"Pam" wrote in message
...


Sue & Bob Hobden wrote:

"sacha" wrote in message after another Bob:

I've always pronounced "Ceanothus" as "Key-An-Oh-Thus", with the
emphasis on the "An". Is this correct, or am I completely wrong
(does
it have a soft C for example).

kee-a-no-thus (a hard c, it's Latin )

Actually its Greek, from keanothus, meaning 'plant with spiny leaves'.
Proper
pronunciation of the Greek would give you kee-a-no-thus, just as you
indicate.
However, on the west coast of North America, the native habitat of the
majority
of ceanothus species, and throughout the rest of North America, it is
pronounced
see- a-no-thus. The convention for pronouncing botanical Latin in this
country
is to pronounce the 'c' as soft when followed by the vowels e, i or y and
hard
when followed by any other letter.

I always knew it to be see-a-no-thus as well and everyone else I know round
these here parts (Kingston, Surrey) calls it that. I would guess that none
of us studied Latin though which would explain the mispronunciation you
live and learn

Nicky