[Taxacom] Asterales

[Roger Burks]

My take on the matter of pronunciation is this: sometimes scientists
are willing to accept, as standard, the best answers available from
the foremost experts in a field. That is perhaps the best way for
science, but it is not always achievable in an imperfect world. The
field in question here is reconstruction of Classical Latin
pronunciation, and experts on this subject do exist. I take it that
most scientists are not willing to accept this method, because they
learned something different as teenagers, as college students, or from
peers.

If that is to be the case, then the most rational step is to recognize
that Latin pronunciation will be necessarily arbitrary and
inconsistent, with no "right" answers. This really takes away any
justification that one would have to try to enforce a highly
subjective interpretation that disagrees with all opinions on Latin
that linguists currently hold. It's difficult to understand why a
standard should be supported or enforced if it has no scholarly basis
and little within-community support or awareness.

Roger