In article ,
"michael adams" writes:
| "Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
| ...
|
| Watched Titchmarsh who talked about Gunnera manicata
| and pronounced it kate-a. Thought it was cart-a?
|
| Nope, apparently the second vowel is long
| "ay" rather than "ar"

It varies with where and how you were taught Latin - some dogmatists
get uptight, but most people adapt to either - which can be pronounced
either eyether or eehther :-)

As I posted, it is possible that there is a canonical pronounciation
of botanical Latin - there certainly is one of English legal Latin,
and another of ecclesiatical Latin, though that almost certainly varies
with the church. It is also quite possible that Oxbridge formal Latin
varies from both ....

| There can be controversy because botanical Latin is Anglicised
| and so can depart fron classical Latin Pronounciation. ...

As nobody got around to tape recording that at the time, nobody living
today knows how that was pronounced. As I posted, we DO know which
vowels were long and which short (from poetry), but we don't know if
long A was pronounced as in Kate or cart - or even Kurt or kite, though
there are some educated guesses (and a lot of dogmatic claims).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.