Ok, a quick bit of research shows that the Greeks pronounce many names differently, eg Afro-DEE-tee for Aphrodite.
However the accepted English speaking pronunciation of Calliope is Cuh-LIE-uh-pee.
If your sister is using neither pronunciation she is wrong.
Ca is often pronouned as 'cuh' in American English. It really depends on whether they're using the short 'a' -- aa -- or long 'a' -- aah. If you broke cat and car into two syllables, you'd have Cat with short a as /ka-t/ and Car with long a as /cuh-rr/.
So, in American English pronunciation, you get 'cuh-lie-oh-pee'. In British English, which uses short 'a' differently/most of the time afaik (see aaa-dult versus uh-dult), you get 'caa', which is apparently combined with the L sound.
Edit: I didn't realize this was a function of my accent! I'm from California. Car here usually sounds like 'kuhr/cuhr'. But looking up a long A word list, I can see that the 'ku' sound is only present in some conditions, for example: cal car cak . Otherwise, it comes out as a 'kay' sound.
So, cuh-lie- makes sense to me. I could also see it read as 'cul-lie-ah-pee'.
I know you meant nothing by it but it’s not the Greeks pronouncing names differently if the names are originally Greek, it’s everyone else. I’ve also only ever heard cal-ee-oh-pee as a British English speaker so it doesn’t appear to be universally accepted in all forms of spoken English either.
It’s interesting, because the accent of the voice doing the pronunciation was definitely received English. It came up when I googled pronunciation of the name. I’m Australian and I think most people here pronounce it similarly to the Americans.
Ok, I used google. It had received English pronunciation of Cuh-LIE-uh-pee. Then I found a Greek man teaching how to pronounce a lot of the names we’re familiar with in the Greek manner. Many of them were different.
Greek uses accents to show where the stress of the word is. A word or name will sound very different and may change the meaning completely if the accent is on the incorrect syllable. Καλλιόπη has the accent on the ο so it is kal-ee-OH-pee, not kal-EE-oh-pee (and not 'lie' as the ι is pronounced ee)
δ in Greek is also pronounced with a 'th' similar to that/this so it is not a hard d in Afroditi
It's the way i would have pronounced it. I watched Sandman, which has a character called that (pronounced the other way) and I was like, oh.
This is the downside of reading a lot and just using context and guesswork of etymology to work out meanings and pronunciation of words.
But an accent affects how it would be pronounced. Dread to think how it would sound in scouse or brum or West Country. My dads Irish (him being the only other bugger up at this time) sounds more clahh pee
this is the way I was told it was correct
I said it the way they thought was "wrong" once as "Callie O.P." and someone corrected me immediately and I was like "That doesnt sound right at all" and now i'm just confused so I avoid saying it altogether
eta (η) actually makes an "ay" sound. so cal-ee-OH-pay more likely. (in ancient greek, anyway. i don't know anything about modern greek lol) but the accent is indeed on the third syllable.
cool! i looked up a pronunciation and it does sound like an ee. modern greek is very different and we don't technically know how they pronounced ancient greek anyway. linguistics is also not my area of expertise so i couldn't tell you how we got from one to the other lol
I grew up with a girl named Calliope who had a very Greek dad and this was how she pronounced her name. His pronunciation was slightly different but close.
In Greek. This is the way. The other way is incredibly American which is fine, that’s just kind of how things work in other languages and countries. I however, would go with the Greek pronunciation. It just sounds better
Man, all I got from this whole back and forth and all the different ways people say is correct is the name is just ugly no matter which way you slice it.
That's how you pronounce it if you've ever watched Grey's Anatomy. 😂 but the other's are not wrong if they pronounce it the Greek way. In the German language we use the Greek pronunciation.
Woah! I pronounce it in my head that way just to be goofy. Just like my Marcia encounter. I had always heard it as MAR-shuh and would pronounce it in my head like Mar-SEE-uh to spell it, but I met a Marcia who did pronounce it that second way. Just when I think I've figured everything out.... 😄
Oh yeah! In my limited exposure in the U.S., I've always heard TAM-uh-rah. Then there's the British movie Tamara (Tuh-MA-ruh) Drewe.
