how to pronunce kayser

Grah   Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:19 pm GMT
is this pronounced like kaiser. kayser is difficult to pronounce correctly.
American   Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:28 pm GMT
It's pronounced like Kaiser or Caesar.
Kitsch   Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:22 am GMT
How do you pronounce those two, American? Though the one word stems from the other, isn't Caesar is generally pronounced "See-zer" in American English and Kaiser like "Keye-zer."
American   Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:41 pm GMT
Yeah, I guess you're right, but I tend to pronounce Caesar like in Latin, rather the inexplicable see-zer.
Entbark   Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:10 am GMT
kayser /kajzr/ "k-eye-zer"
caesar /sizr/ "see-zer"
Kitsch   Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:43 pm GMT
American, inexplicable? What part?

I thought that the a and e in Caesar was the Latin diphthong ae, one letter, like the one in Encyclopedia, Archaeology or the television show Aeon Flux, which are pretty much pronounced like “ee.”

Is it the C sound that you pronounce differently? Instead of an S sound, do you say “Keezer”?

I see on the page about Julius Caesar, that "Kaiser" is the Classical Latin prononciation and "Seezer" is English. This seems true but is really odd to me. I could understand the C/K bit being lost intranslation, but why would a Latin name be spelled with a Latin dipthong and the vowel sound not be that dipthong's sound? Odd.
Leasnam   Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:00 pm GMT
Caesar has had a rather interesting history in English--

the word, as a title, existed in Old English as 'cāsere' and would have yolden '*Coser' in Modern English had it survived

it was replaced, however, in Middle English by 'keiser', a word borrowed from Old Norse or Low German until it was once again traded out for the direct Latin or possibly French form "Caesar"
Lazar   Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:15 pm GMT
<<MMYeah, I guess you're right, but I tend to pronounce Caesar like in Latin, rather the inexplicable see-zer.>>

There's nothing inexplicable about it - it's a regular adaptation of a Latin word. "ae" is treated as a long "e"; long "e" is pronounced /i:/; "c" before a high vowel is pronounced /s/, and intervocalic "s" is voiced.
Leasnam   Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:47 pm GMT
<<There's nothing inexplicable about it - it's a regular adaptation of a Latin word. "ae" is treated as a long "e"; long "e" is pronounced /i:/; "c" before a high vowel is pronounced /s/, and intervocalic "s" is voiced. >>

According to how we pronounce it, it would be better spelt as "Ceasar", but I do understand the 'ae' as 'æ'