There's this, as a guide to pronouncing biological latin for English speakers: PRONUNCIATION OF BIOLOGICAL LATIN Including Taxonomic Names, which gives general guidelines on sounds and stresses. There's also this essay on rules of botanical pronunciation: Pronunciation. If you can get past the excess verbiage, has some good points. The biggest one is in this paragraph, where he quotes a few heavy-hitters in botany:

William Stearn in his Botanical Latin says "Botanical Latin is essentially a written language, but the scientific names of plants often occur in speech. How they are pronounced really matters little provided they sound pleasant and are understood by all." And A.W. Smith in A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names echoes this sentiment by saying: "Within reasonable limits, nobody need be too disturbed about pronunciation." Obviously however some people are disturbed by pronunciation, but I believe that the sound and flow of the words should govern or certainly at least affect how they are pronounced, and therefore awkward or cumbersome pronunciations should be avoided even when they are technically pursuant to some rule. To quote the great horticulturist and Dean of American gardeners L.H. Bailey, "There is no standard agreement on rules for the pronunciation of botanical binomials. Even in the best practice, there may be variations in pronunciation of a given word; this is unavoidable, and no more to be regretted than similar variations in pronouncing many English words. The particular sound to be given the vowels (within the categories "long" and "short") rests with the individual."

What I take away from all this is that there may be several ways to pronounce a name "correctly," and for every pronunciation snob out there with the one true way of saying the name, there's probably another snob who disagrees. And they are both right. And wrong.

I've asked the same question as well, from some very advanced growers - and have been told consistently

"The only way is to spend a lot of time around people that already know how to say it, and to hear it, and remember, and ask for help".

I've found some references on the Internet but it's mainly the... main names lol. I know the basics, but yes, I too had to learn the 'eye' trick haha

I am with you there!! I rather be a better grower then "name sayer" any day of the week!!

---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------

Great idea and resource, thank you!!!

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 PM ----------

Thank you for the fantastic resource!! I love your take on being both right and wrong depending on how you look at it!

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Thank you for sharing! I have learned a lot too by hearing them said out loud; it would be great if someone could compile an mp3 called, "Orchid Pronunciation for Newbies"! Lol!

I generally agree, except that "snob" may be a bit extreme.

Having studied classic Latin, I have a bias, but I try not to be a snob about it, and then there are regional pronunciation differences (like "car-mel" and "care-uh-mel"), not to mention the efforts by some to translate words into others' languages.

That seems like a horrendous experience just because you were new and were not sure about a pronunciation. Geez some people. I'm sorry for that to happen to anybody.

Thank you that's very kind of you!! Hopefully it won't happen to anyone else!

So far, I've been kindly corrected. Not here on this board but there seems more sanctimonious @$$es in this hobby then in my other interests.

Although I don't grow one, I love saying Coelogyne (at least I think I'm saying it correctly). I sometimes get stuck on Leptotes, vestiges of old habit.

I'm not interested in new species hunting or hybrid husbandry but I've always wanted to name something, "E-I-E-I-O-I" :lol:

Yoiu're right about that, but I think the degree of "sanctimonity" out there is decreasing as the number of orchid growers increases and their demographics changes.

I love the EIEIOI, but unfortunately one cannot "latinize" a hybrid name. Maybe we should use [Genus] Old McDonald 'EIEIO' instead.

I think we've all encountered a few of the sanctimonious ones, I think Ray is right about encountering less as a more diverse group gets into the hobby.

I recently was at an orchid auction where I was talking to a local judge from the AOS, she asked me what I liked to grow, I told her vandas. She literally gave me a dirty look and asked me where I kept them, I told her we had a solarium so they get plenty of sun (too much sometimes). Then she proceeded to ask me if the room was heated! Really? Nope, I let them freeze to death every winter then I ship in new vandas every spring and let them perish again when the next winter rolls around, come on! Then she walked away. My husband was standing with me; he just looked at me at asked, if she seriously ask if we kept our warm loving, tropical plants in a heated room? It was insulting, but I guess it takes all types!!

Love the E-I-E-I-O-I!!:rofl:

Those of us who have failed to learn Latin (and find the language hopeless) play an important part--We make newbies to orchid society meetings feel comfortable and welcome. Keep up the good work! :)