Pronounciation

[adamanteus]

I was talking to someone quite recently who had some very strange pronounciations for scientific names, and it got me thinking......

radix... a 'hard' 'A' sound as in radical or a 'soft' 'A' sound as in radio?:)

[Lulu Bennett]

lol are you that bored James lol

i Pronounce radix as a 'hard' 'A'. It rolls off the tongue better.

[adamanteus]

I also use the 'hard' A... but I'm pretty sure we're both wrong.......

[Lulu Bennett]

really? it sounds a bit wierd and unusual saying it with a 'soft' 'A'

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

The proper way to pronounce radix is with a long A as in radio.

Radix in latin describes many things, things such as a root, source, origin, base, etc... or a resting place, or even "the lower part of an object"

here's a site that i use where you can see a little more about the word (and others if you want)

Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D %2340353)

[adamanteus]

There are two schools of though on this.....
radix could be named for the Radix River, which is within their range ('hard' A)
or they are named thus because they are the 'original' Garter from which all other species evolved, or radiated ('soft' A).
I like to think they are the nominate Garter!:D

[adamanteus]

Radix in latin describes many things, things such as a root, source, origin, base, etc...

Which confirms my believe that they are indeed the source of all Thamnophis!

[gregmonsta]

I have to say the propper English pronunciation would use the 'soft' A sound. When there is a combination that follows vowel-consonant-vowel the second vowel causes the first to be pronounced in the alphabetical manner. For a hard 'A' you would need two consonants (ie - raddix) :p there are exceptions of course and syllables play a part in that etc. :) English is a nonsense language anyway. I'd say that propper latin would utilise the 'hard' A .... anyone?

[adamanteus]

I think the 'soft' A is correct, but I agree with Lulu that the 'hard' A rolls off the tongue more easily.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

lol speaking of that could someone post a list of pronunciations for all the garter sp. common in the trade, cuz i know a lot of names but idk how to say them

[enigma200316]

well maybe I'm grammaticly incorrect, but I say it with the hard A as well....:rolleyes::D (Rad-ix)

[Stefan-A]

lol speaking of that could someone post a list of pronunciations for all the garter sp. common in the trade, cuz i know a lot of names but idk how to say them
There's no point in learning how to pronounce the names correctly. Nobody else does. It's supposed to follow the rules of the latin language and last time I looked, there were no native speakers. ;) Not only that, there have been half a dozen latins with slightly different rules during the last two thousand years. Nevertheless, my first argument is the one I think is the strongest; Nobody else pronounces latin correctly. Just pronounce them in a way that's easy to understand.

ps. the A-sound in radix should probably be the same as in "arse". ;) The origin of the name doesn't matter, it's supposed to be pronounced "in latin".

[gregmonsta]

Lmao ... which pronunciation of arse??? I live in Scotland and in some regions it's pronunced 'erse' .... :D 'redix' ?

[Stefan-A]

Lmao ... which pronunciation of arse??? I live in Scotland and in some regions it's pronunced 'erse' .... :D 'redix' ?
The way the character 'Jed Thomas' pronounces it on The Fast Show. ;)

[drache]

that's the British Latin pronunciation
the American Latin would be like the 'a' in radio

[CrazyHedgehog]

lol
sod that its the pretty little yellow stripy one..(that James is addicted to)
so so I say Jaimeses fav...or jarms fav... or really posh .. Jermses ferv...:D

[Sputnik]

that's the British Latin pronunciation
the American Latin would be like the 'a' in radio

I'm with Rhea here. The soft "a" makes the pronounciation sound American. :)
I suffered a year of Latin lessons (as that was when I went to school in Germany, would that make it German Latin or just Latin Latin? :D) and the hard "a" would be correct.

[Zephyr]

I say we should all agree to disagree. XD

[CrazyHedgehog]

I say we rename it to Bob that way there can be no arguements...
I have an aneryststic...eurtherystic...no ....a blue and black thingy type of bob.
:rolleyes:

[drache]

I do know that the hard 'a' is the correct (having grown up in germany)
and nobody's mentioned it yet
but there's always the compromise - the 'a' as in radish

[Sputnik]

That makes even more sense. Oh, the subtle differences, lol.

