The "How do you pronounce things" thread

[photobarry]

No worries. I'm just trying to be helpful. I'ld be the first to admit if I was wrong. All you guys had me worried so I thought I would double check. Since I did the search and all I thought I would share the results.

Now if someone could pronounce those Finnish RK articles, I would be impressed.

Cheers

 

[Ninong]

Latin is pretty straight forward - there are significantly fewer ways to pronounce sounds than in English. Rules are absolute, there are no exceptions. For example, in Latin "c" is ALWAYS hard. So for all of you who pronounce percula as "per-CYU-la" or "per-CELL-a" you need to revise your thinking The worst is crocea, which even I pronounce as "cro-SAY-uh" - it probably should be "cro-CAY-ah".

Where did we get these absolute rules for pronunciation of classical Latin? Did someone discover a sound recording of Cicero's orations?

The truth is we do not know how Latin was pronounced 2000 years ago. We don't even know how English is supposed to be pronounced today. Just put an Australian, an American, an Oxford educated Englishman and a London cabbie in the same room and see how many different versions of English you will get. Throw in Dubya for good measure and you get an entirely new language that only Karl Rove understands.

In my opinion, the best way to pronounce scientific names should be the Italian, since that language is the most similar to Latin. In the case of Crocea, the correct Italian pronunciation should be "cro-CHAY-ah" instead of "cro-CAY-ah" or "cro-SAY-ah." The consonant C has different pronunciations, changing with the vowel that follows that letter. For example, Ceras is pronounced "cheras" (not "seras" or "keras") but Cadlina is pronounced "kadleena."

A few consonants that are pronounced differently in English are H, which is silent in Latin, and J, which is pronounced like the vowel sound "ee" in Latin. They didn't even have a J in classical Latin; Julius Caesar was really Iulius Caesar. For example, Hypselodoris should be pronounced "eepsehlohdoris" and Jorunna should be pronounced "eeohrunna."

The major problem is that English has so many different vowel sounds. Latin has only five: A "ah," E "eh," I "ee," O "oh," and U "oo."

It bugs me every time I hear Jupiter's innermost moon, Io, called "Eye-oh" instead of the correct "EE-oh."

Don't worry if you can't pronounce something in Latin, the doctors and lawyers can't either. Ever hear one of them say "bona fide" or "habeas corpus?" Ever hear a plant person say "Ficus benjamina?" Their pronunciations are not even close to Latin. Only the genus is correctly pronounced in "H0m0 sapiens."

It's nudi-brank, not nudi-branch, and the plural is spelled nudibranchs not nudibranches. It's from the Latin nudibranchia.

 

[Rezzan1]

Pronounce this

Pronounce this

palypathoa, sorry if the spelling is incorrect.

 

[Pineapple House]

Check this out for the proper prununciation of nudibrach. Unfortunately the Discovery Channel gets a bunch of pronunciations wrong.

Very interesting read, Photobarry! Thanks for showing the link!

palypathoa- Pay-Lee-Path-Oh-Ah??
I'm probably incorrect, but I'm sure someone here will correct me

What about Capricornis? I've pronounced it Cap-Re-Corn-is. Is this correct?
Second, how is Gemmifera pronounced? I've always pronounced it Gem-If-Fur-Ah. But, i'm most likely way off on that one as well.

Graham

 

[Rock Anemone]

What about Capricornis? I've pronounced it Cap-Re-Corn-is. Is this correct?

Same with me.

What about Montipora? Mon-te-pour-a ?

Rock Anemone

 

[Pineapple House]

What about Montipora? Mon-te-pour-a ?

I've always pronounced it Mon-Te-Pour-ah, also. I think that's the correct way to say it...I hope

Graham

 

[Rock Anemone]

Digitata - di-gi-ta-ta ???

Rock Anemone

 

[oz]

I can't say Anemone.

Bush can't say nuclear.

 

[saltyseaman]

WOAH!!! Talk about a Yodaism!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I actually did Laugh Out Loud at this one!!!! That was good!!:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

 

[BlAcK_PeRcUlA]

haha Nuclear=Noo CA LEEAR for bush

 

[Lenny Llambi]

well since latin is a phoenetic language, technically, you hav to pronounce each and every letter:

euphyllia: eh oop heel lee ah

but: you phil ee ah is so much easier

porites: poh ree tes

but: pohr ites is so much easier

Favites: fah wee tes

but: fay vites is so much easier

I went to a catholic latin school so the nuns beat that pronunciation into me, latins dead anyways so you can massacre it all you want.

 

[Lenny Llambi]

OOPS

Didn't see Ninong's post...but ditto what he said...with one exception:


LAst time I heard linguists had determined romanian to be the closest descendat to Latin.

All of the pronunciation rules are essentially best guesses determined by comparing all of the romantic languages.

 

[Jello2028]

Tubastrea: too-ba-stray-uh or too-ba-stree-uh?
Amphiprion: am-fuh-pry-on or am-fip-ri-on? Or neither?
Goniopora?
Ritteri?

Also I'm wondering about the pronunciation of "lysmata amboinensis," not that I'd ever need to call it the latin name.

This thread is great - I will not be made a fool of anymore, darn it!

 

[Mikeaveli21]

Tubastrea: too-ba-stray-uh or too-ba-stree-uh?
Amphiprion: am-fuh-pry-on or am-fip-ri-on? Or neither?

I say:
Tubastrea:too-ba-stree-uh?
Amphiprion: am-fip-ree-on--not sure though on this one

I know this got mentioned somewhere before but I didn't see the answer : AIPTASIA....i hate trying to say this word!

Is is AP-TAY-JHI-AH?

 

[Ninong]

Some of the words that are being discussed now are not from the Latin at all, but from the Greek, which really complicates things.

Amphiprion is obviously from the Greek; just think of amphitheater. Porites is actually pronounced Pohr-EYE-tees, which leads me to think that it, too, might be from the Greek, although I haven't bothered to look it up.

Octopus is another obvious example of a word with a Greek origin, which is why the plural is NOT octopi, no matter what some people may say. If it were from Latin, it would be octoped. Think biped, quadriped, et cetera -- which are all from the Latin, including the obvious et cetera which IS Latin.

We could carry this Latin thing to the extreme. The plural of forum should be fora, the plural of aquarium should be aquaria, etc. I always like it when someone refers to an individual of a certain college as an alumni instead of an alumnus. It's even funnier if the individual is female, in which case it should be alumna. There is no alumni association at an all women's college, only an alumnae association.

 

[Jello2028]

The plural of octopi is...

The plural of octopi is...

Octopodes, right?

(I got that knocked into my head repeatedly by a friend who kept one, and I think it's neat, but confidentially, I'd enjoy him being wrong for once )

Sarah

 

[Jello2028]

I mean octopus. Gaaah.

 

[Ninong]

Octopuses.

 

[BlAcK_PeRcUlA]

i always thought it was octopi

 

[Ninong]

Octopi has made its way into the dictionary as the second choice only because so many people use it instead of the correct octopuses. Octopus is from the Greek oktôpous, literally eight feet. People are just used to thinking that any word ending in -us must be Latin masculine and therefore the plural should be -i.