Re: Making a mess of B. mesai (or, that darn possessive I)

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Tommy Bradley <htomsirveaux@hotmail.com>:

> brak-ee-trak-eh-lo-pan (not sure about the stresses).

In Greek:  on the second-to-last syllable (because the a in "Pan" is long)

In Latin:  on the third-to-last syllable (because the linking vowel -o- is
short)

In English, scientific terms are generally stressed as they would be in Latin.

> Now, onto my question: _mesai_.  I'm sure the original pronunciation 
> of Mr. Mesa's last name should remain (I'm assuming its MAY-sa), but 
> what about the male genitive I?  Should it be pronounced separately? 
> (as "eye" or "ee"?)  Or should the last two vowels be vocalized 
> together into, what...?

I'd say either "eye" or "ee" (that is, /ai/ or /i/), depending on 
taste.  If the
last two vowels were meant to be prounounced as a diphthong, they would
presumably have been written <ae>.

Nick Pharris
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan