Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Pronunciation
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. Pronunciation of plant names tends to be very regional in approach - as long as one is understood when talking about the plant, it really makes no difference one way or another. You cannot imagine the garbled plant names one hears working at a retail nursery - sometimes it is nearly impossible to distinguish to what plant they are referring and other times the result is just plain funny. I often recall the older lady asking for "penis neegra". However, it is NOT considered good form to laugh at the customers :-)) pam - gardengal My neighbour pronounces "Cotoneaster" as "Cott-On-Ee-Aster" (Emphasis on the "Ee") whereas I have always thought of it as if it were the two words "Cotton-Easter" - is he right and me wrong again? :-) ko-ton-ee-a-ster. . Take Kniphofia. We pronounce it "Niphoffia" but friends of ours pronounce it "Nyefofia" nee-fof-ee-a - I say CLEMatis and Ray says CleMAYtis - klem-a-tis we say Daylia, friends say Dalia dah-lee-a all from The Collingridge Dictionary of Plant Names written by Allen.J .Coombes ex Head of Latin at Eton. He's sorted out many a dispute in our household. :-) He says in his introduction that it all depends on where the name came from, i.e. if it's from a town, person etc then it's pronounced that way if it's from the Latin then it should be pronounced the Latin way, i.e. all "C's" are hard as in cat. Now try... Coelogyne :-) (p.s. it's an Orchid family) -- Regards Bob Use a useful Screen Saver... http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ and find intelligent life amongst the stars, there's bugger all down here. |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
What's the correct pronunciation of "Cecil Brunner"? | Roses | |||
Pronunciation | United Kingdom | |||
Pronunciation of Ceologyne | Orchids |