pronunciations

hossleew eric.w.hossler at vanderbilt.edu
Fri Jul 27 16:37:17 EDT 2001


Classical Latin, as I was taught in college by professors who persisted in 
exactness, pronounces all C's hard and sounds the same as our "K". "AE" is 
always pronounced like the letter "I", so to answer your question "ceae" 
sounds like "kay-eye."

Then again, in the two thousand plus years since Latin came about, I am sure 
that much has been changed or lost. For example, I hear they teach Latin 
pronunciation slightly differently in England.

Eric Hossler
BS Classics, Class of '01


>===== Original Message From "Ron Gatrelle" <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org> =====
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "gwang" <gwang at mb.sympatico.ca>
>
>
>> P.S.  It has just occured to me that over the years I've heard many
>> different pronounciations of 'ae'.  Some use a long a sound, while
>> others pronounce it like the i in pile.  Is there a correct
>> pronounciation?  I took a latin course several years ago (when I was in
>> grade 9), and I think people who spoke classical latin used the latter
>> pronounciation, but that seems not to be the pronounciation of choice
>> these days.  And while on the subject, just how are amateurs like myself
>> supposed to learn correct/popular pronounciations anyway?  I mean, you
>> see latin names in print all the time, but rarely will you hear it
>> actually spoken by professionals.  Just how is one supposed to pronounce
>> something that ends in 'ceae'?
>>
>
>It is interesting to hear how lepidopterists pronounce names differently
>when they get together. I suppose that with the increased usage of common
>names the correct (technical) ones are not heard to much any more.
>
>Many years ago I had the privilege of meeting and spending some time in the
>field with Dr A. E. Brower. His son lived in Savannah GA and was a friend
>of my friend Dr. R. T. Arbogast. Brower was one of the top moth experts in
>the country. He wrote the 1968 updated version of Holland's classic Moth
>Book. Brower came up here to Charleston for day of collecting while on a
>visit to his son in Savannah (Brower was a resident of Maine). He was
>especially interested in a spot where I had found some Underwing Moths -
>Catocala. This genus was one of his specialties. Now Brower was well up in
>years when we met and I was immediately taken by the trouble I had keeping
>up with him - he walked at a joggers pace.
>
>Before I met Dr. Brower,  and afterward, I had/have only heard Catocala
>pronounce as - Ka tock a la. -  Brower pronounced it Cat o call a .  We had
>corresponded before we met and "Catocala" was of course written by him in
>his letters - but I pronounced it my way as I read it.  That day in the
>field he immediately corrected me and said,   "it is Cat o call a
>not Ka tock a la."  My suspicion all these years is that his pronunciation
>is the correct one and all  the rest of us have it wrong. If I recall he
>was near 80 when we met. I never heard him use a common name and when we
>corresponded and exchanged specimens he also only used the
>scientific names for butterflies and moths. I am sure if I go back and dig
>out the old letters from Clench, dos Passos, Gray & others we rarely (if
>ever) used
>common names in our letters. How times have changed in the last 30 years.
>
>I pronounce ae as a hard A as in ate.
>
>Ron
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
>
>   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl


 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
 


More information about the Leps-l mailing list