Pronunciation Of Magus?

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For the life of me, I don't understand people saying MEY-GUH S.

When you look at the word, it instantly reminds you of the word Magic. So you give it a hard MAG-US.

Can someone explain to me why Mey-Guh-s is more acceptable than Mag-us?
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See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magus

Click on the pronunciation icons.

CJ
I understand thats how the dictionary says it.

That wasn't my question, I'm asking why is it said that way? Mag-us seems more reasonable.
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Hi,
I pronounce it that way because that's how I've always heard educated people pronounce it.

Clive
SchalaThat wasn't my question, I'm asking why is it said that way? Mag-us seems more reasonable.
Well, yes, I don't doubt the sincerity of your feelings about what is reasonable, but then you may as well question the pronunciation of about 5,000 other English words!

To me, for example, it would be more reasonable to pronounce do and to as we pronounce go; it would be more reasonable to pronounce how and now as we pronounce snow; it would be more reasonable to pronounce through and bough as we pronounce though; and poor and moor as we pronounce door and floor. And it is not at all reasonable to pronounce kernel and colonelalike. But the pronunciations that become standard are not based on the whims of individuals who just happen to think that a non-standard pronunciation might be better! They are based on the whims of whole societies over centuries of history! Emotion: smile

CJ
Thanks for your time CJ!
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In fairness, "poor" and "moor" (and "more") are all pronounced the same way as "door" and "floor" where I live.

Also, Colonel is a French word and not subject to our phonetics.

Similarly, Magus is a Latin word, deriving from greek "magos". The plural form is "Magi".
SchalaI understand thats how the dictionary says it.That wasn't my question, I'm asking why is it said that way? Mag-us seems more reasonable.
here is an observation/phenomenon: "2 syllable words with latin suffixes such as -ent, -ant, -ous, -us, -al, -urn have initial tense vowels"

-ant: vacant, secant, mutant
-ent: recent, decent, foment, moment, cadent
-ous: curious, copius, tedious, serious
-us: anus, magus, focus, locus, mucus, modus,genus, virus
-al: anal, nasal, fetal, fatal, legal, regal, tonal

How to deal with consonant clusters?

nexus: nek-sus (you split across sysllables; and the first syllable becomes closed, thereby the first vowel becoming lax)

magnus: mag-nus

You can apply this for other words where you see a cluster. Most dictionaries are extremely bad at syllabicatoin; dictionary.reference.com does a good job at how the word gets syllabified.
My name is Magus and I am a Zimbabwean.

Eversince I was young my name has been through numerous pronounciations across three continents.

MER-GUS, MAH-GUS, MAH-GES, MAH-GOOS, MAG-US, MEY-GUH S, MEH-GOOS. Some I don't even remember.

I am glad someone has said something that seems reasonable. I will stick with MEY-GUS.
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