On Sun, 16 May 2004 11:48:28 +0100, Gautam Majumdar
wrote, in part:
The May 2004 issue of Scientific American has an article about gas
depleted hot jupiters which are named Chthonians (page 13). How to
pronunciate it ? Does "Ch" or "th" go silent ?

According to http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=chthonian it's
pronounced (in a way that they transcribe as) /'thO-nE-&n/ (which I'd
transcribe as /'TownijIn/). That is, the 'ch' is silent. Other online
dictionaries agree (see a list at onelook.com). Cf. 'phthisic', which has
a silent 'ph'.

Michael Hamm NB: Of late, my e-mail address is being
AM, Math, Wash. U. St. Louis 'spoofed' a bit. That is, spammers send
e-mail that seems to be from me. Please
http://math.wustl.edu/~msh210/ realize that no spam is in fact from me.