OT: phonetic pronunciation

Linda wrote:

"Pronunciation varies a lot in this country - I have a hard time
understanding what plant some nursery people are describing also.  Not
only strange rules of pronunciation, but added or missing syllables."


This brings a local example to mind. Again not an Iris, but still a plant.
There is a regional trade in field dug Yuccas for landscaping here (a dying
trade, but not dead quite dead yet).  One of the species commonly sold is
Yucca thompsoniana. The Diggers, and thus the dealers they sell to, and
thus the customers have taken to calling them "Thomasony" or "Thomasoniana"
Yuccas (spelling provided by myself in a familiar English sort of way).
Makes me think of Thomas's Sony stereo set, or maybe that Thomas is a Sony,
or that he's sitting on a Sony!  Port old Thompson sort of gets displaced
by Thomas. [Maybe he is Thomas Thompson?].

Anyway, I've worked with the diggers (mostly Hispanic) enough to realize
that the problem is that many have Mexican Spanish as a native tongue, and
they can't say "thompsoniana" without getting their tongues tied into
knots, so it gets twisted into something close and more familiar to their
tongues - roughly "toe-mas-own-ee-ON-ah".

Sometimes, after they become familiar, such slightly off names show up in
publications, an actually become (sort of) official, though I haven't seen
it with the Yuccas yet.

I have seen Fameflower become Flameflower - two very different meanings.

OK, I've taken my turn at the dead horse.  Back to work.

Dave

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index