Achille Finet. There are apparently a non-orchid genus named for him, and this was a "new" one - hence neofinetia - avoiding confusion.

Unfortunately "Classic" Latin (which I studied too), "Church" Latin, and botanical Latin are all different!

And with Camille trying to describe how a Frenchman would say a Latinized word tickles me.

Thanks Ray. I was thinking it would be Fine, in which case 'Fin - eh' would definitely be wrong.

Re French pronunciation... it's a long time since I did it, but I can confirm the t would not normally be pronounced, unless there's something after it. However I was always told to pronounce such extras as if they were part of what follows, which would make it 'fineh tiah' rather than 'finet iah'

And I guess it being a real name might make a difference to the pronunciation!

So how do people pronounce Cattleya?

The AOS says "CAT-lee-ah" but it seems everyone I hear pronounces it "Cat-lay-uh".

I say "Cat-lee-ah"

Cat-lee-ah
 

Great, that makes at least 2 of us, so I will keep pronouncing it that way.

hehe - my very first orchid book including pronunciations of some more popular genera, I'm sure I got it from there ;)

I'm for Cattley-a. After all it was named after a guy named Cattley.
On the subject of pronunciations, how do you guys pronounce capillipes as in Den. capillipes? To me it appears to be capill- ipes as opposed to cap- ill - opes.

Baz in Oz

Yes, I would think that the orchid genus name should follow the pronunciation of the surname Cattley. So is that surname pronounced "lay" or "lee"?

Caht lay uh
Stahyn hoe pay uh

In Crawford it's: Them thar cattle layerz ;)
Cattlelayer nukeyoulerr blue.:rofl: