[Taxacom] Asterales

[Sean Edwards]

I have only ever heard AST-er-ALE-eez in the UK.

Re Halesia (HALES-ia) and trying to pronounce as closely as reasonable 
to the original pronunciation of the person's or place's name, try 
RAFFLS-sia (not Raff-LEEZ-ia), Two others that come to mind are 
Spruceella (strictly SPROOS-ella, from Spruce, not SPROOS-i-ella) and 
pricei (strictly PRICE-y, but I wouldn't try it, most say PRICE-i-eye...).

Similarly Camellia (ka-MELL-ia, not ka-MEE-lia, from the Moravian 
Kamel), DARL-ia not DAY-lia (from Dahl) and a whole list more. Have fun 
with Menziezia (from the Scottish 'MIN(G)-is' if I've got that right? I 
expect to be corrected). And don't even go near Fuchsia &c.

This whole thing is a minefield, varying from country to country (and 
e.g. N vs S in England), from gardeners to botanists, old-fashioned to 
modern.  Also contentious is the proper pronunciation of a final 'e' as 
in Cardamine (car-DAM-ini, not CAR-da-MINE), with usually accepted 
exceptions such as in  Aloe.  Aloë even had (a long time before the 
Vienna Code in 2005) the final 'ë' with two little dots over it to 
indicate that it should be pronounced separately (a-LOW-i). But those 
who do so risk seriously raised eyebrows. There are lots of little 
Victorian (and later) books giving botanical pronunciations, but I 
wouldn't risk many of these in public.

Finally, if the name is derived from two or more parts, then it should 
logically be pronounced accordingly, e.g. BRONT-o-SAUR-us; do not accent 
the link vowel. But many exceptions e.g. Di-PLOD-ocus, Pol-IT-trichum. 
Familiarity breeds link-accenting. The worst I have heard in all 
seriousness is DIZZy-GOTH-ica for Dizygotheca (normally 
DIE-ZIE-go-THEE-ka.  Oh, and don't forget Cotton-Easter -- back full 
circle to Aster.

Sean

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Sean Edwards, Thursley (old-fashioned South-east England...)



On 12/03/2012 03:15, Curtis Clark wrote:
> On 3/11/2012 7:31 PM, Frank.Krell at dmns.org wrote:
>> well, this is the (American) English pronunciation
>> it would be different in a more phonemic language (say, German, Latin, almost any other language)
> I confirmed that the question was about the English Wikipedia by
> visiting the article there and seeing his edits. I'd be interested to
> know if the British pronunciation is different.