Re: pronounciation

["Jaime Headden" <jaemei@hotmail.com>]

>I watched "Beyond T-Rex" last night on Discovery (thanks again for >the 
heads-up, Larry) and while I was disappointed is in the lack of >'real' 
information, I was really surprised by the pronunciation of >the two 
"challengers'" names. Now I admit that I never tried to >pronounce them, 
but instead of Giganotosaurus sounding like >"gigantic", they pronounced 
it like it was the Irish dancing dinosaur >while Carcharodontosaurus 
sounded that the coughing dinosaur. Were >these the preferred 
pronunciations? Or should they sound different?

I've been studying Greek and Latin for a while now, and while I don't 
know how to say "hello" in either, I can tell you the pronunciation as 
based on the break down of their names:

*Giganotosaurus*
giga[s] (gee-gahs) "really big or giant"
notus (noh-toh) "south or southerly or southern"
      [not to be confused with noton (nou-tohn) Gr. "back"]
saurus <sauros (soor-us or sawr-us or sour-us) "lizard or reptile"
      (Gee-gah-noh-toh-sawr-us) carolinii (kah-rohl-lin-ee-eye)

*Carcharodontosaurus*
carcharos (kahr-kaur-ohs) "bloody"
donto <odontos (dahnt-oh or dahn-toh {oh-dohn-tohs) "tooth"
      carcharodontos together makes "bloody tooth" or "shark tooth"
saurus = same as above
       (Kahr-kaur-oh-dahn-toh-sawr-us) saharicus (sah-hahr-ih-kus)

You might want to refer to Jeff Poling's site at www.dinosauria.com and 
look through his pronounciation guide, where he even has the name on a 
sound byte for people who want to hear.

Jaime A. Headden

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