Re: Bistahieversor sealeyi, NM tyrannosaurid

[John Wilkins <john.s.wilkins@gmail.com>]

Is there an online IPA pronouncer? That would be very useful.

On 29/01/2010, at 6:55 PM, Mike Taylor wrote:

> On 29 January 2010 07:31, Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu> wrote:
>>> (pronounced: bistah-he-ee-versor
>>> see-lee-eye) is a brand new species of tyrannosaur
>>> discovered in the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness of New
>>> Mexico
>> 
>> I'm sorry, but I tend to find it a bit presumptuous when an author tells me
>> how to pronounce a Neo-Latin name.  You say [,dIp.l@'do.k@s], I say
>> [dI'plad.@.k@s], and that's OK.  And that's completely leaving aside the
>> pains I get from looking at English fauxnetics...
> 
> Sorry, but I have to respectfully but forcefully disagree.  Differing
> pronunciation of names is one more source of confusion that we can do
> without -- I well remember sitting in puzzlement through the first two
> thirds of a talk on "Oi-uh-loff-us" before it occured to me that the
> speaker was referring to the dinosaur that I say as "You-hell-oh-pus".
> 
> I agree that it makes sense to include IPA as well as fauxnetics (and
> I will do that the next time I publish a name, so long as you'll
> translate my fauxnetics into IPA for me :-) but anything is better
> than nothing.

-- 
John Wilkins, Assistant Professor, Philosophy, Bond Uni 
Blog: http://evolvingthoughts.net/

Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining. 
And thought of convincing while they thought of dining;
Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; 
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit. [Goldsmith: "Retaliation"]
Species: A history of the idea http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11391.php