Pronunciation of Glycine as a common name

There’s a species with the common name “Rusty Glycine” in the genus Glycine, which includes soybeans. The genus name is pronounced /glyki:ne:/ in Latin. But how would you pronounce the common name in English?

I looked up “glycine” in Wiktionary, which does not list the English word as a common name. But the French entry says that (besides the amino acid) it is the common name for Wisteria, not Glycine.

In German it’s named ‘Glyzin(i)e’ - pronounced like “z”.

Alternatively it’s called ‘Blauregen’, because of its nice hangig long blue flowers. (that roughly translated means ‘blue rain’). There’s less difficulty with pronounciation. ;)

1 Like

that is a different plant, in the genus Wisteria, not the soybean, Glycine max

The German wording derives from the synonym ‘Glycine sinensis’, which now is Wisteria sinensis in fact.

1 Like

I would say glay-SEE-nee

There are no silent e is latin, so the last one would need to be read also.

The glycine (Glyzinie, glicinija…) name for Wisteria is probably from genus Glycine L.; which was used for species now in Pueraria (also twining fabaceous plants, vaguely similar to Wisteria), and NOT Glycine Willd., which is used for soybeans (please note the authorship of the genera! Glycine=/= Glycine necessarily)

1 Like

I’d say GLYE-seen.

5 Likes

As a common name? I pronounce it “Soybean.”

2 Likes

Every pronunciation guide I can find has it /ˈɡlaɪ.siːn/ (i.e. how @oksanaetal has it) or /ˈɡlaɪˌsin/. They are all referring to the amino acid of course, but I expect that is how most English speakers not trained in modern reconstructed latin pronunciation would pronounce it, and I doubt anyone would be confused by that pronunciation.

It isn’t even derived from a real latin word anyway, so I doubt any revived ancient romans would have much to judge the correctness of our pronunciation on.

2 Likes

Do you mean /z/ or /ts/?

glycine the aminoacid is an English (or anglified latin) word, following english conventions and is prononuced glye-seen

Glycine the genus is not an english word, although it is pronounced in english with english sounds, but the conventions are a bit different;

Following how Cardamine is pronounced (kar-DA-mee-nee or car-da-MINE), Glycine shold either be GLYE-see-nee or gli-SINE
The first pronouciations is more “correct” in that it is more similiar to how a speaker of latin or greek (the word is not greek or latin, but it is derived from greek/latin words following their grammar) would pronounce it; the other is more natural to english speakers.

I think, when people ask*, it is best to provide an answer how would someone knowledgeable pronounce things; and in this exact instance there could be a confusion as glycine is already something else.

(just for fun; the difference in pronounciation bethween glycine and Glycine is beacuse in latin, the first has neutral grammatical gender (in latin written glycinum; anglified by dropping the ending, but adding the -e to differ from glycin (a related, but very different compound) and inidicate it is pronounced differently from the latter), the other is female, and Glycine is the original latin botanical form)

*if they do not, it’s fine however they choose to pronounce it, as long as its understandable; although it would be nice if there were some sort of official guidlines for correct pronounciation of botanical latin in English, some english speakers take great liberty with it and sometimes it is very difficult to understand what they are talking about - in some instances I only figured it out after they showed a picture organism they were talking about.

English-speaking botanists usually use the Traditional English Pronunciation of Latin to pronounce plant names. In this system, Glycine would be pronounced GLI-si-nee. It comes from Greek glukús with the nominative feminine ending of -inos. I believe Cardamine has the same ending, so it is pronounced car-DA-mi-nee.

Well, I guess that depends on how strictly you define the word “botanist.” I mean, unless lepidopterists are going to place their butterfly specimens in GLA-si-nee envelopes, and mammalogists in the boreal forests study wol-VE-ri-nees, the usual English phonetic system seems just fine. Less pretentious.