Linguist here (who is also an amateur astronomer)... The names Perseus and Cepheus are originally Greek and rhymed with Zeus. After they were taken into Latin, in the Middle Ages they were reinterpreted as Per-se-us and Ce-phe-us because -e-us (with 2 syllables) is a common Latin suffix. So the people who prefer your 3rd answer are clinging to the Greek heritage while those of us who prefer the 2nd answer are more modern, so to speak. I use 3 syllables because that's how the names look in Latin; -eus with one syllable is a Greek ending, not a Latin one.
6 months ago
| 66
definitely see-fee-us, unless we’re talking about variable stars in which case it’s obviously a seff-ee-id variable :)
6 months ago
| 3
In french, it's Céphée, and Persée. No problem with -eus or anything else 😄
6 months ago
| 2
People from different regions pronounce words differently. I like it that way.
6 months ago
| 3
The "eh" sound didn't exist in Latin, so I always go for the second version. Though to be more consistent in that, I should probably pronounce it more as "Kay-fay-oohs" with the harder sound at the beginning (the kappa symbol in IPA). English is just weird in its inconsistency sometimes, but that's what makes it fascinating.
6 months ago | 0
Nebula Photos
How do you pronounce Cepheus?
6 months ago | [YT] | 59