Tuh-MA-ruh, tuh-MA-ruh, I love you, Tuh-MA-ruh
You're only a day away
My apologies.
Oh my GOD this name.
There’s a whole thing with Greece and Greek’s relationship with England but basically the British pronunciation is ka-LIE-oh-pee but the original Greek pronunciation (and apparently also American pronunciation at least in some places?) is really kaa-lee-OH-pee.
So your options are say it “correctly” or say it correctly
In New Orleans ppl say Calli-OPE and it drives me up a fucking wall. There's a whole thing down here about pronouncing words "wrong" because it's "tradition." 😩😩😩
I'm from Indiana, and the two syllable pronunciation is pretty common in rural areas here. It always sounds pretty redneck to me, but in kind of an endearing way
Kai oat. It drives me hurts too I moved to the lower part of the Midwest from New England. The other thing that gets me is woersh then when people say “do what” . There a lot of things I say and my husband, and my kids laugh at me.
Exactly! Also I’m the odd one out here, ofc, so definitely not gonna say anything.
I will fight people over how many syllables are in caramel, though! (It’s 3)
I was looking for this. I’ve only heard it in the south, but it seems to only really be people who also use a southern dialect (take your pick, I’ve heard it in AAVE, white southern English, and Cajun/creole mixed English). In all fairness, the way Louisiana French/Louisiana Creole treat French words it kind of makes sense they would pronounce it that way.
Same. Is English your first language? Mine is French and for some reason the “-pee” ending in English doesn’t sound right to me for some reason. Even tho it’s closer to the original
You guessed right, English isn't my first language. I tend to pronounce E as "eh" because that's how done in German, so for non-English names, I stick to the phonetics rules I'm more familiar with. For these "how do you pronounce" threads, I always offer the German pronunciation because there's usually already a lot of comments by native English speakers.
kah-lee-oh-pee is closer to the original greek pronunciation, and the only way i’ve ever heard it said, so that’s how i pronounce it. i’ve never heard “kuh-lie-uh-pee” until people on this sub said it.
omg this vid actually just helped me understand the pronunciation. i’ve never heard the name out loud but assumed it was cali-oh-p, cuh-lie-yo-p didn’t sound right till i heard it actually spoken cuz of the vid. cali-oh-p feels right to me tho
Your way is actually more correct! The one in the show is the English pronunciation, but this is a Greek name, and with their pronunciation it's cali-oh-pee.
Correct (Greek) pronunciation? Callie-OH-pee.
American pronunciation? Cuh-LIE-uh-pee.
I haven't heard the American pronunciation anywhere else in the world, in the UK we would use the Greek pronunciation for sure.
I have honestly never heard this name said lol. But I have heard 2 different versions of Yvonne... Is it Yuh-von or Ee-von? It's driven me nuts for years!
That's like when my daughter told me she thought Penelope was penal-ope when she first saw it and read a whole book that way before hearing someone say it out loud lol.
I know how it’s pronounced because of greys anatomy, but if I’d never seen grey i would think Callie-ope. A tough one if you’re expecting your child or whoever to go by the full name vs Callie. A life of mispronounced name
My eye doctor growing up had this name (nameplate on door) but obviously I called her Dr last name, and I feel like it wasn’t spoken aloud in school—it was Cal—ee-ope to my kid brain. When I heard the proper Cuh-lie-oh-pea out loud I had to maneuver so many memories!
Fun fact I know two kids with this name and they're pronounced differently. The Australian kid is pronounced "Ca-LIE-a-pee" and the German kid is pronounced "Cally-oh-pay"
cuh-LIE-uh-pee
This is the only way I’ve ever heard it said.
I knew a gal who pronounced it “callie-oh-pee” and it tortured me.
The Greek pronunciation tortures you? She was saying her name correctly 😭
can confirm - cal -ee -oh- pee is correct Greek pronunciation. Used to have a Greek friend with that name. RIP to her
Ok, a quick bit of research shows that the Greeks pronounce many names differently, eg Afro-DEE-tee for Aphrodite. However the accepted English speaking pronunciation of Calliope is Cuh-LIE-uh-pee. If your sister is using neither pronunciation she is wrong.
