Say What? The Challenges of Misspelling Latin Species Names

Once upon a time, it was actually about 2½ centuries ago, a very wise and educated nobleman came up with a brilliant idea of organizing all of our perceptions of the surrounding world, starting from rocks and minerals to plants and animals. This was Carolus Linnaeus, who wrote a book that became one of the most important works of mankind, called "Systema Naturae", "The System of Nature". It was the habit in his time to write this book in Latin, and he consciously used this language because of its stability. It is a dead language that does not develop further and has very strict and exception-free rules, which are very easy to adhere to. He proposed a system of naming animals in Latin in a simple way to provide a universal platform across cultures and languages, so that people in any corner of the globe could understand exactly what life entity was being discussed.

Nowadays, the world is more or less ruled by English, which is a language of a completely different concept. It is terribly inconsistent and anarchic when it comes to rules regarding pronunciation or grammar, having even many forms across different territories and educational levels and industries. The general experience shows that for a non-native speaker, there is no other way to learn it than just to remember how words are written and how they are pronounced, and it is not easy. But this creates a situation where English-speaking people become more and more numerous, and more English-native-speakers are born who rely solely on this one language and vigorously refuse to learn others, including Latin. The problem is they pronounce the Latin names in such a barbaric way that it often leads to confusion because no one really understands what they mean with their wrong pronunciation.

The ignorance and loss of knowledge of the Latin language lead to a paradox. The purpose of stability and mutual understanding is washed away by the incorrect and inconsistent pronunciation of the latin names. It applies not only to geology, botany and zoology, but also to medicine and anatomy. For many decades, it was a good habit to call the reptiles by their Latin names, regardless of whether a university professor or a layman who was a herpetology enthusiast was speaking; they all used Latin names so they could communicate effectively. Of course, there are also trivial names or vernacular or common names, but these are formed without any rules, leading to many situations where one name applies to multiple animals on different continents. Even more frequently, there is no single, generally accepted name for an animal in the trivial category, but several variations exist.

The decline from Latin is understandable but not wise. People think that Latin is complex and complicated, which is absolutely not true. It is a language that is very strict and simple. Although it has complex grammar, it is codified without exceptions, and the rules are easy to understand and apply. An important aspect is that Latin often uses fewer letters and sounds compared to English. In the area of pronunciation, Latin offers clarity and consistency that is often lost in modern English.

Latin Alphabet

The Latin alphabet consists of 24 letters, similar to the English alphabet but without the letters "J" and "W." The letters used are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z. 

If non native letters appear in scientific names, they come from the adoption from other languages. Where possible, phonetic transliterations are used to keep simplicity: 

• The Umlaut in German "ö, ü" is transliterated with "oe" and "ue" respectively. 

• The Russian unique letters are transliterated the following way: "Ш" into "sh", "Я" into "ia", "Щ" into "sch", "Ч" into "ch", "Х" into "kh", "Ж" into "yh", "Ю" into "iu".

• The Czech diacritic signs areeither simply omitted and transliterrated phonetically (according to their sound) the following way: Ž" into "zh", "Š" into "sh", "Č" into "ch", "Ř" into "rzh".

• In other languages, specific rules apply.

Pronunciation of Letters

Syllable Structure

Latin words are divided into syllables, with the general rule being one vowel per syllable. The stress typically falls on the penultimate (second to last) syllable if it is long; otherwise, it falls on the antepenultimate (third to last) syllable.

Specific Considerations

Long and Short Vowels: Vowels can be long or short, affecting the pronunciation. Long vowels are often marked with a macron (e.g., ā, ē, ī, ō, ū).

Consonant Clusters: 

Certain consonant combinations are pronounced together, like 

• "ch" pronounced as "ch" (as in "chocolate") and 

• "ph" pronounced as "ph" (as in "philosophy").

