Pronunciation of Biological Latin ( Important in our hobby )

[OscarManAlpha]

I think it would be nice for those of us interested in our hobby to be able to pronounce the scientific names of our fish correctly.

I am going to start looking around the net for some info I have found some already.

Perhaps at a later stage we can develop a single post too simplify our findings.

Or perhaps even a list of the popular species in alphabetical order with
the correct spelling and the phonetic spelling on the right.

An example being Corydoras-Caw re door us
( just an example :oops: )

Here is a better example : Note the ae ending in animal and plant family names: Canidae, the dog family, is pronounced "canidee," not "caniday."

Here are some links
http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm
http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/classification/pronunciation.htm

That's it for now :)

[Stuart]

One I came across was Polypterus, the birchir genus. (pol-it-er-us)

Q!uite a few still confuse cichlid (sick-lid) too.

[Ben]

Any one know how to pronounce Astaxanthin??
I seem to studder every time i say it!

lol

Ben

[kevkoi]

As-Tax-an-thin..... Hope that helps. :lol:

[Squid]

Some scientific names are shockers. I did 5 years of zoology and aquatic science at uni - when I finished I could nearly speak Latin! and Greek Most are not pronounced as you phonetically read them.

[Phlipper]

Ok then............this isn't a fish, but how about this one "Eudyptula" :lol:

[Squid]

I give up on that one!! - do tell

Squid

[Phlipper]

I was kinda hoping you could tell me :roll: I have no idea, worked with that name for 10 years and no one could tell me :lol:

[hootie2s]

Ah saltspring...I used that for a uni assignment.

I recently linked to that site on another forum and just in case I got this e-mailed to me:

Thank you, by all means link to the site.

Peter

Peter Ommundsen
capewest@saltspring.com


Nice bloke...believes in sharing the knowledge :wink:

But yeah I still struggle at times.....I just cover with the obligatory..."or how ever you pronounce it".

[momo]

LOL just browsing but about 12 years ago i got my first lesson.

buying my first cichlid i asked for the "chill-Chid" i remember getting strange looks from the staff member and correcting me.

cheers

[spyderpig]

HAHA...
I had 4years of latin but i cant remember much... but what I know is that people pronounce it differently according to their country... eventhoygh there is a kind of "rule" or convention that tells how to pronounce each character...

[Squid]

Here is a good site I just found regarding Latin/pronunciation of fishes names

Squid

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/literature/Francovalias_Latineh.html