Latin names and how we say them

[Lesley Cox]

Luit,
You certainly have SCILL with you Scillas

But are Scillas Skillas. I assume they are sillas, as in science, scent and sceptre. Are the Scilly Isles Skilly Isles?

[Anthony Darby]

Scilly question Lesley.

[ranunculus]

Scilly question Lesley.

SARKy answer Anthony?   

[Joakim B]

Far from being an expert in latin I would say that in Swedish they are pronounced skilla as in skill and presumably also in Danish. Whether it is correct or not I do not know but I will not change my way of pronounce it anyway.
Lovely picture every one.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Maggi Young]

Scilly question Lesley.

SARKy answer Anthony?   

 Or even :  a Sercquiais  remark?


Whatever, with the weather we're getting at the moment the more sarks the better, Lesley!

[Katherine J]

This is a very interesting question about pronunciation of Latin names. It's OK, that every nation says it in his way. But what happens at an international conference? I never attended one, so I would be curious. How do others understand, If I say Scilla like a Hungarian word??? The Latin is used to understand everybody what are talking about. But if everybody pronounce it in his own way, I think it is a kind of Babel again... 

[Paul T]

Kathrine,

I found exactly that problem when I visited Otto, Fermi, Tim, Lesley etc in Victoria a few weeks ago.  Most of my knowledge of names is through reading them, so I in a lot of cases have never heard them said.  The people I visited all talked amongst themselves all the time, so they had the same pronunciations..... whereas I didn't have a clue what they were talking about in some cases.  I can only imagine what an international conference must be like.   

[Joakim B]

Kata is not "sc" in Hungarian pronounced very different from either skill or science. I just can not remember how. That may sound very different.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Martin Baxendale]

Kata is not "sc" in Hungarian pronounced very different from either skill or science. I just can not remember how. That may sound very different.
Kind regards
Joakim

My wife tells me s in Hungarian is a sort of sh sound and c is a sort of ts sound, so very different to English pronunciation.

I would have thought that botanists, for example, at an international gathering would try as much as possible to use 'classical' Latin pronunciation, as the ancient Romans would have pronounced it, which gives consistent pronunciation whatever your nationality.

[Tony Willis]

It was interesting that on our first visit to Germany and not speaking German we thought that at least we would have the pronunciation of the plants names in common.How wrong we were,it took days to get used to it as the names were usually lost somewhere in the sentence.We solved it by pointing to a plant,giving our version and being laughed at.

Martin how do we know how the Romans spoke 2000 years ago? This is a serious question. I have often wondered about this since becoming interested in gardening and meeting 'plant experts' who always know the correct pronunciation and say this is how Latin should be spoken.

[Hans J]

...and dont forget : not all are latin names - some are of greek orgin !

[Martin Baxendale]

...and dont forget : not all are latin names - some are of greek orgin !

I did think about that, but I believe the vast majority of plant names are latin. And those that are derived from Greek should be I suppose be pronounced according to Greek pronunciation, for which there are of course modern day pronunciation guides.

[Martin Baxendale]

Martin how do we know how the Romans spoke 2000 years ago? This is a serious question. I have often wondered about this since becoming interested in gardening and meeting 'plant experts' who always know the correct pronunciation and say this is how Latin should be spoken.

The 'proper' classical way to pronounce Latin is as taught in schools. Exactly how they worked out what pronunciations were in Roman times I don't know exactly, but I understand it was through writings from the time (in Latin and other languages) about the language itself, from which Latin scholars were able to glean how words were pronounced.

Apparently quite a few pronunciations have changed since I learned Latin. My son has been learning Latin for the last couple of years at secondary school, and it seems that further study of writings from Roman times have provided better clues to pronunciation, so that some words are now spoken quite differently to in my school days - just as current scholarly thinking has changed the way we're supposed to pronounce the name of Queen Boadicea (which I learned as Boadisseea but is apparently now pronounced Boadicca!)

[David Nicholson]

Historians still argue on both how to spell and to pronounce Boudica (one example!) which can be pronounced 'Boo-di-ka' The name stems from the Celtic language (nearest present day equivalent being Welsh). This was the language spoken by the majority of the indigenous peoples of this Island prior to the Saxons adding a Germanic element, which with old Norse developed into Old English . Wales was never conquered by the Saxons.

In the Celtic tongue, Boudica, whichever way you spell it, translates as 'victory' or Victoria in modern English.

How do I remember all this stuff when I'm hard pressed to remember which day it is?

[Tony Willis]

Martin

Interesting but I wonder if a Roman from the north could understand one from the south and which one thought they pronounced the words in the correct way. I know we  pronounce words correctly in Manchester and that everbody else is just not up to the mark. Up here glass rhymes with ass but I understand in the south it rhymes with arse. (I hope that is allowed with Maggie being away, the spell check thinks its okay)

We have difficulty understanding people from Liverpool and them us and it is only twenty miles away and I am sure they think they speak 'perfect' English.

We will never no unless we can manage time travel.

 My German friends know they are right and we are wrong because they told me so!