I don’t know how practically possible this is, but as an autodidact, pronouncing taxonomic names is something I’m always super self-conscious about. It’s also an area where an intuitive ability with language confers basically no assistance at all. It would be neat if there was a way for users to add…

[image] paulexcoff: In my experience any two people (even experienced botanists) will have three ways to pronounce a name. Such a great way to put it!

I don’t know anyone that would claim to know how names are pronounced, I often ask, and get the same reply: “I don’t know, but I pronounce it thus…”. I think most of us learn our taxonomy through written sources, and many of us don’t have Latin training in any of it’s three guises. I for one would w…

I suppose you could also add a comment to your observation asking if anyone can help with the pronunciation or maybe post it here on the forum.

The language of scientific names is a purely written one. There are no generally agreed standards governing how it should be spoken. Every region has its own ad hoc conventions, which are mainly based on the native language(s) of its inhabitants. For an overview of some of the conventions adopted b…

Scientific names are partly based on Latin, partly based on Ancient Greek, and also sometimes derived from names of people, or words from other languages altogether. It is true that there is no set way to pronounce scientific names, especially genus and species names. So don’t feel self-conscious ab…

[image] paulexcoff: However, the Scottish name Menzies, is properly pronounced MING-iss, so a minority of people will pronounce “menziesii” as MING-iss-ee-eye. I love this example. I just took a workshop where botanists almost got into a shouting match over whether Halesia, a plant named for…

Hi @agnes_clamfanger , as has been said, there is not much point in trying to establish rules, and your best guess will often be as good as anyone’s: Latin has not been used as a spoken language for some time, so it’s impossible to ask a native speaker If you were able to get a Tardis to obtain a n…

I feel so much better about my own pronunciation now!

Once again, my interest was not in ‘correctly pronouncing’ Greek and Latin words in the abstract, but in the way particular taxonomic names are pronounced in practice by people who study the organisms in question. Your last point about the pronunciation varying depending upon mother tongue is valid…

I was about to write that your best guess is still your best guide and that most of us just pronounce them as we think they should be pronounced. However, thinking about it, I suppose everyone who hangs around biologists is influenced by the way that their peers pronounce things, so I don’t know. T…

'Pronunciation' feature for taxonomic names

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'Pronunciation' feature for taxonomic names

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