Concerning "Oedipus," Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>My professor of English pronounced it "Eedipus", a pronunciation I
>also heard from other lecturers and in radio broadcasts including from
>the BBC.  I don't suggest that the BBC is necessarily the last word in
>Latin pronunciation, simply that it wasn't just an Australian oddity.
>The first time I heard "Eddipus" was in Tom Lehrer's wonderful "Oedipus
>Rex" . . . which led me to assume that it was an American pronunciation.
>I didn't study Latin at school but nonetheless, it seems strange that
>there are so many variants.

Actually, I believe that pronunciation comes from "Church Latin," in
which the diphthongs AE and OE are both pronounced "eh." Singers learn
to pronounce the second word in "Regina Coeli," for instance, as "CHEH-lee."
That's in America, at least.  German and French choirs have their own
versions of Church Latin pronunciation.

By the way, if you want to hear really weird Latin pronunciation, listen
to botanists saying plant names.

Nick Jones
Atlanta, Ga.