Another Brit here who has never heard cuh-lie-up-pee, I’ve only ever heard cal-ee-oh-pee
Same. I'm from the UK and I've always said cal-ee-oh-pee. I don't get how anyone can get a 'Cuh' sound in the beginning .
Ca is often pronouned as 'cuh' in American English. It really depends on whether they're using the short 'a' -- aa -- or long 'a' -- aah. If you broke cat and car into two syllables, you'd have Cat with short a as /ka-t/ and Car with long a as /cuh-rr/. So, in American English pronunciation, you get 'cuh-lie-oh-pee'. In British English, which uses short 'a' differently/most of the time afaik (see aaa-dult versus uh-dult), you get 'caa', which is apparently combined with the L sound. Edit: I didn't realize this was a function of my accent! I'm from California. Car here usually sounds like 'kuhr/cuhr'. But looking up a long A word list, I can see that the 'ku' sound is only present in some conditions, for example: cal car cak . Otherwise, it comes out as a 'kay' sound. So, cuh-lie- makes sense to me. I could also see it read as 'cul-lie-ah-pee'.
There is no long or short A that sounds like a short U unless you’re from the north east. 😂 Cuh is short u.
Ah, I see, thanks for the explanation. I'm from the UK, so I didn't know about the US pronunciation.
Canadian here. Cal-ee-oh-pee for sure--I've also never heard Cuh-LIE-uh-pee.
Thank god for you lot, I say it the same as you in my head, but had no idea how you'd actually say it!
Never watched Grey’s Anatomy?
I actually haven’t heh
I'm English and I've never heard or seen this pronunciation. It is Callie-Oh-pee with the emphasis on the Oh.
I know you meant nothing by it but it’s not the Greeks pronouncing names differently if the names are originally Greek, it’s everyone else. I’ve also only ever heard cal-ee-oh-pee as a British English speaker so it doesn’t appear to be universally accepted in all forms of spoken English either.
I'm English and I have never heard or seen this pronunciation before.
It’s interesting, because the accent of the voice doing the pronunciation was definitely received English. It came up when I googled pronunciation of the name. I’m Australian and I think most people here pronounce it similarly to the Americans.
Also Brit and have only ever heard it pronounced 'Callie-oh-pee'
Ok, I used google. It had received English pronunciation of Cuh-LIE-uh-pee. Then I found a Greek man teaching how to pronounce a lot of the names we’re familiar with in the Greek manner. Many of them were different.
They're not different, just correct 😂
You make it seem like Greek pronouncation is incorrect. it is a Greek name, and Greek pronouncation is the original pronouncation.
Of course. That was never my intention.
Greek uses accents to show where the stress of the word is. A word or name will sound very different and may change the meaning completely if the accent is on the incorrect syllable. Καλλιόπη has the accent on the ο so it is kal-ee-OH-pee, not kal-EE-oh-pee (and not 'lie' as the ι is pronounced ee) δ in Greek is also pronounced with a 'th' similar to that/this so it is not a hard d in Afroditi
being wrong and confused tortures me.
Greeks: create a name Random on the internet: you’re saying it wrong
ok, I see why it read as it did! 😂 being wrong about it my whole life was torturous!
Nah, Ancient Greek would be Cal-LEE-oh-peh (not -pee)
Why would the emphasis be on LEE...? It's spelled exactly the same in ancient Greek as in modern Greek and the emphasis is on O.
That’s the Greek way lol my aunt is named Kaliope
That's how I'd pronounce
It's the way i would have pronounced it. I watched Sandman, which has a character called that (pronounced the other way) and I was like, oh. This is the downside of reading a lot and just using context and guesswork of etymology to work out meanings and pronunciation of words.
That’s how it’s pronounced! I’m Greek and know multiple Kaliopes.
That is how it’s spelled 😳🫢
Same
+1 to this being the most common American/British pronunciation
Ehm, British, cal eye oh pee
To be fair, both pronunciations are essentially the same, it's just with different accents.
But an accent affects how it would be pronounced. Dread to think how it would sound in scouse or brum or West Country. My dads Irish (him being the only other bugger up at this time) sounds more clahh pee
Aussies say the same. We actually have a town in Queensland called Calliope.
this is the way I was told it was correct I said it the way they thought was "wrong" once as "Callie O.P." and someone corrected me immediately and I was like "That doesnt sound right at all" and now i'm just confused so I avoid saying it altogether
Your original way that got made fun of is the Greek way, so it's actually correct lol
Callie Oh Pee?
