Re: Pterodactylus kochi

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>:

> Speaking of which, for someone who talks about _Brachiosaurus brancai_
> a lot, I sure such as pronouncing it.  I've been saying either
> "brank-eye" or "brank-ee-eye", but given that the name honours Branca,
> I assume that something more like "branka-eye" would be correct?  Can
> anyone help me out?

I would say either "branka-eye" or "branka-ee" would be appropriate.  
I've kind of given up on getting people to standardize pronunciations 
of terms like this.  They are, first and foremost, written words; the 
process of transduction from written to spoken, particularly in 
English, is tortuous and idiosyncratic, though rather fascinating in 
its own right.


> (And a plea to all of you who publish new names: PLEASE include a
> suggested pronunciation in the systematic palaeontology.  Thanks to
> Jerry for doing this with _Suuwassea_ -- one of the few dinosaur
> names that there is no excuse for mispronouncing!)

And a second plea:  if you do this, please do it in IPA, and not 
English pseudo-phonetic spelling!

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land