Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalists: How do you pronounce all those Latin names?

Chapter member, Dr. Kevin Bezy, provided this helpful article on how to pronounce all those Latin Names....

Pronouncing Scientific Latin

People are often perplexed when it comes to pronouncing Latin scientific names. One source states that there is no standard pronunciation for scientific Latin and Greek terms. The names look very difficult and the reason is obvious – they are hard to pronounce. Most of us are not used to seeing such complex words. Just look at the list of ingredients of your favorite processed foods. One author suggests trying to pronounce the ingredient names as practice. The author states that one should say the words out loud. One cannot learn the pronunciations by merely reading the words. One suggestion that I will add, when learning how to pronounce a word, is to say the words one syllable at a time starting at the end of the word. So for the word epipremnum, say -num then prem-num then pi-prem-num and then e-pi-prem-num. That way your vocal mechanisms will be accustomed to the feel of the later syllables and will glide through the syllables.

Syllables

To begin with, one must be able to divide the word into syllables. There are no silent letters in Latin. There are a few times that the letter h appears not to be pronounced because it is a breathing sound. There will be as many syllables as there are vowels or diphthongs.

See the examples in the table.

Example		Syllabified word
leptocladus	4 vowels = 4 syllables	lep-to-cla-dus
pneumatopteris	4 vowels and 1 diphthong = 5 syllables	Pneu-ma-to-pte-ris
eremophila	5 vowels = 5 syllables	e-re-mo-phi-la
cinerea	4 vowels = 4 syllables	ci-ne-re-a
lewisii	4 vowels = 4 syllables	lew-i-s-i-i
hominid	3 vowels = 3 syllables	hom-in-id
virginiae	3 vowels and 1 diphthong = 4 syllables	vir-gin-i-ae

Divide syllables according to these guidelines:

When there are two vowels or a vowel and a diphthong, the vowels are separated:

dea = de – a; deae = de - ae

Where there is a consonant flanked by vowels, the consonant goes with the second vowel:

amicus = a – mi – cus

When there are two or more consonants between two vowels, the last consonant goes with the second vowel:

Consumptus = con - sump - tus

Exception:

1) A stop (p,b,t,d,c,g) plus a liquid (l, r) count as a single consonant and both go with the second vowel:

patrem = pa - trem

2) ch, ph, th, and qu count as a single consonant

architectus = ar – chi – tec - tus

Accents

In words of two syllables, the accent goes on the first syllable

In words of three or more syllables:

a. The accent goes on the second syllable from the end (penultimate) if that syllable is long by nature (contains a long vowel) or long by position (ends in a consonant).

b. Otherwise, the accent goes on the third syllable from the end (antepenultimate)

Sounds

Letters	Scientific Pronunciation	Sample	Sounds like
Consonants
B	as in better	barbara	bar-ba-ra
C	hard unless followed by e, i, ae, oe, or y then it is soft = s	cakile cedrus	kah-kì-lee seè-druhs
D	as in done	delphinium	del-fi-ne-um
F	as in fun	filipendula	fil-i-pen-du-la
G	hard unless followed by e, i, ae, oe, y or then it is soft = j	garcinia geranium	gar-sin-nee-ah jeh-ra-nee-uhm
H	as in hair	hedeoma	he-de-o-ma
J	y as in yes	justicia	jus-ti-she-a
K	rare letter - as in car	kosteletzkya	kos-te-letz-ky-a
L	as in lamb	lespedeza	les-pe-de-za
M	as in man	maritima	ma-ri-ti-ma
N	as in none	nepeta	ne-pe-ta
P	as in pie	passiflora	pas-si-flo-ra
Q	always followed by u and a vowel – kw as in quack	quotidian	kwo-tid-i-an
R	as in rabid	ratibida	ra-ti-bi-da
S	as in see	solidago	so-li-da-go
T	as in table	taenida	tae-ni-da
V	as in vine	vaccinium	vac-sin-i-um
W	no w in Latin
X	beginning of a word = z within a word = ks	xylococcus zanthoxylum	zy-lo-coc-cus zan-thoks-i-lum
Y	short i	argophyllus	ar-go-fil-lus
Z	as in zone	zizia	zi-zi-a
Vowels
Long A	father	lawsonia	lā-so-ni-ă
Short A	apart	moringa	mo-rin-gă
Long E	they	cepa	cē-pa
Short E	pet	vulgare	vul-ga-rĕ
Long I	machine	canis	ca-nīs
Short I	pin	ovis	o-vĭs
Long O	clover	homo	hō-mō
Short O	off	helarctos	he-larc-tŏs
Long U	rude	irregularis	ir-re-gū-la-ris
Short U	put	cervus	ser-vŭs
Diphthongs
AE	long e	tropaeolum	tro-pae-o-lum
AU	aw	daucus	dau-cus
EU	long u	teucrium	teu-cri-um
OE	long e (there may be debate on this sound)	biffoeus	Bif-fay-us
EI	long i	eichhornia	eich-hor-ni-a
UI	as in quick	equisetum	e-qui·se·tum
Consonant Blends and Digraphs
CC	Each c is pronounced	vaccinium	Vac-ci-ni-um
SC	Usually pronounced separately; unless followed by e, i, ae, oe, or y then like sh	musculus scolopaceus rutescens Lagascea	Mus-cu-lus Sco-lo-pa-ce-us Ru-te-shens La-ga-she-a
CH	k	chilopsis	ki-lop-sis
GN	Like the ny in canyon (there may be debate on this sound)	Vicugna	vi-cun-ya

Cn Ct Gn Mn Pn Ps Pt tn	at the beginning of a word, the first letter is silent	gnetales	nee-tay-lees
UU	first u is long the second is short	carduus	car-doo-us
PH	f	phacelia	Fa-ce-lia
TH	Generally as in theta	thaspium	Thas-pi-um
NG	Finger with a hard g; unless followed by e, I, ae, oe, or y then the g is soft	mungo melongena	Mun-go Me-lon-jay-na

It takes some practice to have an ear for the sounds. While Latin is very consistent, the world of science is not. You will hear some differences when you hear people pronounce scientific Latin. Do your best to be consistent and adjust when you think you find that you are not in the majority.

Sources:

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/plantsystematics/botnames.html

http://www.scientificlatin.org/latintable.html

http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/pronunciation.html

https://nycplantdoctor.com/plant-information/how-to-pronounce-botanical-latin/

http://capewest.ca/pron.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/introduction-to-latin-syllables-119466

https://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/Pronunciation.htm

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1E2UOZzXZInOrR5-q-peRKxKmjj6s3tgQdKSyTL_9S3U&hl=en

Wheelock, F. M. (1963) Latin: An introductory course based on ancient authors (3^rd ed.). Barnes & Noble Books.