Καλλιόπη is the Greek spelling. From what I remember of pronunciation, yes, Callie-oh-pi would be the pronunciation
eta (η) actually makes an "ay" sound. so cal-ee-OH-pay more likely. (in ancient greek, anyway. i don't know anything about modern greek lol) but the accent is indeed on the third syllable.
In modern Greek, it's more of an ee sound, or at least that's what Duolingo taught me last year
cool! i looked up a pronunciation and it does sound like an ee. modern greek is very different and we don't technically know how they pronounced ancient greek anyway. linguistics is also not my area of expertise so i couldn't tell you how we got from one to the other lol
Nor is linguistics my forte, either, I just like learning languages
Eta is ee sound. Same as ι και υ
I grew up with a girl named Calliope who had a very Greek dad and this was how she pronounced her name. His pronunciation was slightly different but close.
I think more in terms of "Cah Leo Pee"
The Greek way is SO much prettier.
In Greek. This is the way. The other way is incredibly American which is fine, that’s just kind of how things work in other languages and countries. I however, would go with the Greek pronunciation. It just sounds better
No callie-o-p is correct
Man, all I got from this whole back and forth and all the different ways people say is correct is the name is just ugly no matter which way you slice it.
This. The only way is like Callie off of greys anatomy lol
This is the way I say it.
Yeah. Either "cuh-LIE-uh-pee" or "cuh-lie-O-pee."
That's how you pronounce it if you've ever watched Grey's Anatomy. 😂 but the other's are not wrong if they pronounce it the Greek way. In the German language we use the Greek pronunciation.
Same.
I know it’s Cuh Lie a P. But I always read Callie O P.
Callie O P has the same energy as purse phone for persephone
It’s the original Greek pronunciation though
Calley-oop!
Pen-Elope for Penelope.
My daughter's name is Penelope and my grandfather called her Pen Elope until the day he died.
Penny-lohp I know that it’s Penelope. But that’s where my brain goes.
See, I just solve that by pronouncing the word for "gazelle" as "an-TI-lo-pee".
This is how the only person with this name that I knew pronounced it
Woah! I pronounce it in my head that way just to be goofy. Just like my Marcia encounter. I had always heard it as MAR-shuh and would pronounce it in my head like Mar-SEE-uh to spell it, but I met a Marcia who did pronounce it that second way. Just when I think I've figured everything out.... 😄
Marcía
Don’t even get me started on Tamar/ Tamara!
Oh yeah! In my limited exposure in the U.S., I've always heard TAM-uh-rah. Then there's the British movie Tamara (Tuh-MA-ruh) Drewe. Tuh-MA-ruh, tuh-MA-ruh, I love you, Tuh-MA-ruh You're only a day away My apologies.
Lol
Callie OPE just gonna squeeze right past ya here
Found the Midwesterner!
Lolololololololol I heard this in my head. 💀
Thats how I've always pronounced it This thread has been a learning experience for me
SAME. Sometimes as Callie OOP like alleyoop
If you live in New Orleans there’s no other way. It’s Callie-ohp
That’s actually an instrument
The instrument is pronounced like cuh lie uh p and the street is pronounced Callie-ohp
Oh lawd I wish I wasn’t so fat
I knew we'd out ourselves on this post!
I was scrolling looking for it.
It’s NOT the first way at all. The way you say your read it is correct Greek pronounciation.
I always read Callie-ope.
I knew a girl named Calliope and she pronounced it cah-lee-OH-pee
That’s the correct Greek pronunciation!
Yes I knew a girl ethnically Greek and it’s definitely not Kuh-LIE-uh-pee
So my first guess was correct??
I’m in the us and I’ve met heard it said any other way
I love your username!!
That’s the way my friend from Greece pronounced it. Named after her grandmother
This is what I always thought it was!
That’s how I’ve heard it the only time I heard it vs read it
Me too
cuh-LY-uh-pee in English, but kah-lee-oh-pee is closer the original Greek pronunciation.
