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According to Wiki, Ramesses name can be also transcribed as /ˈræmsiːz/ or /ˈræmziːz/

What is the most correct and how to prove this?

How to distinguish s and z correctness?


I met an opinion, that usage of z is VERY VERY wrong. And I am trying to find the basis of this. One of the reasonings was that the processes of turnin voiceless were finished in ancient egyptian language up to Middle Kingdom of Egypt, which was far before Ramesses II.

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closed as off-topic by Steven Drennon Dec 10 '13 at 15:59



There is a whole subfield of linguistics dealing only with things like this. As such, this question is probably a bit expansive. The short answer is that it's quite possible that none are "most correct". If there was one that was "most correct" that's the one that would be used. The exception is when an early mistranscription has become commonplace. I don't know if this is the case with Ramses. – Lennart Regebro Dec 7 '13 at 19:33
I suspect this is a question on how to pronounce the conventional name in English. – Mario Elocio Dec 8 '13 at 1:33
Here is a fairly extensive article on the pronunciation of Ancient Egyptian: – Pieter Geerkens Dec 8 '13 at 5:08
Well, pronouncing and transcribing are two completely different things. /ˈræmsiːzandor /ˈræmziːz/ are quite likely both completely and utterly wrong as pronunciations of his name. They are two pronunciations of the transcription, which in turn is trying to just get as close as possible in the English-Latin script to how his name was written in hieroglyphs. – Lennart Regebro Dec 8 '13 at 23:39
@LennartRegebro Why pronouncing and transcribing are different things? May be you mean transcribing and transliterating? – Dims Dec 9 '13 at 3:45

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