pronouncing names (ae endings)

[alfredo vizzini]

Ok Nico, ben detto!

Mio primo contatto in Taxacom (in italiano), poi English

Alfredo Vizzini
Università degli Studi di Torino
Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale
viale P. A. Mattioli 25
10125 Torino, Italia
T: +39 011 6707446. 47
       +39 011 6707447. 47
       +39 011 6707449. 47
F: +39 011 6707459
Email: alfredo.vizzini at unito.it



----- Original Message -----
From: Nico Cellinese <ncellinese at FMNH.ORG>
Date: Monday, June 24, 2002 5:45 pm
Subject: Re: [TAXACOM] pronouncing names (ae endings)

> This is what I learnt from going to school in Italy, where we are 
> still forced to learn Latin from middle school throughout high 
> school.  We were
> thought Latin using the soft c's, although rarely teachers might 
> insist in having the soft c's converted to hard c's, so Cicero 
> (Chi-che-ro) becomes
> Kikero; however, from my personal experience most of us learnt 
> Latin using the soft c's only.  For example, the family Asteraceae 
> is pronounced
> A-ste-ra-ce-e: the a in -ra is an a as in apple, the -ce is -che, 
> and the final -e is another e as in che, two equal, but clearly 
> separate sounds.  In
> general, the c is always soft before e and i; it is hard before o, 
> a and u.  That works for Italian too.  When I moved to England to 
> go to College and
> then later came to the US, I had to teach myself a new way of 
> pronouncing latin names, because nobody could understand me; so 
> here I am, still
> feeling a little silly and pronouncing Asteraceae the way we all 
> do, with the final -eae sounding like one long e, not to mention 
> the many other
> variations on the theme also regarding other vowels and 
> consonants.  But hey, we can understand each other and that's ok 
> by me!  I am not sure
> why I had to learn a new way of pronouncing Latin rather than the 
> other way around (you guys learning my way) but that is the way it 
> is and I
> think it would be a little unrealistic to force everybody to 
> pronounce latin names the correct way.  I didn't say wrong, just 
> unrealistic.   If people
> have not learnt Latin at school, how are you planning to teach 
> correct pronounciation to the scientific world?  I don't think it 
> would be a trivial
> exercise.  As a foreigner, I feel comfortable, I learnt the rules 
> of the English pronounciation and I stick to them.  I have no 
> problems with that! I
> honestly didn't find myself in a situation where I could not 
> communicate using the English pronounciation of Latin.  When I go 
> back to Italy I switch
> back and stick to the rules of Latin.  If I deal with a non-
> English foreign collegue we use the English pronounciation because 
> we speak English to
> understand each other.  It works.
> 
> Nico Cellinese
> [Pronounced Chellinese with all short -e's like in "led", 
> including the last one; I should say though that part of my fun 
> living in another country is to
> be able to pronounce my last name "Sellinese" whitouth anybody 
> laughing...apart from me of course!]
> 
> Botany Department
> Field Museum of Natural History
> 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
> Chicago, IL 60605
> Tel. 312-665-7881
> Fax 312-665-7158
>