It's latin, so I think it must be Too ja.

Wolfgang

American Heritage Dictionary:
thu�ja

Dave

Too jar, hmm

I have always heard it pronounced 'Thew-ya'.
Mike

R-bore-vie-tay

jeez ...

ken

Too-ja

the oo spoken like in poor

Wolfgang

I'll try again: Should be thu-ja. GW is responsible for the screw up thu�ja

Here is a link that might be useful: thuja

It's actually from Ancient Greek øÃÂïñ, not Latin. So "thoo-ya" (not 'too-', nor '-ja').

The name originally referred to a scented wood from northern Africa used for incense, probably Tetraclinis articulata.

Resin

Yep, Thoo-ya

I agree on the "thoo ya", but most garden centers (at least those that understand there are muggos, crabby ap-pells, etc.) would steer you in the right direction if you asked for thew-ja.

but if you shop at the bigboxstore.. you better go with ..

WHERE ARE THE ARBS????

are you guys ignoring my humor???

ken

Bored ken? ;)

"R-bore-vie-tay

jeez ..."

Well, R-bore-vit-ay

Is 'Jeez' a Thuja cultivar? ;-)

Resin

Larry,go back to that Garden-centre and ask them if they got a Pinus... T.

I did not know that the ancient Romans and Greeks spoke their language with an American English accent. But I should have known because the actors in those US movies about life and war in ancient times spoke that way.

They didn't, they used a British English accent ;-)

Actually, more realistically, the Romans used a German accent - Latin Caesar was pronounced about the same as German Kaiser.

Resin

Could have fun here:
Cupressocyparis?
Cup ress o SIP a riss

No need to, since it is a defunct name!

But for the record, "kup-resso-kipe-a-riss"

Resin

Sorry,I just couldn't help thinking of Mr.Bean walking into a garden centre hahaha ! T.

That'd be "vikky-a fa ba" or maybe "fazzy olus vul-gar-us"

;-)

Resin: cupressocyparis a defunct name? (Should actually be x Cupressocyparis)

Yep - Nootka Cypress is now (following genetic analysis) classified as Cupressus nootkatensis (not in Chamaecyparis any more). That means both parents of Leyland Cypress are in the same genus, so the hybrid is also now named Cupressus ÃÂ leylandii.

Resin

Or maybe X xanthocupressus

x xanthocupressus leylandii
x xanthocupressus notabilis
x xanthocupressus ovensii

Xanthocyparis does not fit well into cupressus Chris Page
was right with the generic name Xanthocyparis.If two genera
are closely related they can hybridise.Yes the name
X cupressocyparis should be ditched.

"Xanthocyparis does not fit well into cupressus"

Actually, it does; it is nested within it (i.e., treating "Xanthocyparis" separately leaves Cupressus paraphyletic: some Cupressus are more closely related to "Xanthocyparis" than they are to other Cupressus). See Mao et al., New Phytologist 188 (1): 254-272 (2010). So Xanthocyparis needs to be ditched as well.

Resin

So the Leylandii is now genuinely a Leyland Cypress!

Let's plant some more!!! T.

Kam ay kipper iss
Krip to meer ear
Soo dough soo gah
metta sek oy a glip toe strobe oy dees
A raw care ear

Most people pronounce botanical Latin as Latin Vulgate, or Catholic Church Latin. The classical Latin of ancient Romans was pronounced differently. For example, the Latin vulgate pronunciation for maple (acer) would be a-ser but it would be a-ker in classical Latin. I have never heard anyone pronounce it a-ker.

I have been puzzling over Thuja myself. I've been pronouncing it as thu-ja, but a nurseryman recently called it thu-ya when speaking to me. I was quite surprised. I thought he was mispronouncing it by giving it a Spanish pronunciation, especially since the online American Heritage Dictionary distinctly says thu-ja. But if it is a word of Greek origin, perhaps he was right, and the dictionary and I are both wrong.

It does seem to be a point of much confusion. You could probably get away with either pronunciation.

Rosefolly

"Most people pronounce botanical Latin as Latin Vulgate, or Catholic Church Latin"

Not sure that's true. William T Stearn, author of the standard work Botanical Latin, recommends Classical Latin pronunciation as the most likely to be understood.

"I have never heard anyone pronounce it a-ker"

Actually "Ak-air", which is how I pronounce Acer ;-)

Resin

pronounciation of this stuff is very important to me and I take pride and trying to do it the best I can.

Thank you, my mind has just been blown. LOL

~Dave

I say "MAY-pull".

On another note, which syllable(s) do you emphasize?

-tack-SOH-dee-um

-tack-soh-DEE-um
and so on

Just to prolong the discussion and make it even more difficult..

"Win-GAR-dium levi-O-sa"

Dan

The discussion reminds me of a story from my grad school days. One of the professors was an Asian fellow named Dr. Hu. When he first introduced himself he pronounced his name "Dr. Hugh", and that was how I subsequently referred to him. One day when talking about him with several of the other students, I was asked why I said his name that way since everyone else pronounced his name "Dr. Who". When I replied that that was how he himself pronounced his name so it had to be correct, I was informed that he only said it that way because of his accent. I thought this was a very funny statement but the other student was in earnest, the implication being that since I do not speak with a Chinese accent I should say the name the right way, "Dr. Hu". To this day, it still makes me chuckle to think of the student who believed that Dr. Hu prounced his own name wrong.

Alex

Maybe Dr. Hu mispronounced his name deliberately so people wouldn't think he was a Time Lord?

;-)

I was looking at a nootkatensis at a nursery last week, labeled as Chamaecyparis. Wouldn't a nursery be aware of the name change to Cupressus, 3+ years later?

I tend to be a bit fanatical about pronoucing the latin correctly and always heard 'Chamaecyparis' pronounced: 'Kam ee SIPP a ris' as opposed to 'Kam ay kipper iss'. There's an audio @ the hort.uconn.edu site that also pronounces it like the former. Perhaps both ways are correct? Never a dull moment when it comes to linguistics.

On our first date, my wife called me out on pronouncing Clematis incorrectly. Figured I might as well keep her around after that.

I have a habit of saying things incorrectly...that comes from reading a lot more than I listen. In other words, I see a lot of words in print, that I cannot recall ever having heard them pronounced by someone.

Then someone, usually my wife, eventually corrects me. I guess I need to get out more.

LInk

Here is a link that might be useful: Thuja

"I was looking at a nootkatensis at a nursery last week, labeled as Chamaecyparis. Wouldn't a nursery be aware of the name change to Cupressus, 3+ years later?"

Regrettably, not necessarily. It commonly takes the nursery industry anything from 20-50 years to catch up with the results of botanical research. Basically, it seems you have to wait for the old-timers to retire and be replaced by new staff at the top.

Resin