Two words where Latinization makes a difference are “anthropus” and “pithecus”, which come at the end of several genus names of primates. In Greek, they’re stressed on the first syllable, but in Latin, they’re stressed on the second, which has a long vowel.
Although the English word “octopus” is stressed on the first syllable, in both Latin and Greek Octopus is stressed on the second, but for different reasons. In Greek, the last syllable πους has a long vowel, and few words with the last vowel long are stressed on the antepenult. In Latin the penult is stressed because it has a long vowel.
I changed my pronunciation of “Pileated” due to someone doing this to me, but then I started talking to other people who had never heard it my new way but it’s too late now.
Merriam-Webster insists that it’s PIE-lee ay-ted. I grew up pronouncing it PILL-ee-ay-ted without getting corrected (which only means that even the other bookworms in my family didn’t have a definitive answer).
Another pronunciation question: how would “Unionid” be pronounced? I’ve heard many pronunciations, mostly varying by which syllable is stressed: “yoon-YAW-nid,” “yoon-YO-nid,” “yoo-ni-AW-nid,” “YOO-ni-oh-nid” and the way I’ve been pronouncing it: “YOO-nyuh-nid.”
Stressing the first syllable is what I’ve been doing because one of the genera in the family is “Unio” where the first syllable would be stressed. There is also the word “union” which emphasizes the first syllable as well. However, as I start to interact with more people in person, I’m starting to stress the second syllable… goes to show how the people you’re around can affect interpretations of the pronunciations of words, and how it doesn’t matter too much as long as you can understand eachother
Oh, also, to avoid pronouncing the “ae” at the end of family names, I’ll just say something like “Unionid family” or “Unionids”—it works quite well.
I pronounce the English word /'junjənɪd/ and the family name /u.ni’o:ni.dae/, where the last syllable is almost the same as /daɪ/, the usual transcription of “die”. (I say /dai/. That probably comes from having parents who were both native speakers of Romance languages.)
As to Myxococcus, I know how to pronounce “Llanfairpwll…”, so I just say the whole thing and add “ensis” to the end. I switch from Welsh to Latin pronunciation partway through the word.
I favor “yoo-ni-AW-nid” because the family, Unionidae, would be pronounced “you-ni-AW-ni-dee”, accent on the antepenultimate syllable as is typical for Latin words. “Unionid” though isn’t Latin, so its OK if the stress stays where it is in the family name.