How To Pronounce Omicron, The Covid Variant Named After The 15th Letter Of Greek Alphabet

<p><strong>New Delhi:</strong> The newly detected coronavirus variant called Omicron, has been named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. Several things about Omicron are not known yet, including its exact pronunciation.</p> <p>Experts say there is no single, agreed-on English pronunciation for Omicron, according to a New York Times article.</p> <p>"OH-muh-kraan" is one way of pronouncing Omicron, according to Merriam Webster. The first syllable must be stressed while being pronounced.</p> <p><strong>Different Accepted Ways Of Pronouncing Omicron</strong></p> <p>There are many ways of pronouncing "Omicron", that have been widely accepted in English.&nbsp;</p> <div dir="auto">Merriam Webster says that Omicron is often pronounced as "AH-muh-kraan" in the United States. This week, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson pronounced Omicron as "OH-mee-kraan", which is one of the less commonly used ways. Few people also pronounce Omicron as "OH-my-kraan", the article said.</div> <div dir="auto">Apoorva Mandavilli of New York Times said on the news agency's podcast, "The Daily", that she pronounced the variant's name as "AH-muh-kraan."</div> <div dir="auto">"I don't think it really matters that much, honestly," the article quoted her.</div> <div dir="auto">According to Dr Andreas Willi, a comparative linguistics professor at Oxford University, the New Oxford English Dictionary gives a pronunciation that is different from those in Merriam-Webster. He said the pronunciation was like an English phrase 'o-MIKE-Ron', the article stated.</div> <div dir="auto">Dr. Willi said the word was pronounced with the second syllable sounding like an English "me", in classical Greek, where "o mikron" means "small o."</div> <div dir="auto">Since the Greek word is transliterated for pronunciation into English, the "AH-muh-kraan" pronunciation "makes perfect sense," according to Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam Webster.&nbsp;</div> <div dir="auto">He added that there "isn't a wrong answer."</div> <div dir="auto">Dr. Willi said the question of British versus American pronunciation of the first syllable is not really specific to the word Omicron, the article stated.&nbsp;</div> <div dir="auto">Since the word was adopted as a loanword and was used by English speakers in different places at different times, the divergence in pronunciation occurred, he added.</div> <div dir="auto">Referring to the pronunciation of 'Paris' in English and in French, he said the word is pronounced differently in the two languages, but it is hardly wrong in a strict sense.</div>