Pronunciation of Latin names

[shaggybill]

How do you pronounce Crotalus Adamanteus,

[Matt]

this may be hard to do...
Crow-tal-us Add-a-man-tee-us

does that mak any sense at all?

[BWSmith]

Chris Harper always said to imaging a Monk singing it ;) Hey, it's latin!

[shaggybill]

cool, that did help. THats how I've been saying it but I didnt want to look like a moron if I ever said it in front of a pro-herper.

[Matt]

;)

[BWSmith]

Crow -tal-us Add-a-man -tee-us

I bolded the punch in the words. This is how I generally hear it. But I hear ALOT of different pronunciations. I have heard about 10 different ways of saying Naja.

[Jeremy]

Naja has to be the worst. No two people say it the same way! I say Nie-a, if that makes sense but others say Nag-a or Na-ja.

Heres one for you guys. Try correctly pronoucening Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It took me 3 years to finnaly nail that one down!!!! Its easy if you brake it down but to say it in one fluid motion of the mouth can drive one insane!! BTW, alot of people pronouce Trimeresurus as if they are makeing it sound like a Dinousur but the correct way is Trime- er-es-ur-us not Trime- er-esurus.

Welp, I hope that make sense!

Peace,
J

[Matt]

i had trouble with the purps at first too :)

[ReptileHQ]

I don't think that the letter "j" in latin is pronounced as in spanish...eg. Baja, so I would say the proper way to say Naja is as in English.

Here are a few examples to back up my point....

parts of Pakistan and most of India speak Hindi, and in that language the word for Cobra is maha-kalanaag, where naag is pronounced just as in english.

The holy ancient language of India is Sanskrit, and the name for Cobra is Ajgar, again pronounced just as in English.

The way to say it is very similar in these languages in which the cobra inhabits, and I think it would be safe to assume that "naja" in latin is pronouced like "naga".

Hope this helps to clear that on going mystery on how to say Naja


Chris
(the fountain of useless information)

LOL

[ReptileHQ]

j in naja pronounced as in "jump", not like girl

(wrote "naga" in above post)

Chris

[BWSmith]

I think you are on crack!!! ;) J/K

I still like the Ni-Ya pronunciation, doesn't sound as redneck ;)

[Jeremy]

ROTFLMAO BW!!!!

BTW, I agree. Nie-a is the most commonly used pronounceation(?) by profesional and private herpetoligist that I have spoken with. I agree with Chris that Naag would be the word from which Naja was dirived but I still dont think thats the most commonly excepted way of saying it, outside of India anyway.

Ill stick with Nie-a untill Wolfgang says its otherwise:-)LOL

All the best,
Jeremy

[nahish2001]

naja is an Indian word that the people call the snakes. so it's spelled how it looks. (it's not Latin.) and adamanteus is add-a-man-TAY-us.

[Matt]

tomato....tomaato