I have to agree with Chris on this one. A Latin professor for whom I have a great deal of respect, pointed out that at the height of the empire Roman empire, the Latin language was spread across multiple continents and cultures. That type of geographic dispersion leads to variation in how even supposedly simple words are pronounced. The English language has plenty of examples of this when you move from one English speaking region to the next (think "advertisement" and "vitamin" in the US versus the UK, Australia, or the British West Indies). Scientific nomenclature is effectively a language spread a cross a far greater geographic space than Latin was at the zenith of the Roman empire. I think we shouldn't be too worried about pronunciations...particularly when much of our communication is written these days and the spellings are not hotly contested.
~chris On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 1:12 AM, Chris Georgiadis <cgeor...@biol.uoa.gr> wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > Although there is no mention of the original coining of the genus name > (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/36506#page/284/mode/1up) I can > say that it is latinized Greek. I presume that the name depicts the > close relationship of this hemipteron to its host spiders so in that > sense the name Arachnocoris derives from the words 'ar'achni' (spider) > and 'k'ori' (daughter). Taking these into account, the "correct" greek > (sensu stricto) pronunciation of the word would be Arachnoc'oris. > > That said, after long talks with colleagues from across disciplines, I > am also in accordance to the quote "If they understand what you're > talking about, then it's fine...". > > Chris Georgiadis, PhD > Entomologist - Teaching and Research Assistant > Section of Zoology - Marine Biology > Department of Biology > University of Athens > Panepistimioupolis, GR-15784 > Tel.: +30 210 7274249 > Cell: +30 6945 077723 > Email: cgeorgia[at}biol.uoa{dot]gr > Ants of Greece > Hellenic Zoological Society > Zoological Museum University of Athens > -- "Sine pugna nihil ... Nothing without a fight"
