Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Jason <pristichampsus@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Frankly, one of the larger annoyances with many new names these days is that 
> they incorporate local languages in them such that it's impossible to know 
> the pronunciation without hearing the authors pronounce it themselves.
> At least with Latin and ancient Greek, one had a fighting chance.

I'm quite partial to the use of local (particularly indigenous)
languages in naming new genera and species.  But I agree that I'm
often at a loss as to how to pronounce these names correctly.  When
Jerry Harris and Peter Dodson coined _Suuwassea_ back in 2004 (a
highly creative and beautiful name, IMHO) they helpfully provided an
explicit pronunciation.  Ken Carpenter did the same in 2018 for
_Maraapunisaurus_ (another impressive name, for a specimen that no
longer exists).  I know it's asking a lot, but I think it would be
beneficial to have the preferred pronunciation provided for new names,
especially those with non-classical roots.


Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu> wrote:

> It's also worth noting that English and Latin share the same script. While 
> Greek is pretty consistent in terms of transliteration into the Latin script,

For certain Greek words, there is some flexibility with regard to
transliteration.  A direct transliteration of the Greek word for
'hand' (ÎÎÎÏÎÏ) into English would be 'kheiros'.  But transliteration
via Latin prefers 'ch' over 'kh', and 'us' over 'os'; and the 'e' is
optional to convey the first vowel sound.  Thus, different versions
are represented among dinosaur names that incorporate 'kheiros'/hand:
_Chirostenotes_, _Deinocheirus_, _Cruxicheiros_.

> languages like Chinese and Arabic have many different romanizations. This can 
> introduce extra pronunciation confusion for the uninitiated. Many world 
> languages have phonemes unfamiliar to English speakers, too, and I bet
> many of us on this list are pronouncing our Chinese dinosaur names wrong.

I'll second that.  This is another reason to have a recommended
pronunciation as part of the description.  For example, it wasn't
immediately clear to me how one should pronounce _Yi qi_ (I've been
told it's something like EE CHEE).  When it comes to the multisyllabic
_Jianianhualong_, I'm all at sea.