Re: paleonet Dinosaur Genera List update #187

[Frank Holterhoff <frank@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To head off in a different direction, Andrew has touched on a topic near
and dear to my heart, although I've never had much of an idea whom to
ask about it.

As an amateur associating mainly with other amateurs (and with a number
of professionals, many of whom also seem not to have a consistent
practice in this regard), I tend to say Latin names at least as often as
I read/write them.  As I'm sure you all are aware, in general, five
paleontologists will pronounce the same Latin name five different ways,
depending on whether they favor school Latin or Church Latin, where and
when (or if) they learned Latin, etc.

Is there a universally accepted source for pronunciation of scientific
Latin names?  I know how I learned it (public high school >30 years
ago), and I tend to use the pronunciation I learned there, which has
earned me some strange looks and the occasional public correction in the
past.  I know that my high school Latin teacher never heard any
first-language-Latin speakers speak, but I assume that he must have
learned the pronunciation he taught from some accepted source (clearly
not the Roman Catholic Church).

I'm aware that the science of paleontology has survived OK for hundreds
of years with the present level of clarification (?) of this burning
issue, but I think it's important to anyone who makes oral presentations
and cares about effective communication, and especially to amateurs
seeking to be scientifically correct!

How do you pronounce the brachiopod genus Leptaena?

F

Andrew Rindsberg wrote:
> 
> For those who want to brush up on their Latin, W.H. Stearn's "Botanical
> Latin" is an excellent survey, and there are also some websites on Botanical
> Latin (the dialect of Latin whose vocabulary was developed for use by
> biologists). But frankly, it would be a waste of time for every
> paleontologist to have to learn the basics of Latin well enough to apply
> them correctly. Better to recognize that only a few specialists have the
> time to develop a thorough knowledge of the subject, and to have new names
> reviewed by one of them before committing manuscripts to an editor.
> 
> Andrew K. Rindsberg
> 
> Geological Survey of Alabama
> Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

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