Pronunciation of "Bichir"

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I asked this same question on a local forum...

I got this quote online:

WHY BICHIR?

When Europeans (French) discovered the genus Polypterus in 1809 it had already been known along the Nile since the time of the pharoahs. The local peoples referred to them as bichirs (unknown pronunciation and spelling). While unable to come up with an exact meaning for the word it was most likely a descriptive term (''whip'' has been suggested) for this type of fish.

The French most likely pronounced it as phonetically as possible to the orginal native word and came up with bee-sheer as a pronunciation and spelled 'bichir'. Since this would be the name of these fish for
several years until they were scientifically described and put into the proper family it became an accepted common name.

However the correct English pronunciation is up for grabs. Several dictionaries all have their own pronunciation including the below:
bee cher
beech er
biker
bercheer
bi cher
bir chir is common in England
Also known by the common name lobed fin pike,dinosaur eel.
The name Polypterus : poly=many + pterus=fins and is pronounced po-lyp'-terus.
 
Darth Scohin;4629179; said:
I say Biker and it seems to be the most phonetic sense....But I believe its like Tomato Tamato etc different ways of saying it....but Bircher is DEFINATELY wrong because there is no "R" sorry mate

PS: The Search function would have brought you many of these phonetic debates to light
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PS. From my experience, the "search" function on this site is terrible. Junk in my opinion. Sorry mods, don't get mad. Might just be my ineptitude (doubt it)...:confused:
 
geronimo69;4629195;4629195 said:
PS. From my experience, the "search" function on this site is terrible. Junk in my opinion. Sorry mods, don't get mad. Might just be my ineptitude (doubt it)...:confused:
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Actually, the search function on here is the best I've used! The search function on other forums makes me go insane. This one can search for multiple phrases, like "orange + cat". Other sites will be bring up anything that has the word 'orange' or 'cat'. So frustrating :irked:
 
sounds like a good question for marina on the ever trusty hotforwords.com...or just gives me an excuse to go oogle her. Thanks kev
 
I say "biker". I went to a local petsmart and told the guy "Cool, I didn't know you sold 'bikers' here". He had no idea what I was talking about. I even referred to it as a polypterus sengalus. Still no clue. I finally pointed it out and he blasted me that it was pronounced "beeshay". It's amazing how people act if they have a "manager" name tag. I guess they have to make up for being in a dead end minimum wage paying job somehow. Maybe that guy should've been a mall cop or something.
 
I say "Bee-chir", but I've heard "biker" many times. At first I used to think, "how did we go from talking about fish to talking about motorcycles; weirdos!"
 
Threads like this always come up every 3 months or so and every time I have to bust my butt looking through the forum for beblondie's thread that states that it is OFFICIALLY pronounced BIKER. seriously....
 
smpage;4629372; said:
Threads like this always come up every 3 months or so and every time I have to bust my butt looking through the forum for beblondie's thread that states that it is OFFICIALLY pronounced BIKER. seriously....
Click to expand...

What's worse, the fact that it comes up every 3 months for people who don't know the answer...or the fact that you click on it every 3 months and complain about it?

people complain when people make threads that have been done before, people complain when you bump an old thread. just can't win can ya?

i'd always said bis her, now i know it's more commonly pronounced biker here
 
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