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I was reading a book out-loud and came across this name. At the time, I pronounced it

Aurelius: ur-ell-ee-us

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure it is not correct. The word Aura would seem to make it pronounced or-ell-ee-us, and the name Auriel I have always read as are-ee-ell which could also be incorrect.

What is the correct pronunciation of Aurelius and Auriel?

Additionally, some information on the background would make an even better answer.

off-topic: I don't remember the title of the book but it was about Merlin.

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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the pronunciation of a proper noun/name, not a normal English word.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:40
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    @FumbleFingers Um, so? It’s an English word.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:41
  • @tchrist: You're a native speaker, so if you think it's an English word there's no point in me trying to convince you otherwise. But it doesn't mean anything to me. Apart from the name of an ancient Roman emperor, that is. The idea that there's a "correct" pronunciation in such cases seems a bit daft to me. At least with something like Linux you might make a case for saying the correct pronunciation is whatever is endorsed by the person thus named, but here I think it's just a straw poll.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 21:18
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    Of course this question isn't "off-topic." English speakers generally apply different rules to the pronunciation of Latin names than the Romans used themselves; the details are absolutely appropriate for this site. And I just looked up "Aurelius" in three different online references and found no pronunciation advice, so it's not "general reference" either.
    – phenry
    Commented Nov 6, 2014 at 21:31
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    Reading your question, you seem to wonder about the first vowel sound, but it's the second vowel that got me... it seems you consistently pronounce that with a short vowel, whereas I don;t think I've ever heard it with anything but a long [i:].
    – oerkelens
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 8:14

3 Answers 3

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This site, howjsay.com gives the pronunciation of Aurelius as most speakers of Southern British English pronounce it.

Aurelius: awe + really + ous (as in famous)

IPA: /ɔː'riːliəs/

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    While I'm not quibbling about this way of pronouncing Aurelius, I'd love to know how 'standard English' is defined (I assume there aren't conflicting definitions?). You need to show attributions on this side of any links.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:12
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    This tells us nothing. It is not an answer. You must answer the question within your own posting.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:40
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    @tchrist - When I have answered a question myself in other threads, I have been told I must provide a reference or my post will be disregarded as just my own opinion. Here I provided a source and I am told I must answer the question myself. It sometimes seems that this site is more interested in the way questions are answered than in ensuring that people who have asked questions receive helpful information.
    – tunny
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:51
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    Your post will be helpful once I can listen to audio - which is why I up-voted. I think the goal is that references are encouraged in order to back up the answer in your post, but you don't want to use them to directly provide the answer. If the link died, your answer is no longer helpful to others.
    – DoubleDouble
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 20:07
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    You say you want to provide helpful answers, and you do. I thought this one was quite good. It takes time to become familiar with a community, and for it to become familiar with you. I want to invite you to hang in there; I think it's a good place.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 7:58
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I think there might be slightly different versions of correct pronunciation, but here is one I know:

/ɔːˈriːliəs/

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I named my daughter Auriella a varient of Auriela and a female version of Aurelius and i pronounce it as Au (aw like cow) Ri (ree as in REEd) ella (Ella)

The name means golden as far as i am aware.

So i would pronounce Aurelius as Au (aw) re (Re) Li (lee) Us (uss)

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