how do you pronounce the word "principia"?

[dead0man]

I grew up near Principia College, a Christian Science liberal arts school with a beautiful campus.  The kids that went there and locals in the area pronounced it with the SIP sound in the middle and that's all I ever knew.

Now I've learned that everybody else in the English speaking world uses the CHIP (or maybe SHIP) sound and that the ancient Romans would have used KIP, how's about you?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Option 2 is the correct answer, though I might use option 1 to be more American-sounding.

Anyone who uses option 3 needs to be shot.

[President Tyrion]

I would never have guessed PrinCHIPia would be the pronunciation, but it's not like I've ever said the word aloud, either. On first glance, prinSIPia has my vote.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I've never said the word before, but I just said it aloud and got option 1.

[angus]

I grew up near Principia College, a Christian Science liberal arts school with a beautiful campus.  

I once interviewed at Salve Regina University and when I got there I of course pronounced it as a Latin name--A as in Ave Maria, V as in veni vidi vici and G as in Gaius Maximus--since, after all, it is a Latin name.  I was corrected very quickly.  They pronounce it locally in a very anglicized fashion.  A as in apple, v as in very, and g as in German.  

Sure, you can pronounce Principia correctly in Latin, and there's probably nothing wrong with that, especially if you're speaking Latin, but if the word appears in a proper noun, then you're probably better off pronouncing it as the locals do.  I voted, before reading the OP, as in the title of Newton's famous treatise on physics (option 3), but I could also vote in some other way depending upon the use of the word as a proper noun.  FWIW, I've never heard the word pronounced as in option 2.  I know physicists who anglicize it (option 1) and those who pronounce it more conservatively, as I do, but never heard the option 2 version.  Certainly I will defer to the local population in the pronunciation of the university.

It's Like Medina, Ohio and Etoile, Texas, and Winona, Minnesota.  None of these cities are pronounced "correctly" by the locals, but the local pronunciation is the right one if you want to be taken seriously by the people you meet when you visit these places.

[muon2]

From what I've read, Newton would have followed the pronunciation of most English intellectuals of the day and used the soft c: prin sip' e ah. So since his work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is arguably the most important work in the history of science. I went with his likely pronunciation.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

prin-sip-eeee-uh.

[Tender Branson]

Ah, a good Italian-sounding word:

Prin-chip-ee-a

In Austria though: Prin-zip-ee-a

[angus]

I wouldn't have guessed that the word comes up in the anglophone world outside scientific and ecclesiastical circles.

Apparently principia is also a genus of coralline alga, a pharmaceutical company, an institute of higher learning in Illinois, a private K-12 academy in Saint Louis, and a financial planning software package.

[Hifly]

Option 2 IS the correct answer.

[ilikeverin]

Anyone who uses option 3 needs to be shot.

You have just shot the Roman Empire!  How do you feel?