Re: Details on Protopteryx

["Mickey_Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer@email.msn.com>]

Stephen Bowden wrote-

> Is there a consensus on how this Genus is pronounced?  The "p" in
> "pteryx" should be silent, as in "pterosaur", but this never seems to
> have happened with Archaeopteryx.  Is this chap going to be
> "PRO-toe-teryx", or "Pro-TOP-teryx", with the emphasis on the middle
> syllable?  Please say that it will be the former - what is the point in
> the ICZN mandating properly formed Latinate names if they are then
> mangled by non-Latinate pronunciation?

Unfortunately, I'm no Latin buff, so I don't know the correct pronounciation
of the name.  I'm sure several other list members more versed than I in the
dead tongue will have opinions though.  In the meantime, I choose to
pronounce the name "pro-toe-teryx" for no good reason other than it sounds
better to me. :-)

Mickey Mortimer