PRONOUNCATION: - Orchid Board

weiss · #1 07-11-2006, 09:49 AM

I have seen many web sites that show how to pronounce phalaenopsis such as "fal-en-OP-sis". Can someone give me a similiar breakdown of the following species:
amabilis, amboinenis, aphrodite, and appendiculata?
Thank you very much.

Oscarman · #2 07-11-2006, 10:48 AM

Here it goes, hopefully I have it right. If not please add your too-scents-wurth!

amabilis, am-a-bill-iss...I think some say a-ma-billis

amboinenis (sb. amboinensis), am-bwon-en-siss

aphrodite, af-row-dite

appendiculata, a-pen-dick-u-lata

weiss · #3 07-11-2006, 11:03 AM

Thanks. What I'm really looking for is a similiar way to pronounce all the 50 or so Phal. species. Do you know of a web site that list these out the way that you did?
Or if you feel fisty would you wish to try all 50?
I really appreciate your help.

Tindomul · #4 07-11-2006, 01:27 PM

Aphrodite I pronounce as afro-di-tee since e tend to be strong in greek.
I agree with Dave on all the others.

Anyara · #5 07-13-2006, 08:04 PM

Pronumnciation has been one of the most difficult things for me to conquer in the orchid world. I have spent time with H. Mayr's book "Orchid Names and Thier Meanings" trying to learn the rules of latin, only to come out with a now legendary prounciation in our region of forbesii as "for- bess - e-i" by following the rules to the letter - not realizing at the time that it was a name! ("forbes - e- i").

I got the CD "Orchid Names & Pronounciation Guide" by Gerda Ferrington and unfortunetly the pronunciation on that CD sounds "foriegn" to my ears though my AOS mentor says it is "not bad as a starting point" - even though admittedly he thought some of the pronounciations were "unique sounding."

Like accents, I fear there are a lot of to-mate - toes / to - mah - toes in the orchid world.

But if anyone has any sage advice on how one may try to master latin pronounciation for orchid names...I'm all ears!

Oscarman · #6 07-21-2006, 11:36 AM

Also, many orchids are named after the person that first discovered/described them or were in some way significant to the plant. In those cases the plant's name should be pronounced as the person's name would be pronounced with the any other letter additions.

Cattleya forbesii was first introduced by the RHS and it was named after the person that collected it (Forbes), indeed you would say it like forbes-e-i.

Cattleya dowiana was named after Captain J. M. Dow, who had taken the plants to England and it would be pronounced like dow-e-anna.

Tindomul · #7 07-21-2006, 10:21 PM

I didnt realize that Dave. Thanks!!!

ScottMcC · #8 07-22-2006, 07:27 AM

yes, and apparently Cattleya is pronounced Catt-lee-uh, after the British explorer William Cattley. But plenty of people still pronounce it Catt-lay-uh.

Anyara · #9 07-22-2006, 08:12 AM

Any one want to take a crack at:
warscewiczii?

Also I was told the other night that in all Hawaiian names, you pronounce all of the vowels (contrary to some of the latin rules with the "ae" etc).

Anyone else have a few helpful hints?

ScottMcC · #10 07-22-2006, 08:32 AM

wahr-suh-wicks-ee-eye.