pronunciation of pteryx and other forms of pt

["Moody, Scott" <Moody@mail.oucom.ohiou.edu>]

Yes, Phil Currie is correct and the p of pteryx in any combination with 
other words in forming a taxonomic name should NOT be pronounced.  As we 
increasingly become an international community of scholars one needs to be 
aware of the correct pronunciation of other languages, in this case, Latin. 
  Americans ignorantly butcher the latin pronunciation of anatomical and 
taxonomic names.   Many of you who have traveled to european scientific 
meetings (as I have many times)  will recall the quizzical expressions on 
faces of colleagues as you mispronounced names.   Many taxonomic books have 
an appendix on how to pronounce correctly the latinized scientific names. 
 One excellent reference is:

Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms, written by Donald J. Borror, 
1960 with many subsequent printings.   Mayfield Publishing Co., Palo Alto, 
CA.

I can snail-mail to you a copy of the few pages of how to pronounce if you 
wish.

Scott M. Moody, Curator of the Vertebrate Collections, Ohio University
Department of Biological Sciences, Irvine 042, Athens OH 45701-2939
moody@mail.oucom.ohiou.edu