Re: pronunciation of Camarasaurus

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On 6/6/06, Mike Taylor <mike@miketaylor.org.uk> wrote:
> Ye-es.  But it sure is useful if we all say it the same.  I remember
> sitting listening to a talk by Andreas Christian at the SVPCA in
> Leicester, wondering what this Oy-o-lophus thing was that he was
> talking about ... then realising fifteen minutes into his talk that he
> was saying _Euhelopus_.

In some ways that's probably closer to the "correct" Greek than the
usual English "yoo HELL uh puss" (particularly in the first syllable).
(Or is that the usual English? Do some say "YOO huh LOPE us"?)

People are never going to stop pronouncing things differently unless
we all adopt One World Language--and the same dialect thereof, with
the same accent. No variation of speech has the full range of human
sounds, let alone all the possible combinations thereof. (I'm willing
to bet you drop the first "r" in _Jaxartosaurus_, the "P" in
_Pterodaustro_, and the "C" in _Cnidaria_.) And when you've grown up
with one system, it's very hard to learn another. (I still can't
produce a trilled "r", myself, and I have to think before attempting
_Nqwebasaurus_--and I'm still not really sure I'm doing it right.)

That said, it would be nice to see, er, hear more consistency *within*
languages. But how do you pick a standard?
--
Mike Keesey
The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com
Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com