Pronunciations of dinosaur/prehistoric animal names

[Gondwanalandia]

Hi, not sure where exactly to post this, but how exactly does one pronounce Tupuxuara?  I got the new Papo model and I'm kind of unsure what to say when people ask what it is.   

To make this thread a little more relevant, are there any other hard-to-pronounce names of prehistoric animals that could use some clarification on how to say them?

(I do notice that pronunciation varies a lot by country.  When I listen to the tet. zoo. podcast they pronouce dinosaur names very differently than I was taught as an American.  Are there any international pronunciation standards, or is it a free-for-all?)

[tyrantqueen]

Supposedly it is pronounced TOO-poo-HWAR-ah.

We had a topic similar to this once: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2595.msg70636#msg70636

[Halichoeres]

When I teach courses on Mammalogy, Ichthyology, etc., on the first day I have students pronounce some name (let's say, Rhinichthys), and regardless of whether they say "rye-NICK-theez" or "rye-NICK-thiss" or "rih-NICK-theez," I tell the ones who say it confidently that they are correct. It was hard enough when all the names came from Latin and Greek, given that nobody really knows how Latin was pronounced (we can guess from poetry and from modern Romanian, Italian, and Spanish, but we're still guessing). But now we have names from Aztec (Tlacuatzin), Uzbek (Azhdarcho), Chinese (Guanlong), and Tupi (Tapejara). To scientists, there are few things less worth getting worked up about than whether someone is pronouncing things "correctly." We all alter the names to suit the language we speak natively (Spanish speakers have very different "standard" pronunciations). After all, the plant genus Fuchsia was named after a German botanist named Fuchs and so should be something like "FOOKS-ia," but everyone I know in the English-speaking world says "FYOO-shuh."

[Halichoeres]

Tupuxuara is also a Tupi name, and according to this Tupi pronunciation guide I just looked up (http://www.unilang.org/course.php?res=82#ci-l1pronunciation) the x is pronounced like the English "sh" and the r is equivalent to the Spanish single r, so it sounds like the "tt" in American English "butter." This sound does not even exist in British Received Pronunciation. So I guess it would be Too-poo-SHWA-ttah if you wanted to get really pedantic, but I urge everyone in the world to avoid getting really pedantic. I would not flinch if someone said "Too-pooks-WAH-rah" or something similar.

[Kayakasaurus]

(I do notice that pronunciation varies a lot by country.  When I listen to the tet. zoo. podcast they pronouce dinosaur names very differently than I was taught as an American. Are there any international pronunciation standards, or is it a free-for-all?)

Generally the rule is, however Americans pronounce it is correct. 

[Patrx]

Generally the rule is, however Americans pronounce it is correct. 

Hah! It's not just scientific names, either. Did anyone here catch the whole "sloth rhymes with moth" discussion on the latest TetZoo podcast? Very amusing.

My understanding is, like Halichoeres alluded to, naming standards were developed with scientific writing in mind, so verbal pronunciation is not particularly important overall.

[Dobber]

Coelurosaurs still gives me a hard time.

Chris

[Takama]

Coelurosaurs still gives me a hard time.

Chris

Its "So lur ro saurs"

[Dobber]

Hmm, Google pronunciation pronounces it as SEE-LOOR-ROsaur

Either way, I was extremely embarrassed by how off I was when reading it!    I STILL have to think hard about it when I see it and not want to pronounce it. CO-EL-YOU-ROsaur.  Basically, I'm an idiot. 

Chris

[Takama]

Hmm, Google pronunciation pronounces it as SEE-LOOR-ROsaur

Either way, I was extremely embarrassed by how off I was when reading it!    I STILL have to think hard about it when I see it and not want to pronounce it. CO-EL-YOU-ROsaur.  Basically, I'm an idiot. 

Chris

Hey i had problems pronouncing that one too. But trying to write down a pronunciation is not easy for me

[Newt]

A classics nerd (I'm a recovering one) would point out that there is no soft C in Latin (or in the case of "coelurosaur", Latinized Greek). So, it would more properly be pronounced "koelurosaur". Then there's them diphthongs - the sounds represented by "oe" and "au" don't really occur in English...and the Great Vowel Shift helped nothing...

So, yeah. Say it how you want. If anyone is confused, write it out.

Also, Rhinichthys are dope. Especially the undescribed (at least, last I looked) Cumberland form. Cyprinids WOOOO!

[Gondwanalandia]

Well, thanks, I suppose that clears things up (sort of), at least with respect to TOO-poo-HWAR-ah.  I agree that it's not a big issue, but you want to at least be in the ballpark I think (i.e., something like too-pux-you-ar-a would be considered incorrect/less correct, to me at least). 

[Arul]

This topic is very good for me lol

[Halichoeres]

Well, thanks, I suppose that clears things up (sort of), at least with respect to TOO-poo-HWAR-ah.  I agree that it's not a big issue, but you want to at least be in the ballpark I think (i.e., something like too-pux-you-ar-a would be considered incorrect/less correct, to me at least). 

Here's a list of general conventions (I would not say "rules") in North American English, which differ considerably from both the pronunciation of the actual source languages, and from conventional pronunciations in other countries. http://capewest.ca/pron.html

[Paleona]

Sorry to necro a thread a few months old, but lately I've been thinking of how to pronounce one dinosaur name in particular... Diplodocus.  I think I've heard the most variations of this name alone!

DIP-low-dock-iss (this is how I pronounced it as a kid)
dih-PLOD-a-cuss
DIE-plod-o-cuss (this is how I read it in my head nowadays)
die-ploe-DOE-cuss

You all may even pronounce how I've written these differently, haha, depending on where you live.  I suppose it's not very important, but I still find it pretty interesting!

edit: whoops, I see there was a thread completely dedicated to this before!  My bad; just ignore this post. 

[Takama]

Sometimes the way a Animals Name is pronounced is not how i wished it was

Yi qi is a good Example

Its Pronounced YEE Chee

But i like to say Yee Qwee as i find that to be more fun to say

[Halichoeres]

Sometimes the way a Animals Name is pronounced is not how i wished it was

Yi qi is a good Example

Its Pronounced YEE Chee

But i like to say Yee Qwee as i find that to be more fun to say

I like to pronounce it "Itchy" like the mouse from the Simpsons.

[Ceresiosaurus]

as a spaniard whose language comes from latin and that knows classic greek, I always find funny how anglos and other languages' speakers suffer when pronunciating dinosaurs' names 

[Newt]

We can't even agree how to pronounce our own language...

[Halichoeres]

We can't even agree how to pronounce our own language...

Does it drive you up the wall when someone says they have a "neutral" accent?