Pronounciaton

[Miranda]

Seing as tis is all typing its hard to know how to say the names do you say achtina fulica like ashatina foolisa? sorry but its hard to know and also is
reticulata retickyoularta is smithii smithy? and irradeli irradelli?
i know its annoying but how are you supposed to know if youve only ever seen it typed!

[Kevin]

I think Achatina is Acka-teena, and fulica full-icka, i think smithii is smith-e-aye, im not sure on reticulata and iredalei's proper pronounciation though?

[LisaLQ]

Go on then, I'll join you Miranda - can anyone tell me how you say archachatina? Is it "arch-ack-ateena", "ark-ack-ateena" or what? I say it like the first way. Iredalei I pronounce "I-red-al-eye", like with plants smithii I think could be "smithy-eye" because of the double "i", reticulata I pronounce "ret-ick-yoo-larta".

And is degneri "deg-ner-eye" or "dej-ner-eye"? I bet Paul knows (I thought Kevin was bound to but I'm kind of glad he doesnt because now I feel less of a prat!). ;D

[Paul]

Latin names are open to interpretation since no-one alive has ever heard Latin spoken. There are suggested guidelines though and I did once spend ages trying to investigate this.

I say Achatina as Ack-a-teena but I've seen similar stemmed words with the Ach pronounced as Atch. Doesn't sound right to me though and the cases I saw weren't simple enough to assume it is a soft ach sound. By that I mean the key to pronunciation was totally inconsistent and unclear so it was inconclusive.

I think the Arch part of Archachatina is pronounced as it is written - Arch.

Smithii is likely to be smith-ee-eye because of the double i.

Reticulata must be how it is said, with a "larta" suffix because it comes from the word group of Reticulated, Reticulation etc.

I say, dej-ne-ree for degneri and ired-alee for iredalei.

I say full-icka for fulica but I think it should probably be full-ike-a. I've heard it pronounced fool-icka also but I assume that is based on English pronunciation with a single consonant L causing the long vowel sound.

Just guesses though...

[Miranda]

we go to catholic mass so ill ask the priest!

[Arno]

I guess it also makes a difference which type of language you speak.English speaking people will pronounce the latin names differently than Dutch or German speaking ones,as do Italian,Spanish and Portuguese people.I always assumed latin was most closely related to these last three languages.

[apple]

Hi

I already heard latin here, because not only latin is learned on the school here but also portuguese have it´s origins on latin, so, many words have identical meaning and pronounciation.
For example.

Degneri, you tell on the same manner in portuguese and latin and in english sounds like: Degneree
Fulica- latin=port., in english sounds like: fooleecka ( lool).
Reticulata- latin=port. in english sounds like: Reteecoolata
Achatina-latin=port. in english sounds like: Ashuteena

[marco]

wouldnt it be easier to come up with nick names for em like tigers and margies?

[goose]

Well yes and certainly this helps the non-scientific community identify particular species of animal in this case different snails and is a lot easier for day to day use. The posh word for using latin or greek derived names for living things is 'binomial nomenclature' and was developed in the 18th century. It is a kind of universal language whereby every living thing can be identified by people the world over no matter what language they speak so that in the scientific community if someone is talking about 'Achatina fulica' everyone knows exactly what that is. Every species can be unambigously identified using just 2 words. The trouble with nicknames or colloquial names is that different cultures, countries and even taking the UK for example counties will use different nicknames for the same animal - this creates confusion. For example in this country a mountain ash is a rowan tree in Australia it is a type of eucalyptus tree. In some parts of the UK people call rabbits 'coneys'. In the snail community I suppose someone could call a stripy fulica a tiger - however if it is identified correctly and sold by its latin name you know exactly what you are getting. Hope that makes sense

[apple]

It makes indeed!