which have come into English from Greek, that have a short epsilon (the "eh" sound), which becomes elongated in English. I've already mentioned theologian; others include evangelize and evangelism. Even the pronoun me is pronounced meh in Greek but mee in English.

So, if we're serious about adopting Theotokos into our great English language, I think we should abandon the affectation of saying "thay-o-tokos."

To-may-to, to-mah-to, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. In a country as large as ours, there will always be regional variances.

Where I live, it's Thee-o-lo-gi-an so Thee-o-to-kus would be correct. The Russian Orthodox who introduced me to the word says Thay-o-to-kus.

I learned how to serve in Greek - in Greece, of all places. Might I suggest that those who would like to know how Theotokos is correctly pronounced in liturgical Greek should simply visit the local Greek Orthodox parish and listen carefully? Alternatively, one can purchase nice recordings of Greek Orthodox liturgical chant from ZOE (main shop is in Athens; at least some of their recordings are surely available from Brookline).

Fr. Serge

Theota-kus (Say "Iota" and "Cuss"... Then change the "I" in "Iota" to "Thee"...) is my personal favorite regional variation...

At least that is how one elderly Roman I knew - a convert with a syruppy thick souther accent pronounced it when telling me she loved reading "Those Greek Catholic prayers to the Theota-kus."