Orthoepy is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specificoral tradition. The term is from the Greek ὀρθοέπεια, from ὀρθός orthos and ἔπος epos. The antonym is :wikt:cacoepy|cacoepy "bad or wrong pronunciation". The pronunciation of the wordorthoepy itself varies widely; the OED recognizes the variants /ˈɔːθəʊˌiːpi/, /ˈɔːθəʊˌɛpi/, /ˈɔːθəʊɨpi/, and /ɔːˈθəʊɨpi/ for British English, as well as /ɔrˈθoʊəpi/ for American English. The tetrasyllabic pronunciation is sometimes indicated with a diaeresis: orthoëpy, such as in the title of Edward Barrett Warman's Warman's Practical Orthoëpy and Critique, published in 1888 and found in Google Books. Warman states on page 5: "Words possess three special characteristics: They have their Eye-life - Orthography; Ear-life - Orthoëpy; Soul-life - Significance." As with Warman's book, the purpose of this article is "to deal exclusively with the ear-life, or orthoëpy.
Overview
In English grammar, orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation prescribed for Standard English. This originally was understood to mean Received Pronunciation specifically, but other standards have emerged and been accepted since the early 20th century. In ancient Greek, ὀρθοέπεια orthoepeia had the wider sense of "correct diction", referencing correct pronunciation not just of individual words but also of entire passages, especially poetry, along with the distinction of good poetry vs. bad poetry. The archaic English term for this subject is orthology, and in this sense its opposite is solecism. The study of orthoepeia by the Greek sophists of the 5th century BCE, especially Prodicus and Protagoras, also included proto-logical concepts. Protagoras criticized Homer for making the word for "" feminine and for praying to the Muse with an imperative. Plato depicts Protagoras criticizing the poet Simonides for contradicting himself, and then shows Socrates and Prodicus arguing to the contrary that Protagoras has conflated the senses of the words "" and "". Aristophanes, in his comedy The Frogs, parodies such disputes by having Euripides and Aeschylus bicker over orthotes epeon. Between the two poets Dionysus states in lines 1180-1181: «ἴθι δὴ λέγ᾽: οὐ γάρ μοὔστιν ἀλλ᾽ ἀκουστέα τῶν σῶν προλόγων τῆς ὀρθότητος τῶν ἐπῶν.» Translated "correctness of diction" in Perseus: "Speak, come on. For I cannot but hear the correctness of your prologue's diction."
