On 29/7/05 13:57, in article , "michael adams"
wrote:


"Paul Giverin" wrote in message
...

I was just about to post here asking if anyone knew of an online guide
to phonetic pronunciation of plant names. After many years of gardening,
I still manage to embarrass myself in front of friends and colleagues
with some of my pronunciation





Anyway, before posting I did another "google" and came up with this:-

http://tinyurl.com/cexua

... which I hope someone else might find useful.

...

This is maybe one of the main benefits of listening to "Gardeners'
Question Time" on a regular basis, as the "correct" pronunciations,
or at least in the past maybe, Geoffrey Smith's version of some of them,
are absorbed almost subconsciously. Which can work the other way
around as well, when trying to find things like "ceanothus" in
catalogues, confident it must start with an "S".


But 'correct' depends on where and when people learned Latin. Think of
'lichen' - to some it's pronounced 'liken' and to others 'litchen'. Some
say "Nyefofeea" and others 'Nipoffeea" for Kniphofia. I say CLEMatis, my
husband says CleMAYtis etc. etc.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)