____________________________________________________________________________________________ ’in a Botanical Name? (© 1999, Robert Lee Riffle) THE DEFINITIONS: This glossary consists of all palm and cycad genus names, and many of their specific epi- thets, other than most of the commemorations of persons and places--of which there are very many. The valid genus names are all in uppercase italics. I have based determinations of validity on Genera Palmarum (Uhl & Dransfield, 1987), Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas (Henderson, Galeano & Bernal, 1995) and The Palms of Mada- gascar (Dransfield & Beentje, 1995). The last two works revise (and invalidate) several of the genera considered valid in Genera Palmarum. The abbreviations "(Gr.)" and "(L.)" indicate "Greek" and "Latin" respectively; and if a name partakes of both lan- guages, the root word sequence is indicated by the order in which they occur. Other languages are spelled out. Many binomials commemorate ’names, especially surnames. These words are mostly missing in this glos- sary; to have included them would have at least doubled the size of the article. Many are easy to recognize as being given or surnames, and those that are not so easily and immediately recognized almost always have the Latin end- ings of -ae, -ana, -anum, -anus, -ei -i, -ii -orum (plural, indicating a family, man and wife, brothers, etc.) A few of the commemorative names are so unknown that they have been included in the definitions (cf. "afzelii"). Binomials based on place names are about as common as those commemorating people and, again, this document would be greatly expanded were they included. These names usually have the Latin endings of -ale, -alis -ense, -ensis -ica, -icum, -icus In some instances these Latinized place names are so remote from the present day form of the name, or the place is so relatively unknown, that a definition seems warranted: cf. "taitensis." THE PRONOUNCERS: Just as with almost all words in the English language, there is no 'one and only' correct way to pronounce botanical names. Some people say [toe-MAH-toe] and some say ’-MAI-doe]; some people say [SAL-ix] and some say [SAI-lix] for the botanical genus name of the willow tree "Salix." Both are correct. This lit- tle opus attempts only to be a guide to the pronunciation of the binomials as spoken by an American who has been practicing for many years. The primary stress syllable of a word in the pronouncers is indicated by upper case letters. In long botanical names, it is sometimes desirable to not only indicate the syllable that receives the primary stress but also a syllable which takes a secondary stress. For example in the following binomial "Carpentaria acuminata [kahr-pen-TAHR-ee-’[a- kyoo´-mi-NAIT-’the pronunciation of the specific epithet (the part of the binomial indicating the species name), "acuminata," is somewhat difficult to understand and execute if the syllable receiving a secondary stress is not indi- cated; one needs it to find a "rhythm" for the pronunciation in order to get a handle on its utterance. In this case it is the second syllable of the word which should receive the secondary stress and this fact is indicated by the ´ mark following the syllable. The general "rules" for the use of the pronouncers are: In all cases there is only one syllable to be pronounced between each hyphen. In all cases "a" is short as in the word "cat". In all cases "e" is short as in the word "elf." In all cases "i" is short as in the word "in." In all cases "o" is long as in the word "open." In all cases "u" is short as in the word "up." In all cases "g" is hard as in the word "get." Palm-Shop AG Postfach 36 8311 Brütten Telefon 052 355 01 01 Telefax 052 355 01 09 www.palm-shop.ch [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________________________ „’in a Botanical “ Seite -2- In all cases "ow" is to be pronounced as the "ou" in the word "ouch" and not as "ow" in the word "show." In all cases "ah" is to be pronounced as is the first vowel sound in the word "father." In all cases "ai" is to be pronounced as the "a" in the word "able." In all cases "ee" is to be pronounced as is the vowel sound in the word "deep." In all cases "eye" represents the long "I" as in the word "line." In all cases "oi" is pronounced as is the vowel sound of the word "boy." In all cases "oo" is pronounced as is the vowel sound of the word "goo." In all cases "th" is to be pronounced as it is in the word "thing," and not as it is in the word "the." In all cases "y" in accompaniment with a consonant is pronounced as is the word "eye." I have avoided using the sequences "as," "is," "do," and "to" because, for English readers, they are stumbling blocks as these sequences are