Genus and Species pronounciation

[gnuisance]

I know there are some cichlid names out there that are hard to pronounce. I for example pronounce dovii - doh-vee-eye because thats how i first heard it. But I hear a lot of people say doh-vee or doh-vye.
And how do you say Geophagus? Is it Geo-***-us? Or Geo-phay-gus? So often we just type these names and don't say them out loud so I'm sure many are mispronounced. What are some of the ones you can't say??

 

[GTS]

Dovii is properly spoken as Dov-eye. I used to pronounce it like you, until I saw a seminar with Dr. Loiselle about 12 years ago. Another common one Cichlasoma. It is pronounced as Sick-la-soma. Another common one would be festae. It is pronounced as Fest-i, not as Fest-ay.Umbriferum would be Um-brif-arum, not Um-brif-ferum.

 

[gnuisance]

Dovii is properly spoken as Dov-eye. I used to pronounce it like you, until I saw a seminar with Dr. Loiselle about 12 years ago. Another common one Cichlasoma. It is pronounced as Sick-la-soma. Another common one would be festae. It is pronounced as Fest-i, not as Fest-ay.Umbriferum would be Um-brif-arum, not Um-brif-ferum.

Good info! I have learned something already.

 

[Modest_Man]

There is a thread on this around somewhere. Try searching for nomenclature or something...

Found it. That was easy.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200085

 

[darth pike]

I may not be 100% on this, but I thought I read some where that dovii is actually prounce dow-i. The w gets changed to a v becuase of the double i but keeps the same sound. One of the old common names was dow's cichlid ...

 

[Otherone]

Fest-A

 

[gnuisance]

looks like some of the pronounciations in the mojo thread are off. The problem with this is that there is no real authority on the subject.

 

[GTS]

I may not be 100% on this, but I thought I read some where that dovii is actually prounce dow-i. The w gets changed to a v becuase of the double i but keeps the same sound. One of the old common names was dow's cichlid ...

I heard that also but Dr. Paul V. Loiselle wrote one of the first scholarly classifications on dovii. So that is why I say it the way he says it.

 

[GTS]

Fest-A

That is incorrect. I have been to Ecuador and collected them before. Everyone there called them fest-i, including the ichthyologists from the local university.

 

[Jason_S]

I may not be 100% on this, but I thought I read some where that dovii is actually prounce dow-i. The w gets changed to a v becuase of the double i but keeps the same sound. One of the old common names was dow's cichlid ...

Most people I've talked to call it doe-vee-eye but I believe the proper pronunication is dow-ee-eye. The cichlid was named after Dow, but there is no w in the latin language or something like that so the W was changed to a V.

As for pronunciation, the fact that latin is a dead language, who's to say exactly what the correct pronunciation is? There are differences even among the experts. I've heard a lot of people pronounce Thorichthys as Thor-ick-these while Rusty Wessel pronounced Thor-itch-these. Who's to say who's right?

And I've always called it fest-ay. If, when named after a person/location and ends with I it has a long I sound...makes sense to me that ae would have a long A sound. Just my $0.02.