How Do You Pronounce ____________? (2 Viewers)

[delia todd]

cayper-caylie

That's how I say it.

 

[Farnboro John]

That's how I say it.

I have a vague feeling that's how the folk band do as well, but I'm not sure.

John

 

[dantheman]

To cap a grand caper with Kay, Hayley called a ceilidh.


(Two Go Highland Twitching, E Blyton, 1951)

 

[earlytorise]

I found out at some point that the 'j' in 'jaeger' is pronounced like a 'y'.

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere on this forum about some twitcher who, encountering a Scotsman, inquired where the Baird's was. The reply was "there's berds everywhere!"

 

[opisska]

Oh good, I never knew how jaeger should sound, so I always call them skuas when needed Obviously it makes sense as it's a German word.

 

[dalat]

In German it's pronounced Yay gor or something like this (a bit difficult for me to come up with proper phonetic descriptions).
It's another name making me wonder where it is coming from. Must definitely be of German origin, because Jäger means "hunter". But the actual German names are very different, "Raubmöwe".

 

[CPP Gardener]

And how about plover? “Of” or ”oav”?

 

[Farnboro John]

And how about plover? “Of” or ”oav”?

Pluvver.

John

 

[lockbreeze926]

Well, rhymes with "lover" ma/mon cherie.

 

[Xenospiza]

In German it's pronounced Yay gor or something like this (a bit difficult for me to come up with proper phonetic descriptions).
It's another name making me wonder where it is coming from. Must definitely be of German origin, because Jäger means "hunter". But the actual German names are very different, "Raubmöwe".

They're still called "jager" in Dutch, which (also) was written as "jaeger" before the 1800s (the e signified a long letter A, not an umlaut as in German).
Maybe that's where the real origin lies. The current pronunciation in the US is as in German.

 

[Farnboro John]

Well, rhymes with "lover" ma/mon cherie.

Or "luvvie", darling.

John

 

[Lerxst]

I'll go off on a Latin tangent here.

I've studied Spanish for over 15 years, so when I see Latin words, I'm wont to pronounce them using Spanish rules.

Poecile, for example, I immediately want to pronounce as

po-ess-SEE-lay (just like the country Chile => CHEE-lay)

Spanish doesn't treat "oe" as a dipthong, but apparently that Latin, does, in which case I want to amend that to

poy-SEE-lay.

This seems consistent with The Latin Language/Pronunciation - Wikibooks, open books for an open world.

This differs from the IOU resource for pronunciation: Sound dictionary: Bird names | International Ornithologists' Union

po-ESS-uh-lee

(they also give Leptopoecile as LEP-ta-PO-sill-ee)

And then there are some unlikely versions at https://justpronounce.com/english/poecile:

PEE-kul (!)
PO-a-seal
po-SILL
pu-SIGH-ell

Thoughts? Anyone having attended a conference on tits?

General questions that follows on would include:

Just how much variation in pronunciation exists for Latin binomials, generally, among those that use them frequently?

If pronunciation tends to change in a particular direction, which direction is it? I'd imagine they tend to become more anglicized? (To the extent that English can even have consistent pronunciation.)

 

[Xenospiza]

Just how much variation in pronunciation exists for Latin binomials, generally, among those that use them frequently?

In my experience, they tend to be pronounced as they would be in the local language.

It would be very odd to try and pronounce it "correctly".

At a guess Poecile would be POY-see-lay in English (although I'd prefer POY-kee-lay).

 

[qwerty5]

At a guess Poecile would be POY-see-lay in English (although I'd prefer POY-kee-lay).

My subconscious pronunciation before this thread was "POE-sile"

 

[MKinHK]

One from the original list that has not been discussed is Hoopoe.

Always contentious, but as the name is an onomatopoeia it should be pronounced Hoo Poo, not Hoo Po, because the bird says the former, not the latter and even the scientific named reflects this.

Cheers
Mike

 

[opisska]

But the Hoopoe call is 3 syllables...

 

[Xenospiza]

But the Hoopoe call is 3 syllables...

Let's start a petition to change its name to Hoopoopoo. Or Hūpupu to make it extra exotic and less scatological.

(The Dutch name is Hop, only to be outdone by German Wiedehopf – ever less accurate descriptions of its call).

 

[cajanuma]

Let's start a petition to change its name to Hoopoopoo. Or Hūpupu to make it extra exotic and less scatological.

This would match the Italian name of Upupa, which keeps the three syllables

 

[cajanuma]

I'll go off on a Latin tangent here.

I've studied Spanish for over 15 years, so when I see Latin words, I'm wont to pronounce them using Spanish rules.

Poecile, for example, I immediately want to pronounce as

po-ess-SEE-lay (just like the country Chile => CHEE-lay)

Spanish doesn't treat "oe" as a dipthong, but apparently that Latin, does, in which case I want to amend that to

poy-SEE-lay.

This seems consistent with The Latin Language/Pronunciation - Wikibooks, open books for an open world.

This differs from the IOU resource for pronunciation: Sound dictionary: Bird names | International Ornithologists' Union

po-ESS-uh-lee

(they also give Leptopoecile as LEP-ta-PO-sill-ee)

And then there are some unlikely versions at https://justpronounce.com/english/poecile:

PEE-kul (!)
PO-a-seal
po-SILL
pu-SIGH-ell

Thoughts? Anyone having attended a conference on tits?

General questions that follows on would include:

Just how much variation in pronunciation exists for Latin binomials, generally, among those that use them frequently?

If pronunciation tends to change in a particular direction, which direction is it? I'd imagine they tend to become more anglicized? (To the extent that English can even have consistent pronunciation.)

I think here the c before the i would be pronounced like in Italian and not Spanish, so a "ch" sound (this seems to be consistent with your link on Latin pronunciation). So if the oe is pronounced "eh", a rough pronunciation would be something like PEH-chee-leh, which is how most Italian speakers would pronounce it

 

[pianoman]

Good guess then!

Yes: Capall (= gaelic "horse", related to "Cabal", "Cheval" etc) pronounced approximately "Copple" or "Coppah" when speaking quickly.
Coille (= gaelic "of the woods") pronounced approximately "KYLE-yeh"

So "Coppah-Kyle-yeh"

But then you could also argue that the anglicised form Cayper Kaylee is "officially" the English name