How is Prius pronounced?

[Potential Buyer]

OK, that's all well and good, but what about the possessive?

Is it...
"My Prius's mpg is better than your Hummer's."
or
"My Prius' mpg quintuples your Hummer's"?

Well you should know this, it's basic English! The latter is the correct form. "My Prius' mpg is..."

And what about the possessive plural?
"Our five Priuses' roomy interiors got us to the energy fair using less gas than your one Hummer."

Correct.

"Our five Prii's roomy interiors got us to the energy fair using less gas than your one Hummer."

Also correct.

"Our five Prius' roomy interiors got us the energy fair using less gas than your one Hummer."

Definitely incorrect.

"Why in Jesus' name did you drive a Hummer to the energy fair?"

Correct.

[bookrats]

prEEoos

An uncommon pronunciation, usually associated with extremely tight underwear.

[Tideland Prius]

Prius Genius. That's written in the Canadian brochure for the 2001-2003 Prius. So I guess they do want it to be pronounced pree-us.

Also, pree-us closely follows the japanese pronouciation of Prius anyway

[hdrygas]

I would add one small thing Prius is a Latin adjective but English as a language is famous for first adopting foreign words then adapting them to English usage. This includes converting verbs to nouns and vis versa or for that mater another part of speech.

[jeepien]

Prius is a Latin word, so there is one and only one way to pronounce it -- PREE-us. Anyone who calls it "Pry-us" or, worse, "Pry-oos", is dumb.

Since the last native speaker of Latin went to his final reward nearly two millennia before the invention of the tape recorder, the assertion that there is only one correct way to pronounce a Latin word is, shall we say, difficult to support.

The further claim that someone in 2005 actually knows what THE correct pronunciation was for any given Latin word is nothing less than astounding.

And dumb.

[TonyPSchaefer]

Is this correct?. . .

antidispriustalishmentarianism

Granted, I wouldn't know where to begin figuring out what it means.

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

Just like fish and fishes are both correct, so to do I believe Priuses and Prii both work for the plural form. If you are personally bent out of shape over the use of Prii . . . just consider it the cutesy - i.e. fishies - form of the word.

But more importantly, when it comes to what to call a group of (our cars) -
like a herd of cows, a flock of seagulls, or a doof of Democrats :P -

I think a group of Prius cars in one area should be called a Prissy. :wink:

[Potential Buyer]

Since the last native speaker of Latin went to his final reward nearly two millennia before the invention of the tape recorder, the assertion that there is only one correct way to pronounce a Latin word is, shall we say, difficult to support.

There are many people in the world who learned Latin and there are many books that teach it. All of them agree on pronunciation. Latin books always have a pronunciation guide at the beginning, and it is this that I am using to determine the pronunciation of 'Prius'.

Plus it's inaccurate to say Latin is dead. People never stopped speaking or (more commonly) reading/writing Latin, they just stopped using it as their primary language. No one had audio recording devices back then, but they can still teach others pronunciation orally, passing down the knowledge. Anyway I doubt something Latin texts agree on is baseless.

Plus Latin didn't disappear, it evolved, into French, Spanish, and Italian. French and Italian seem to bear the closest resemblance to Latin pronunciation.

[jeepien]

There are many people in the world who learned Latin and there are many books that teach it. All of them agree on pronunciation. Latin books always have a pronunciation guide at the beginning, and it is this that I am using to determine the pronunciation of 'Prius'.

There are at least three major variations of Latin pronunciation in common use today, Classical, Liturgical, and Anglo-Latin. To that I would add "Legal" which probably murders the language more than any of the others.

Plus it's inaccurate to say Latin is dead. People never stopped speaking or (more commonly) reading/writing Latin, they just stopped using it as their primary language.

I never said it was dead, I said it hadn't had any native speakers in many centuries. Without native speakers, everyone is speaking Latin with an accent. Besides, as you say, many more people wrote and read Latin through the years than spoke it. But reading and writing have nothing to do with pronunciation at all, so you're weakening your own case.

Plus Latin didn't disappear, it evolved, into French, Spanish, and Italian.

All of which are pronounced differently.

[fred]

and of course the proper dignified and polictically correct pronunciation is pree-us as in free us. you know kinda a like " oh freedom, oh, oh freedom etc etc. at this point i need a latin scholar preferably a preist who can conjugate and give the official latin plural for prius which as all prii folks know translates to to go before. i shall now conclude my lecture for the day and thank you very much 8) 8)