How do you pronounce "Aether"

[Morganator 2.0]

Not, "how are you supposed to pronounce it". How do you pronounce it?

[Akira Foxmind]

I as not-native english speaker pronounce it 'eether' like just switching 'ae' to 'ee'.

Counter-question: Why the hell do you want to know? 

[Aetherium Slinky]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) says /ˈiːθər/ which is the same pronunciation as "ether". IPA lists the pronunciation of the first vowel as /i/ but I give it a bit of a twist as an homage to the letter "A" (which would normally be silent) by pronouncing the first vowel as the "near-close front unrounded vowel", [ɪ]. It's the same as /i/ but it leans a bit towards /e/. This sound is not common in English but it exists in certain dialects. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-front_unrounded_vowel for further information.

EDIT: Typo. Also what's up with the downvote? Did I misunderstand something?

[Akira Foxmind]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) says /ˈiːθər/ which is the same pronunciation as "ether". IPA lists the pronunciation of the first vowel as /i/ but I give it a bit of a twist as an homage to the letter "A" (which would normally be silent) by pronouncing the first vowel as the "near-close front unrounded vowel", [ɪ]. It's the same as /i/ but it leans a bit towards /e/. This sound is not common in English but it exists in certain dialects. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-front_unrounded_vowel for further information.

EDIT: Typo. Also what's up with the downvote? Did I misunderstand something?

I don't understand either. Probably some kid trying to be cool.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Voted for EE-ther.  Because that is how I currently pronounce it.


I used to pronounce is as AY-ther.  Now it's EE-ther.

[MajordomoTom]

I'm in the AY-ther camp

[UrizenII]

TL;DR: Thank ancient Greek and Latin for the confusion, but I pronounce it "ee-ther" because that is actually the correct way.

Although it has almost entirely fallen out of use in the last century, you might have seen the pairs of letters Ae/ae and Oe/oe written as Æ/æ or Œ/œ, respectively (these are called ligatures).  This was to indicate a connection to an ancient Greek or Latin word from which the Enlish word was derived.  In some cases, the ligatures are simply split into the two separate letters like in the word phœnix/phoenix.  In others, the spelling is changed altogether and the word looks closer to the way it is actually pronounced, as in the word dæmon/daemon, which is almost always written nowadays as demon.  However, there are words that are written with ae or oe cannot use the ligatures because they do not have Greek or Latin origins (like maelstrom, which is borrowed from Dutch).

Writing aside, the pronunciation varies when you see these letters depending on how it was pronounced in the original Greek and Latin.  In the case of æther/aether, the correct pronunciation is with the "e" sound (like "ee-ther").  In these cases where the word does come from Greek or Latin and can be written with the ligatures, ae/oe will never sound like "air," "ay," or "eye" (so "ay-ther" is incorrect).

[Bonethousand]

English teacher here. I know that the original post specifically said they don't want to know how it's supposed to be pronounced, but since the convo has moved here, I thought I'd weigh in.

The last comment is right, but the original Latin/Greek pronunciation for this lettering was a long I sound (eye-ther). Later scholars started pronouncing this with a long E (ee-ther) and writing it with just an E. Aether has latin roots, and so this one fits.

I think a lot of confusion comes from the Middle English "ash" vowel sound that appears in other words which is like a soft E or I with a slight soft A spliced onto the beginning of the sound. For example, the name Aeschere became Asher over time. In this case it would be pronounced eh-ther. Also, we're used to a silent E at the end of a word following a long vowel sound. So it makes sense that people say ay-ther for no real reason other than our spelling rules have shifted a lot in Modern English and it just looks like it should sound that way, despite the fact that I can't think of a single word where the AE sound is pronounced AY originally.

That being said, I say ay-ther, lol. It just sounds fancy.

[Morganator 2.0]

So it makes sense that people say ay-ther for no real reason other than our spelling rules have shifted a lot in Modern English and it just looks like it should sound that way, despite the fact that I can't think of a single word where the AE sound is pronounced AY originally.

Aerate, aerodynamics, Raegan, reggae.

[Bonethousand]

So it makes sense that people say ay-ther for no real reason other than our spelling rules have shifted a lot in Modern English and it just looks like it should sound that way, despite the fact that I can't think of a single word where the AE sound is pronounced AY originally.

Aerate, aerodynamics, Raegan, reggae.

Touche. But some of those are perfect examples of how our language shifted. Raegan for example is sometimes spelled Regan because that's how it was pronounced in the gaelic, almost like Riagan. It became anglicized and then people pronounced it differently based on how it visually looked. It's almost impossible to know this kind of stuff unless you look into the root words and languages of origin. Modern English is a total mess of people sort of forgetting their past and cherry-picking what sounds right at the time.

[Lusunu]

honestly idk if it matters-so long as you understand what's being said it checks out.
That said, I say "Ay-ther" because I think it sounds cooler than "E-ther"