Re: Plesiopterys, new plesiosaur from Germany

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

David Marjanovic (david.marjanovic@gmx.at) wrote (responding to me, in
<<>>):

<<First, the pronounciation is either softer, or easier, to make;>>

<Hardly.>

  The sound "s" at least in English is an easier sound than "ks" or "zs"
depending on the dialect in English, which is how X is pronounced here.
This is essentially, for precision's sake, a double-sound, including "s,"
whereas S by itself lacks this.

<I haven't seen -pterys, but anyway, I think -pteris is a different word.
Just think of "Pteridophyta".>

  No, it's the same word, just "softer." There is almost no instance in
either Latin or English that I know of for use of the "ih" or "eh" sounds
approximated by use of I or Y that _require_ Y except etymologically.
O'Keefe uses _-pterys_ in the etymology, but Greek suggests _pterigio_ or
_pterygio_. _Pteryx_ is one declension, but the use of -s may involve the
word _pteron_, another word for "wing," rather than the generalized term
for wing/feather/flipper. It is also used specifically for "fern," derived
as _pterido_, in the sense that a fern frond resembles a birds wing, as in
the array of "feathers" for leaves. In this sense, a better word was
chosen, but O'Keefe's meaning, and the meaning of _pterys_ is exact, if
different from use in other more common vertebrate names.

<Well... the root is pteryg-.>

  One could say the root is _ptero-_, or _pter-_, in combining forms, thus
allowing modifiers for senses without changing the structure of the root
itself; the letter upsilon can be used interchangeable for I or Y in
transliteration, so the use of "-is" and "-ys" is really a matter of taste
rather than exactitude, as one can say _pterig-_ just as easily; iota is
used primarily for "eye/aye," as eta is used for "ee" and "eh," epsilon
for "ay" and "eh," and upsilon for "ih" and "ee."

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


                
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