[Taxacom] Asterales

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Alan,
        I had no idea that my pronunciation was European Plus, rather
than the typical U.S. pronunciation.  To my ear, as-ter-AH-leez doesn't
sound much different from as-ter-AH-layss (of romance language
Europeans).  Perhaps because the difference is with the final syllable
(which is not emphasized, and a small difference in an unemphasized
syllable doesn't seem so important).  And I had more romance language in
college (16 hours of French, and only 5 hours of German).  

      What is really strange is that I have always pronounced the family
name Asteraceae (and other botanical family names) with the longer "a",
either as-ter-AY-ce-ee or as-ter-AY-ce-ay-ee (the latter with a slightly
longer dipthong at the end).  But now that I think about it, that seems
inconsistent to use a short "a" (AH) when pronouncing Asterales, but
using a long "a" (AY) when pronouncing Asteraceae.  Although I've been
saying As-ter-AH-ce-ee to myself today, but it just sounds very strange
to me, but As-ter-AH-leez sounds perfectly natural.  Perhaps it because
I am a European "mutt" of mixed ancestry, being a mixture of British,
Irish, French, German, and Dutch.  Sort of the way I feel the need to
borrow from both cladistic and traditional (eclectic) taxonomic
approaches in my classifications.   
               -----------Ken

------------------------------------------------
Alan Weakley wrote:
     There are variations by continent and country as to the "correct"
pronunciation of Latin names, including this one.  Most countries "spin"
the pronunciation towards the pronunciation of their own language.
Ken's version is the more usual European Plus version, though the
romance language Europeans, South Americans, etc. do it slightly
differently:  Ast-er-AH-layss.  The usual pronunciation in the U.S. is
As-ter-AY-leez, but we are, of course, heathens (which has nothing to
with Air-ihk-AY-leez).  The Italians have probably the best claim to
their pronunciation of Latin names being the closest to right