Quote Originally Posted by mighty_rome
You're right, there isn't anything wrong with it. What you maybe didn't understand is that most people don't want a "roughly passable pronunciation", they want an "as accurate as possible" pronunciation. That's why they ask. And like you said, there's nothing wrong with it, and I would certainly encourage everyone to learn correct pronunciation for any word they aren't familiar with.

My point is that the "guy-oos for Gaius" type pronunciation guides are almost always broad and sometimes even misleading. If people would take the little time needed to understand the very basics of phonetics and ortography, they could in most cases reach a similar or better pronunciation than they could with the guy-oos system. If someone wants to reach a pronunciation that is as accurate as is theoretically possible, they obviously need something quite a bit more advanced than the guy-oos system or the very basics of linguistics, so I don't really see what that has to do with this. My suggestion was aimed at people who don't strive to become experts in linguistics but at people who wish to be able to pronounce foreign words without sounding like rednecks. It was just a suggestion, and I apologize to whomever I may have offended.