names of people and plants
diana chapman (Fri, 11 Apr 2003 07:16:17 PDT)
Dear Diane and all:
My interest in bulbs started long before I ever met any other like-minded
people to share with, so I started pronouncing names the Latin way, or the
way I was told to in books. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I
appear to be the only person on earth who pronounces Lachenalia
"la-shen-all-ia"! It is too ingrained to change. My Latin (Catholic
school) background makes it impossible for me to split latin words up,
laying the emphasis on the middle syllable thereby making nonsense of the
Latin. Or, pronouncing Triteleia bridgesii, "brid-gess-ee-eye". I'm too
old to change.
Diana
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Whitehead" <voltaire@islandnet.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 8:23 PM
Subject: [pbs] Re: names of people and plants
I like to honour the person whose name is commemorated by pronouncing
a plant name like the person's name. So, since Clivia was named for
Clive, I use a long i.
People think I'm a bit strange when I talk about MacAdamia nuts
instead of Maca dame ia nuts.
You can't always tell about names, though. Some of our common
Pacific Coast plants were named for Menzies, but apparently in
Scotland, where he came from, his name is pronounced something like
'Mingies', and I'm not sure whether that should be a hard or soft g.
I still pronounce the z.
--
Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil
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