Writing and talking about ATG

[alejandro]

Dear CompanionsNot being a native English speaker (probably you who are will find several mistakes in this very message) who enjoys reading books about Alexander (which are usually written in English), I found that many times I don't know how to pronounce the names of the characters/places. Hence, I would like to ask your help regarding this matter. Here is my request:I would need a list of the main characters/places connected to ATG, each one of them properly spelt and "pronounced".In order to fulfill the "pronunciation" requisite, I was thinking about two possible methods:1. Recording the names using .mp3 or .wav (or similar) files.2. Writing the names using the phonetic alphabet (here is a link explaining what it is and showing some examples: http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-ascii.htm Note: I would prefer you use the IPA notation over the ASCII one, since I am more used to the first one).The list I was thinking of would include, among others: Olympias, Philip, Hephaistion (I don't even know how to spell it correctly!), Alexander's frieds (Perdikkas, Erygios, etc), other soldiers (Parmenion, Coenus, Antigonos, etc), enemies (Memnon, Darius, etc), wives/mistresses (Roxanne, Barsine, etc), cities (Tyre, Issos, etc), countries and regions (Gedrosia, Thrace, etc), rivers and seas (Eufrates, Aegean, etc), battles (Granikos, Arbela, etc), mythological names (Heracles, Achilles, etc) and "miscellaneous" (Argead, Demosthenes, Aristotle, etc).It would be even better if it could also include the spelling and pronunciation not only in English, but also in Greek and Latin (our Greek experts in the forum could hopefully help).I know this is not an easy task, and probably so big that it will require someone (maybe more than one person) volunteering to do it. But, at the same time, it could be posted at pothos as a very useful subsection.On the other hand, I remember reading a thread some time ago where someone suggested creating an alphabetic list of biographies about characters who are somehow related to Alex (I can recall that the "A" list included, among others, Queen Ada of Halicarnassus, Aristotle and at least two Amyntas). So, instead of undertaking a separate research about phonetics, it could only be needed to add to this list (as in a dictionary entry) the way in which each name is properly pronunced, either by using a hyperlink to a .mp3 or similar file, or by writing it using the phonetic alphabet (or both!).As a

[alejandro]

As an example, here is the entry for Philip:Philip II of Macedon ('Filip): Father of ATG. Born in ...So what do you think? Is it doable? I hope so, as it will help non-native English speakers to increase their knowledge about "the Great and Co".Thank you in advance.Alejandro

[agesilaos]

Good idea, but phonetic alphabets are not on normal keypads so we may end up with varying letter values; I would put the Greek for Philip as P-hill-eepos, for instance and the Latin as Fill-i-puss whilst this may work in English (though I'm sure others may disagree after all is it Doric, Attic or Makedoniste greek we should aim for?) other languages have different values and the phoenetic alphabet is a tad specialised.

[Sandra]

For the Grek and Latin you may find useful the Perseus project (they have some parts of Diodorus and Plutarch, as well as Demosthenes speeches). Look at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
Good luck!