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Re: Pronouncing scientific names
Robert H said "But there has to be a proper way to pronounce them! "
Yes... and no. There are several more or less proper ways: there are
different "schools" of pronunciation. Latin pronunciation is taught one way
today in Germany and another in Italy (modern accents aside). Choirs that
sing Latin texts have to make choices about the pronunciation (often this
is based on when the text was written). Latin pronunciation changed over
the centuries during ancient times in the Roman Empire... through Church
Latin... and the pronunciation even became influenced by Italian. Still,
these differences involve a few sets of rules and one usually makes a
choice as to which system to adopt -- not unlike the situation for modern
Spanish.
"You say either, I say eyether"
Jared
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Jared Weinberger
http://www.brainyday.com/jared