How to pronounce "Cannae"?

[LatinRookie]

I'm currently listening to a podcast called A History of Rome, hosted by Mike Duncan. He keeps pronouncing Cannae as "KAN-ee", as in "the canny fox". In another podcast, Hardcore History, host Dan Carlin pronounces it "kan-EE", almost as if someone pronounces the "k" in "knee".

Isn't it supposed to be pronounced "KAN-eye" (as in "Can I walk?") in Classical Latin? Am I wrong in this? I've also heard some people pronounce it "kan-EH" with the long A sound at the end.

PS. Both podcasts are pretty good. Dan Carlin's is the better of the two though.
PPS. Cannae was the site of a big battle between Rome and Carthage for those who don't know.

 

[Imber Ranae]

The traditional English pronunciation is indeed 'KAN-ee'. The other pronunciation attempts to reflect the restituted pronunciation of classical Latin.

 

[cinefactus]

Should you not pronounce both of the 'N's?

 

[Imber Ranae]

Should you not pronounce both of the 'N's?

He's asking about English, not Latin. Geminate consonants aren't natural in English, so there's no good reason to go about trying to reproduce them in the middle of an English sentence unless you want to sound exceptionally pretentious.

 

[cinefactus]

I never realised it had an English pronunciation...

 

[Imber Ranae]

Caesar has an English pronunciation, so why shouldn't Cannae?

 

[cinefactus]

I have only encountered it in Latin / Roman History so it hadn't occurred to me any other way.

 

[Pacifica]

He's asking about English, not Latin.

That wasn't all that clear to me. It's true that his first post only mentions the word as pronounced by people speaking English, but he posted the thread in the forum for Latin spelling and pronunciation...

 

[Imber Ranae]

If figured that if he wanted to know the precise classical pronunciation of the word he would have asked that. Instead he asked about people's pronunciation of the word in English, so how else was I to answer?

 

[Pacifica]

I'm not saying you were wrong. It's just that I don't find the request particularly clear.

 

[LatinRookie]

Hey thanks for answering.

How would you pronounce it in English? And how would you pronounce it in Latin? Caesar in Latin is "KYE-sar" right? But no one says that.
I've always just pronounced it "can-EH", with the long A sound at the end (as in the English pronunciation of "antennae"). In Latin wouldn't it be "CAN-eye"? Do you have to double the N sound?

 

[Pacifica]

In Latin, you have to double the N sound, yes. So more like "CAN-neye", I guess.

 

[Imber Ranae]

For English: however you pronounce the last syllable, the accent should be on the first syllable. You should also keep in mind that while your own pronunciation of the last syllable in 'antennae' is gaining ground, it's not the traditionally recommended one.

For Latin: Yes, double consonants are always pronounced as geminate consonants in Latin.

 

[LatinRookie]

OK no problem. Now what does "geminate" mean?

 

[Pacifica]

"Double."

 

[Imber Ranae]

OK no problem. Now what does "geminate" mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemination