New Moon for Uranus

Spudley writes "With a headline that is just begging for puns, the BBC has a story about a new moon that has been discovered around Uranus. I wonder if this one will turn out to be a old rocket engine too?"

Missing for a few months?

[Dave9876]

It was first seen in August 2001, but quickly lost amid the glare from Uranus.

That could be used in soo many ways, but I won't go there.

Re:correct pronuciation

[solferino]

thanks for yr reply

i checked the page you referred to and i concede that it (and many more authorative references) indicate such a pronunciation

i am not a classics scholar, however several references to the proper pronunciation of Ouranus (the greek god of the sky) indicate the pronunciation i gave

firstly here is a good link [dischord.net]to a page which gives the proper latin and old greek pronunciation of the entities whom the planets were named after

they give the latin pronuciation :

VRANVS oor-AH-nuss

and the old greek pronunciation

OURANOS (Ouranos)
oar-AH-noss, oor-AH-noss

note that the last sylable changed from an 'o' sound to a 'u' sound, however the stressed middle vowel is an ah in both cases

one thing that i did not stress in my first post is that there should be no 'y' sound at the beginning of the word either

secondly here is a more scholarly page [otenet.gr]which shows the pronunciation of ouranos (search page for uranus, and page works best if you have proper greek fonts installed)

they indicate an IPA pronunciation of :

[ura`nos]

so yes, in summary you could argue that the common modern pronunciation is correct even if it has changed from the way the ancient romans and greeks pronounced the word

however, i feel that it is an unfortunate pronunciation and i prefer the old one - i realise that there can never be a language police, nor would i welcome one, but i do feel that it is good for people to know that there is an alternative pronunciation to the common modern one which can sound better and is more in touch with the word's roots

i feel that the present situation arose from the fact that there was very little usage of the word for many centuries until it suddenly got shot back into prominence with the naming of a major planet after it - and unfortunately people pronounced it as they read it and not from hearing it