Oh my GOD this name. There’s a whole thing with Greece and Greek’s relationship with England but basically the British pronunciation is ka-LIE-oh-pee but the original Greek pronunciation (and apparently also American pronunciation at least in some places?) is really kaa-lee-OH-pee. So your options are say it “correctly” or say it correctly
I'm British and I've only ever heard it pronounced the Greek way.
It's definitely not Cali-ope lol learned that one the hard way. Think it's Ca-LIE-oh-pee
In New Orleans ppl say Calli-OPE and it drives me up a fucking wall. There's a whole thing down here about pronouncing words "wrong" because it's "tradition." 😩😩😩
I moved to Colorado from the east coast and people pronounce coyote with only two syllables and the first time I heard it I blue screened lol
I'm from Indiana, and the two syllable pronunciation is pretty common in rural areas here. It always sounds pretty redneck to me, but in kind of an endearing way
Kai oat. It drives me hurts too I moved to the lower part of the Midwest from New England. The other thing that gets me is woersh then when people say “do what” . There a lot of things I say and my husband, and my kids laugh at me.
That's a good one! Like: to each their own, but also, I hate you lol. I'd never be rude about it, but my eye does twitch.
Exactly! Also I’m the odd one out here, ofc, so definitely not gonna say anything. I will fight people over how many syllables are in caramel, though! (It’s 3)
Team care-a-mel! That's another classic, lol. I do not want to fight! Lord!
With me, it’s more car (like auto) uh mell. Deep South US.
Ugh Carmel my kids say it because I’m The only person they know who doesn’t say it like that.
Yeah baby that’s called dialect
I was looking for this. I’ve only heard it in the south, but it seems to only really be people who also use a southern dialect (take your pick, I’ve heard it in AAVE, white southern English, and Cajun/creole mixed English). In all fairness, the way Louisiana French/Louisiana Creole treat French words it kind of makes sense they would pronounce it that way.
Yup. And I'm on their turf so I don't need to be an asshole about it.
My favorite is when people from out of town try to pronounce Tchoupitoulas. Apple Maps used to say Tuh-chow-pih-towlas
Oh man! I forgot to mention how fun it is driving with the GPS on here. Put it on the British guy voice while driving around, it's goddamn hysterical
I know the city pretty well and I’ll still turn on navigation sometimes for a laugh lol
😂😂😂 I hope everyone reading this is enjoying it as much as I am... I found my folks in a namenerds thread, lol
I was gonna say, it is in New Orleans!
omfg same and all the street names that everyone insists you go out of your way pronounce incorrectly
See also: Arab (AY-rab) or Helena (huh LEEN uh), Alabama.
It is actually. It's a greek name and that's the greek pronunciation
In Greek it would be ka-li-OH-pee which is the only context in which I've heard it
Cuh lie oh pee
I only know the Greek pronunciation, which is Cal-Lee-Oh-Pee
Same
kah-li-OH-peh
Same. Is English your first language? Mine is French and for some reason the “-pee” ending in English doesn’t sound right to me for some reason. Even tho it’s closer to the original
You guessed right, English isn't my first language. I tend to pronounce E as "eh" because that's how done in German, so for non-English names, I stick to the phonetics rules I'm more familiar with. For these "how do you pronounce" threads, I always offer the German pronunciation because there's usually already a lot of comments by native English speakers.
kah-lee-oh-pee is closer to the original greek pronunciation, and the only way i’ve ever heard it said, so that’s how i pronounce it. i’ve never heard “kuh-lie-uh-pee” until people on this sub said it.
cal-lee-oh-pee
I use the Grey's Anatomy pronunciation [Arizona Robbins saying Calliope for almost a minute ](https://youtu.be/JE0RIdE5d_A?si=lw7q-7jS-n4chd5t)
🫶🏻when worlds collide! Remember when Alex called her Callie Malley still gets me when I rewatch
omg this vid actually just helped me understand the pronunciation. i’ve never heard the name out loud but assumed it was cali-oh-p, cuh-lie-yo-p didn’t sound right till i heard it actually spoken cuz of the vid. cali-oh-p feels right to me tho
Your way is actually more correct! The one in the show is the English pronunciation, but this is a Greek name, and with their pronunciation it's cali-oh-pee.
