J, this is a helpful website but I was curious about pronunciation.

This may be the place to acknowledge that I've worn hearing aids since 1983 and should have had them 10 years prior (vanity easily overtakes youthful wisdom, or the lack thereof). This explains why music has drifted off into the unappreciated realm for me, if'n ya wanted to know.

I learn to pronounce new words very, very poorly . . . And, I've found that I still pronounce the names of flowers the way my grandmother taught me when I was a pre-school child in her garden. Grandma must have said kah-LEND-yew-lah (Calendula), I am pleased that the site linked for actual verbal pronunciation (rather than the lengthy monograph on Latin, Persian, Greek, etc., complete with cute poems) has Calendula the same way!

Now if I could just convince them to pronounce it ag-ah-STACH-ee instead of ag-ah-STAK-ee . . . (agastache)

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx

digitS'

Steve,
My horticulture and botany professors said "It don't matter how you says it, it ain't Latin anyway, its just based on Latin." And, as a Latin scholar, I already know that there are at least three schools of pronunciation for that dead, ahem, I mean classical language. I think if we are close, that should be enough!!

I often say the scientific name because, as we all know, the common names differ by region, generation and for just plain no reason. Sometimes I ask "...is that how you say it?" just in case.

And, it might not be worth much, but my horticulture prof. pronounced it with and "sh" and no 'e' at the end--agastash. Silly!

I'm guessing that the hearing loss is what makes it so hard to mimic pronunciations. I have, according to the audiologist in Santa Cruz, "the best hearing in the county." I'm assuming that is why I love to mimic and play-act accents!!

Glad you found the site helpful. I haven't thoroughly perused it yet but so far it has had everything I've looked up!

J.

As long as itÂs close enough that people can figure out what youÂre talking about, donÂt sweat the small stuff. Any attempt at the botanical name is better than using common names! Heck, when I was selling perennials, I was dealing with people who had trouble with the English versions! One day I had a lady ask me where she could find the Jumping Jacks. She quickly became irritated with me when I couldnÂt immediately figure out what she was looking for, and then it dawned on me what she wanted and I said, "The Johnny-jump-ups are over there." She gave me an angry look and immediately asked me where the asylum was! Now you tell me how I kept a straight face as I thought about it for a minute, the lightbulb when on, and I told her the alyssum was inside with the annuals! To this day I havenÂt figured out how I managed to keep from laughing in her faceÂand I was definitely tempted to tell her the asylum was in Pueblo!

sky'-burd

I'm considering checking in at Pueblo. Really enjoyed the city and the mountains above during a visit many years ago.

I have trouble pronouncing the everyday stuff like the "where can I find . . ." The longer we can't clearly hear ourselves speak, the more trouble we have speaking clearly.

The other side of the coin is a greater problem. As you turned and gestured towards the johnny-jump-ups, I would completely lose what you were saying since I could no longer see you saying it. (If we were outdoors or in a noisy room, communication would be problematic even if you spoke directly to me.) My tendency would be to nod and smile and wander off in the direction you pointed.

Imagine if I'd asked you - again - what you said and you turned again while speaking. And, then I said once more, "What was that?"

You'd probably grab David, the garden gnome, and club me with him! A better course of action would be to trust that both Jumping Jack and I arrive at elysian fields on our own.

Accents? Strangely, accents tend to all sound the same to me . . . Hungarian, Hispanic, Han Chinese . . . But also strangely, I tend to do fairly well at communicating with people who don't speak English very well. Communication is probably only 80% verbal and I've relied heavily on the other stuff since I was a kid.

Steve's digits trying to convince the rest of him to learn sign language . . .