But I'd go with Bob, too. :D

[adamanteus]

and nobody's mentioned it yet
but there's always the compromise - the 'a' as in radish

Check the first post in this thread..... 'A' as in radical...

[Lori P]

LOL... isn't it funny how familiar you get with reading some words, but then one day you say them and go-- eeek--- is THAT how that sounds??!! I actually did that the other day with plain old "thamnophis"-- my friend at work Kerry, who has the brother (or sister) to my Pugets asked the name of this forum as she was pondering joining. I rolled out "Thamnophis.com" and it sounded SO odd.

I always read radix with a hard a myself. :-)

[adamanteus]

So..... Physignathus cocincinus, anyone!!!:D

[Stefan-A]

So..... Physignathus cocincinus, anyone!!!:D
Forget it, James. Then English language doesn't have the sounds to tackle that one. :D But it's otherwise simple.

Damn, if I only knew IPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). :D Would be easier to explain long vowels. ;)

[Loren]

So..... Physignathus cocincinus, anyone!!!:D
fie -sig- nath- us co- sin -sin- us ?

The bottom line- The beauty of the internet is that there is no pronounciation required.
And as Stephan said- not like anyone else is going to know if you are wrong- they dont know either.
Just say it with confidence. People will believe you.

[Stefan-A]

fie -sig- nath- us co- sin -sin- us ?


The Y-sound is different, th is pronounced t and there are two different schools of thought regarding the pronounciation of C. Some say it's always hard or a K-sound, others have rules for when it's K and when it's S. :D

Seriously, it's a dead language. We can abuse it all we want. :D

[Loren]

Seriously, it's a dead language. We can abuse it all we want. :D

Sounds good to me.:D

[Stefan-A]

Linguistic necrophilia FTW. :p

[Sputnik]

The Y-sound is different, th is pronounced t and there are two different schools of thought regarding the pronounciation of C. Some say it's always hard or a K-sound, others have rules for when it's K and when it's S. :D


And no "tongue between your teeth and lips- TH". :p

Oh, and I think it's "co- sin -kin- us" Or.. "Co! Sink in us!" hehehe Actually, that doesn't work either as the "u" sounds more like the "oo" in "look" or the "o" in "Who" (???), not the "u" in "us".

My head's beginning to spin, but keep going, this is a fantastic thread... :)

[drache]

Seriously, it's a dead language. We can abuse it all we want. :D
not only that
even when it was alive it probably sounded different from one neighborhood to another, or among different professions and social classes

[Sputnik]

I'm all for abusing Latin. It's caused me so much pain and heartache and arguments with my parents ( I think it was even the reason why I ran away from home once, lol) that a little revenge would be welcome.


Btw, Rhea, why are you awake? Isn't it still disgustingly early in New York?

[Stefan-A]

not only that
even when it was alive it probably sounded different from one neighborhood to another, or among different professions and social classes
Of course. :) I bet most people didn't have to worry about spelling the words either. ;)

[drache]

what I don't understand is that when I was a kid the two educational tracks one could choose from in gymnasium (german name fer highschool): the humanistic one required one to take latin and at least two other languages (yes, classic greek was an option); the science track only required english
wouldn't it have made more sense to give the science track people a good foundation in latin?

[Stefan-A]

Not very much scientifically relevant material is available in Latin.

[Sputnik]

Maybe not whole texts, but all the names are. I was always told, too, that if you wanted to study medicine for example you HAD to learn Latin or the German universities wouldn't consider taking you.

[Stefan-A]

True, but you don't really need to understand the names. But I agree, it does have some limited use in biology. The anatomy of an organism is usually described in Latin.

[anji1971]

When I took medical terminology, much of it was Greek based, with a bit of Latin thrown in for good measure.
I always thought it would be cool if they taught Latin in school here, it may have helped out at church when I was a kid!:D

[enigma200316]

the only thing I speak is Justin's language, what ever I say when I say....

[drache]

most of my pre-med latin I got from reading Asterix comics