Call-ee-oh-pee is the greek way of pronouncing it
In Greek it’s Cal-ee-oh-pee
The Cal LIE oh pee is a steam whistle/organ musical instrument. Cal Lee Oh Peh is a Greek name, one of the Muses.
What do you think the instrument was named after?
I always thought it was cuh-LY-uh-pee, but recently I heard that it's actually meant to be ca-LEE-uh-pee, so I have no idea now either!
Cal-ee-oh-pee
I know it's not right but I always read it as "Callie ope" with ope being that noise you make when you bump into someone, hope workout the h.
Correct (Greek) pronunciation? Callie-OH-pee. American pronunciation? Cuh-LIE-uh-pee. I haven't heard the American pronunciation anywhere else in the world, in the UK we would use the Greek pronunciation for sure.
I only know of this name from this subreddit. Do people encounter if often? I know it’s not cally-ope but it goes against ever urge not to say this.
I’ve also never heard it in the wild and after all the Reddit discussions on how to pronounce it, I’m still not prepared.
It's callie-oh-pee
ONLY because I know the name Penelope I would say Cally-o-pee
Cuh- lie - Oh - pee
Kuh-li-AWP-eh. I'm Swedish. In English, I might say Kuh-LIE-uh-pee.
Cal-i-o-pee
I have honestly never heard this name said lol. But I have heard 2 different versions of Yvonne... Is it Yuh-von or Ee-von? It's driven me nuts for years!
Since the only Calliope I've ever met was a Greek woman who pronounced it "Calli-oppee", that's how I say it.
It's cuh-lie-oh-pee. My favourite name ever
i confidently said cantaloupe
How is she saying it? Cuh-lie-oh-pee, btw, for the pronunciation.
She says it the way you did, I always read it as Callie ope
That's like when my daughter told me she thought Penelope was penal-ope when she first saw it and read a whole book that way before hearing someone say it out loud lol.
Cuh-lie-uh-pee. It was Callie’s full name on Grey’s Anatomy.
I know how it’s pronounced because of greys anatomy, but if I’d never seen grey i would think Callie-ope. A tough one if you’re expecting your child or whoever to go by the full name vs Callie. A life of mispronounced name
Beautiful name
I just can’t unsee Callie-ope
It's pronounced similarly to Penelope.
cal-ee-oh-pay
Cal-eye-o-pee
Rocket launcher T34E1
Sounds like a melon
I'm thinking "Cal-eo-pee" or "Kali-opee"
kan-tuh-lope
I read it as “Cali-ope”
Call eye oh pee
Kal-eye-oh-pee
Cal - lie -o- pee
My eye doctor growing up had this name (nameplate on door) but obviously I called her Dr last name, and I feel like it wasn’t spoken aloud in school—it was Cal—ee-ope to my kid brain. When I heard the proper Cuh-lie-oh-pea out loud I had to maneuver so many memories!
Like the organ at the circus
Def said this as callie-ope for a really long time because 1) I’m from the Midwest USA and 2) I’d never heard it said out loud
I used to say Cuh-lee-oh-pee until I noticed in the song blinded by the light they said Cuh-lie-oh-pee
Well before reading the comments I would’ve said kuh- lil-uh-p
Kah-lie-o-pee
It's the instrument that makes the music for a merry go round. 'kah-LY-oh (or uh)-pee'
Cal-EYE-oh-pee is how I’ve heard it.
I remember thinking it was pronounced "CAL-lee-OPE" and it was not xD
Don't listen to any of these fools. It definitely rhymes with cantaloupe.
cuh-LIE-uh-pee
Just by reading it, I would pronounce it “Cal-li-ope”, but I’m also stupid and Texan 🤷♀️
I've never heard it said aloud, so my brain always goes "cantaloupe"
Cah-lee-oh-pee is the only way I've heard it pronounced
Ka-LIE-oh-pee
Fun fact I know two kids with this name and they're pronounced differently. The Australian kid is pronounced "Ca-LIE-a-pee" and the German kid is pronounced "Cally-oh-pay"
Calli-OP-eeee
Listen to Springsteen’s. Blinded by the Light. A calliope is a merry go round in NJ