In scientific nomenclature, particularly in the field of biology and taxonomy, patronyms (names derived from a person's name) are typically Latinized to fit within the conventions of Latin naming. How these patronyms are pronounced can depend on several factors, including adherence to classical Latin pronunciation rules or sticking with the pronunciation from the original language. Here's how to approach this:

Patronym Pronunciation

1. Classical Latin Pronunciation:

- If strictly adhering to Latin pronunciation, a name like "steindachneri" would be pronounced approximately as "stain-dahk-ner-ee".

- Similarly, other patronyms would follow the same pattern of separating syllables based on Latin rules, preserving the vowel sounds and consonant pronunciations defined above.

2. Original Language Pronunciation:

- Using the original language pronunciation often retains more of the name's cultural significance. For instance, if "Steindachner" is pronounced in a Germanic context (where "ei" sounds like "I" and "ch" has a softer, more aspirated sound), many people might pronounce it similar to "shteyn-dakh-ner-ee"

- In this case, many scientists may prefer to pronounce the name based on its origin, especially if they are communicating in informal settings or among peers familiar with the original language.

Practical Considerations

- In professional scientific contexts (e.g., publications, presentations), it's generally expected to use the Latin pronunciation. This helps maintain consistency across the international scientific community.

- However, in less formal situations or when addressing an audience familiar with the language of the origin, using the original pronunciation can be more acceptable and respectful.

- Regardless of the approach taken, the important thing is to be consistent in nomenclature within any single publication or discussion.

Many English native speakers insist ons English pronunciation of names originating in English. Often, thez are quite rigid or even militant in it. There is however a big problem doing so.

This approach is not always easy, as in many cases, people do not know in which language the patronym was originating and can not read it properly in the language. Then, very often people use the approximate way of english pronunciation which is double wrong…

In exotic languages like Vietnamese or Chinese almost noone out of their territories have a clue how these names are pronounced. They even use sounds which are absent in european languages or use tonality in a way totally far from indoeuropean language groups… If we shouod apply the logic of pronouncing patronyms (but also geographic names derived from local names) the original way and latinize just the ending, the process of properly spelling them would be:

1. Study the etymology of the patronym. But in older works, the patronyms were not always explained, so it is not always clear what was the intention of the description author.

2. Learn from which language the family name from which the patronym was formed originated (not so easy as there are overlaps and as people travelled or were translocated or adapted various names from different territories, or adapted a name from different territory to the country the person resided - the correct original pronunciation of the name is to be found out by Sherlock Holmes, how complex it will might be. Imagine e.g. that a name would be formed in honor of a son of German Merchant König born and living in Russia. His name would not be pronounced as König but as "Konig" as it would be spelled in Cyrillic as "Кониг". The pronunciation of such word is verycomplicated to express in English, as "Кониг" will be pronounced with a sound missing in English, namely "co-ñ-ee-k".

3. Only after knowing the original pronunciation you can attempt to latinize it with Latin ending and pronounce it. The specific epithet "koenigi" would have to be pronounced "co-nee-gee", in Russia they do not have the letter "o" and would omit the Umlaut same as English speaking people do not usually know how to properly pronounce "ö". But if the name would be pronounced in germany, it would sound different, with the letter "ö" similar to "coe-nee-gee". If the name would be formed as "koenigii" using total latinization approach, then the pronunciation would be "coe-nee-gee-ee" (and not "co-nee-gee-I", what would be the probable case if twisted samely as english speaking scientists usually do). But, if the name would actually be russinized to "Кониг", then the correct phonetic approximate latinization would be actually "konigi" or "konigii" and would have to sound "co-ñ-ee-kee" or "co-ñ-ee-kee-ee". Moreover, the accent would have to be on the second syllable, not on the first like in the German first two versions.

With all respect, I can not imagine this should really be the approach, it is not realistic. But similarly wrong is also the common approach to use English pronunciation of the Latin names. Though there can be a dispute which version of the Latin pronunciation we should use, the Classicalone or the Ecclesiastical or any other? Anyway, it is sure, Latin was never correctly pronounced English way…

It may all sound absurd but this is reality.

So, I guess the easiest way is to pronounce it Latin way using the classical Latin pronunciation. All other versions and approaches create an uncontrollable and confusing mess.