pronounced [az], [iz], [doo] and [too]. In such cases the reader will find "ass," "iss," "doe" and "toe." And I have avoided using "y" to signify the sound of "eye" if the syllable is only a vowel sound--in which case it will be "eye." The apostrophe ’indicates a vowel sound that is very short in duration; its proper utterance is akin to the usual pronunciation of the unstressed article "a" in English speech; and it partakes also of the very short "u" sound in English. The "û" used here is equivalent to the vowel sound in the word "good" but is shorter in duration. Alternative pronunciations as in the genus name "Costus" [KOST-ûs] or [KAHST-ûs] illustrate the dictum that there is no 'one and only' correct way to pronounce most words. This fact is also very commonly exhibited in spe- cific epithets that end in "ata" or "ana." The specific "baileyana" is pronounced [bay-lee-YAHN-’or [bay-lee-AN- ’’completely a matter of preference. And the same is true for "mexicana:" it is pronounced either [mex-i- KAHN-’[mex-i-KAN-’or [mexi-KAIN-’and compare [ahr-jen-TAIT-’or [ahr-jen-TAHT-’for "argentata." The pronouncers I give are the the ones I generally indulge in--they are not written in stone. Personal pronunciation preferences (biases): My "philosophy" of the pronunciation of a binomial is "get it over with as quickly and as easily as possible." This is why I vastly prefer the short "û" sound to the "u" sound: the for- mer is shorter and gets one through the pronunciation quicker (and easier) than the latter. In my opinion one reason novices seem to have so much trouble making sounds out of letters in scientific names is that they agonize over them too much, drawing out the process as if it were radically different from pronouncing words with which they are familiar. English speakers do not say [ai] for the unstressed (unemphasized) article "a", nor [thee] for the un- stressed article "the," nor [FOR-um] for "forum" [FOR-ûm]. The cases in which I give alternate pronunciations are indicated by a forward slash (/) separating the choices; and the one I prefer is given first. This love of brevity in pronunciation drives me to refuse to pronounce the "ii" endings of specific epithets accord- ing to the dicta of academia. The latter staunchly defend [ee-eye'] as the proper utterance of these endings. For me this produces a sound similar to a hiccup or something only a native speaker of one of the clicking languages would be comfortable with--and it definitely slows down the pronunciation process. Palm-Shop AG Postfach 36 8311 Brütten Telefon 052 355 01 01 Telefax 052 355 01 09 www.palm-shop.ch [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________________________ „’in a Botanical “ Seite -3- The Glossary acanthocarpa, acanthocarpum, acanthocarpus spine + fruit (Gr.) [a-kanth´-o-KAHRP-ûs] acanthocoma, acanthocomum, acanthocomus spine + hair (Gr., L.) [a-kanth´-o-KO-’ acanthodes spiny (L.) [a-KANTH-o-deez / a-kan-THO-deez] ACANTHOPHOENIX spine + date palm (Gr.) [a-kanth´-o-FEE-nix] acanthophylla, acanthophyllum, acanthophyllus spine + leaf (Gr.) [a-kanth´-o-FYL-’ acaule, acaulis without a stem or trunk (L.) [a-KAW-lis] acetosa, acetosum, acetosus sharp, acidic/sharp; sometimes alluding to shape (L.) [ass-ee-TOE-’ acetosella, acetosellum, acetosellus sharp/acidic + little; sometimes alluding to shape (L.) [a-see´-toe-SEL-’ acida, acidum, acidus acidic (L.) [ASS-i-dûm] ACOELORRHAPHE without + hollow + needle (Gr.) [a-seel´-o-RAI-fee] ACROCOMIA highest + tuft of hair, an allusion to the ’crown of prickly leaves atop the columnar trunk (Gr.) [ak´-ro-KO-mee-’ actinia, actinium, actinius rayed, radiating like the spokes of a wheel; pointed (L.) [ak-TIN-ee-ûs] actinophylla, actinophyllum, actinophyllus rayed + leaf (L.) [ak-tin´-o-FYL-lûm] ACTINOKENTIA rayed + Kentia, an out-of-date name for Howea forsteriana [ak-’-o-KENT-ee-’ ACTINORHYTIS rayed + folded/wrinkled (L.) [ak-tin´-o-RYT-ûs] aculeata, aculeatum, aculeatus prickly (L.) [a-kyoo´-lee-AIT-’ aculeatissima, aculeatissimum, aculeatissimus very/most spiny (L.) ‘-kyoo´-lee-’-TIS-si-mûm] acuminata, acuminatum, acuminatus pointed (L.) [a-kyoo´-mi-NAIT-ûm] acutangula, acutangulum, acutangulus acute / sharp + angle (L.) [ak-yoo-TANG-yoo-’ acutifolia, acutifolium, acutifolius sharp + leaves (shape) (L.) [a-kyoot´-i-FO-lee-ûm] adscendens ascending (L.) [ad-SEN-denz] adusta, adustum, adustus burnt/blackened (L.) [a-DUST-ûs] aemula, aemulum, aemulus imitating (L.) [EEM-yoo-lûs] aequale, aequalis equal (L.) [EEK-’-lis] aequatoriale, aequatorialis of or from the equatorial regions (L.) [eek´-wi-tor-ee-AL-lis] aeruginosa, aeruginosum, aeruginosus rusty (color) (L.) [ee-roo´-ji-NO-sûs] aethiopia, aethiopium, aethiopius of or from Ethiopia (L.) [ee-thee-O-pee-ûm]