How do you pronounce Caissa?

Question

I imagine that it might be pronounced:

1. kye EE suh

2. kah EE suh

3. KAY suh

4. KYE suh.

Which is it? Or perhaps there is no established way and one shouldn't care too much.

Answer 1

Short version:

I think that your best bet is probably option 2: "kah EE suh" (similar to the pronunciation of "naïve"). The phonemes match the spelling correctly (particularly the umlauted ï in "Caïssa" [ref. 1]), and it fits with the tonal stressing of multiple Thracian-related [ref. 2] languages.

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Long version:

Historically, both Greek and and Turkish (largely Hittite and Assyrian influences, in Thracian times [ref.s 3 & 4]) would appear to have likely had the strongest early influences.

Satemization of the Thracian language [ref. 5] would indicate the initial “C” to typically be an “s” sound, though it seems that in the case of “Caïssa” it was more likely a “k” sound.

Given the remnants of the Thracian language available to us [ref. 6], there seem to be insufficient data to ensure “correct” pronunciation. Thracian words seem [to me] to be equally likely to be most closely related to Latin, Greek, and several Balto-Slavic languages.

If Gottfried Schramm's derivation [ref. 7] is correct, then his Bessian-Albanian link would indicate that the “i” is indeed a “long e” (ï) sound [ref. 8].

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References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8F
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%C3%AFssa
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracians
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey#Prehistory_of_Anatolia_and_Eastern_Thrace
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centum_and_satem_languages
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracian_language#Remnants_of_the_Thracian_language
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracian_language#cite_note-3
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language#Vowels

Answer 2

How To Pronounce Caissa Please listen to all the options to get a sense on how to pronounce casissa.