It’s no secret that scientific names are hard to pronounce, see topic: Where Do I Start With Pronouncing Scientific Names? If you do try to pronounce them, which one(s) do you find most difficult and what do you end up calling them instead? Bonus points if it’s something you encounter regularly but…

And that’s such a short word! Makes it obvious how crazy it is to think we can know the ‘right’ pronunciation of a made up word concocted from stuck-together bits of ancient languages! We can only conform to the convention amongst particular specialists - if that’s helpful to our credibility (thou…

It is very unfortunate that the world’s current lingua franca, namely English, doesn’t have a phonemic alphabet - unlike many other languages like Latin, Slavic languages, Esperanto, etc. It is the source of so many frustrations. A phonemic alphabet is one in which every letter stands for one phonem…

and Greek. It is not all Latin. English would struggle to produce one letter equals one sound, since our words are sourced from MANY languages.

[image] DianaStuder: since our words are sourced from MANY languages. That doesn’t affect number of letters though, you don’t need to have it written the exact same way as it was in source language.

There is a bird Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax - no problem with this name. But in English it’s the red-billed chough. How is that pronounced? like tough or like though?

RSPB says pronounced ‘chuff’ and they should know

[image] susanne-kasimir: How is that pronounced? like tough or like though? Or like koff or choff, or kow or chow, or kuff or chuff, or kog or chog, or koo or choo?

[image] anon93074988: I just use common names A method fraught with misunderstandings and confusion

For me, Ephippitytha trigintiduoguttata was always the hardest name to wrap my head around. Now it just rolls off the tongue though! :joy: Another good contender is Hoshihananomia quattuordecimmaculata and the short-but-unpronouncable Oecophylla (my ant experts say ee-ko-fai-la). The easiest and…

Which Name is Hardest?

Nature Talk

jnstuart December 14, 2022, 6:12pm 43

Wikipedia says sounds like Chuff, rhymes with tough.

I agree English is crazy. The following words are similar in spelling but all have very different pronunciations: Tough, Though, Through, Thorough, Trough.

Topic		Replies	Views
Where Do I Start With Pronouncing Scientific Names? Nature Talk question	154	14727	December 7, 2022
'Pronunciation' feature for taxonomic names Feature Requests	26	5276	July 13, 2019
Latin names -- a pronunciation and definition guide? Nature Talk	47	1043	November 28, 2025
How to campaign against the Llanfairpwll Myxococcus' name Nature Talk	65	1546	December 1, 2024
Scientific name Vs. Common name? Nature Talk question	52	5302	January 15, 2022

Which Name is Hardest?

Related topics