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Re: Political Correctness

At 10:37 PM -0800 12/29/97, R. Beer wrote:
>ACtually, :) you get to choose whether you want to go the latin route or
>the native-pronunciation-with-latin-ending route; both are acceptable and
>people tend to take the choice that works best with their own language and
>sounds "right."  So Michauxia will usually be pronounced "Mi-SHOW-ee-a".
>But what will the average american do with Ligularia przewalskii?  Most
>will say "per-ze-WAL-ski-eye" because most have no idea how to pronounce
>the polish "rz", and finding that it is like "sh" doesn't help much. :)
>But I the former slavics person automatically find myself saying
>"pshe-WALL-ski-eye" and hearing people say either "huh" or "gezundheit."

Not to start a flamefest, but why bother to pronounce 'prz' correctly
and horribly distort the rest (the whole thing should be: pshe-val-skee-ee)?

>While I'm ranting (well not really) here, let me harp on one common
>mispronunciation that really *is* 100% wrong (and drives me up the wall):
>pronouncing "Anemone" as "a-NEN-o-me".  No!  Nein!  Nyet!  :)
>"Anemone" comes from the Greek word "Anemos," (wind).  As in animus (same
>root).  It's a-NEM-o-ne.  Incidently, if you have gotten this far and your
>eyes are not glazed over, the "real" greek pronunciation of this word (as
>in how your average Joe in Athens says it) is "ah-ne-MO-ni"

My pet peeve is "rhododendrum".  Gag.   And any time the latin ending
'ii' ends up pronounced "ee-eye".  Yuck.

Krzysztof "pronounce this" Kozminski :-)

======================================
Krzysztof Kozminski
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"Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to
 pound in the correct screw."
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