Pronouncing Latin names

[Bruce Williams]

A lot of fungi do not have common names, so (if id is important to you) you have to remember the Latin name. The problem I have is not always being sure how to pronounce the name (which makes it more difficult to remember). Most Latin words seem reasonably obvious but others are maybe not so obvious.

For example: Ascocoryne - Is it pronounces asco-cor-een, asco-cor-ine (...ine rhymes with wine), asco-cor-ee-nee or something else?

So I wondered if anyone knew of a guide to pronouncing Latin names?

Bruce

[Dogghound]

As a Basic rule Vowels should be Ponounced like this: -
A Like if your saying At
E Like your saying Egg
I Like your saying It
O like your saying On
U like your saying clUb


Letters C, G are pronounced soft when they come before E and I. Like Cell, Cider, Gem, Gin.

and hard when they occur after A, O, U. Like Call, Cold, Cup, Gall, Gold, Gun.

Ch is pronounced K.

Ph is pronounced F

Best to keep practicing its will soon be quite easy. Learning all the names is much harder.

[Bruce Williams]

That's REALLY helpful Dogghound and very much appreciated.

Could you advise how (considering Ascocoryne for example) the letter Y is pronounced and is the letter E at the end of a word pronounced or does it modify the preceding vowel sound in some way?

Thanks again.

Bruce

[Tursiops2]

I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding is that when taxonomic names are derived from Greek or Latin, every syllable is pronounced. In your example, I think the last two syllables would be pronounced "rye-nee", but I'm open to correction
T2

[Dogghound]

Would of thought the Y is pronounced like ee, and the e at the end like how you would pronounce ninE. If you can understand my descriptions

[flaxton]

Not sure of the rules but Ascocoryne is pronounced as ko kor eye nee
and means a club shaped bag.
Mal

[cybershot]

So just how do you pronounce 'Fungi'?:

Pronunciation of Biological Latin Including Taxonomic Names

'Some naturalists apply classical sound values to scientific names, and some employ hybrid pronunciations such as "fun-jee" for fungi. The English pronunciation is "funj-eye" and the classical is ~"foongh-ee." '

Hope this link is useful.

David
P.S. The ABFG Phonetics and Meanings Dictionary is available on CD and includes English meanings for almost all the genus and species names in Latin that you may come across. The same screen also gives the correct phonetic pronunciation for the words in Common English Latin. The CD runs in MS Excel.

[Leif]

Originally Posted by flaxton

Not sure of the rules but Ascocoryne is pronounced as ko kor eye nee
and means a club shaped bag.
Mal

That is also my understanding, and the convention used by many amateur mycologists I have met. Though even they often had conflicting ways of pronouncing words. Some of the differences were due to them being posh, and me 'common'. Other difference were due to not agreeing.

E => either short (eh), as in Entoloma, or long (ee) as in Mycena.
A => short (ah).
I => short (as in English pick) or long (eye) as in Inocybe == Eye-noh-si-bee.
Y => long (eye) as in Mycena, or short (short i), as Inocybe.
O => Not sure. I sometimes say Hebeloma with the O as in low or as in long.
U => short, as in us.

Some fungi have English/German/etc names in the Latin specific (the second bit of the Latin name) and I assume this implies an English/German/etc pronounciation.

I have heard smithii, as in Amanita smithii, prounced both smith-eye and smithe-eye , and Polyporus as Polly-porous and Poliperus.

Maybe the only uncontested rule is that all syllables are pronounced. Thus Inocybe is Eye-know-ci-bee.

[Tursiops2]

Excellent link cybershot, cleared up a few of my misconceptions anyway.
Cheers
T2

[Bruce Williams]

So far some great help and comments from everyone and a super link from cybershot.

Thanks to all for their input.

Bruce