> Greetings - > Can someone direct me to a site that lists the correct > pronunciations for orchid genera and (hopefully) > species as well? I am giving a presentation, and am > totally blathering the names. Words like 'kusukusense' > have me in a cold sweat! > Thanks for any directions - Nancy Dear Nancy (et al) Any suggestion as to how to pronounce Latin words is pure guesswork. There are a few texts from which experts in Latin language can deduce a few hints on how "certain" parts of the Latin was pronounced by the romans. But basically it is all guesswork. Most definitely, however, Romans did not pronounce Latin in any anglicized way. Therefore, the pronunciation suggestions in Sheehan, Hawkes, etc. are pure nonsense, the same is to be said for the suggestions in books written in other languages. At the end of the day, it is anyone's guess, especially when the names are mixtures of Latin, Greek and whatever. My Ph.D. supervisor in England once told me to say "Onkidium" instead of "Onsidium" as Oncidium is based on Greek. He may have been right. I still say "Onsidium" [I have forgotten correct phonetic spelling] (but I do write Oncidium). I understand that some have a problem with trichopiliochila , most American cannot pronounce "Schlechter" and only the Dutch and Flemish can pronounce "Scheveningen" properly. I am sure I shocked a few people by putting Phrag. kovachii into Section Schluckebieria, just as Schlechter may have shocked some Anglo-Saxon souls with his Sobennikoffia. When I first came to Germany 36 years ago, I could not pronounce the German "scheisse" properly. Times have changed since. Just take it with humor. Guido -- Prof. Dr. Guido J. Braem Naunheimer Str. 17 35633 Lahnau Deutschland/Germany Tel. +49 6441 65333 |
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