Okay, everyone gets a chance to laugh at me. How long have I been hanging around here?

I would like to know the correct pronunciation of Meiwa. I have never heard it spoken, and I read it as "mee-wa", and occasionally "mee-ee-wa". I am laughing at myself as I write this, but I would like to settle on a pronunciation, and figured I should at least try to find out the correct one!

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you,

Barbara

I guess I have never heard it spoken before, either. I pronounce it "mee-i-wa"

In Florida, we always call it "MAY-wah"

May-wah might be correct, but I've always pronounced it Mee-wah. I guess it all depends how the Japanese pronounce the letter "e" , or the "ei" combination. I don't know Japanese. Perhaps one of our members speaks Japanese. -

What is the proper pronunciation of the Chinese variety "Xie Shan"? - Millet (864-)

Thank Phil. So I assume then Xie-Shan is pronounced as Shy-Shan , or Shay-Shan? Any way, it is a great variety, especially if one likes a extra sweet citrus. I got both of my Xie-Shan trees from you some years back before the Texas quarantine. Both are now in fruit. Take care. - Millet (863-)

So now I have more ways instead of less! Thanks for the input, maybe someone will come along who knows Japanese and settle this for me. I never even considered May-wah. My "wa" is the same as Dr. Manners' and Millet's "wah", but they are more accurate in how they wrote is phonetically. I think my "ee" and John's "i" are the same also, I used "ee" to indicate the long, or hard "e" sound.

Thanks again, Barbara

I want to know how to say Rutaceae?

In English, Rutaceae is pronounced root-AY-see-ee. It varies in other languages.

Yes. Just like spelling the word "ace" aloud. Accent the "a."

True. But classical Latin pronunciations are not used in English pronunciations of botanical names or taxonomic ranks.

Mr. Texas you caused a smile here -- remembering from high school, Mrs. Helen Watkins, who we all believed to be at least 186 years old if she was a day, in her high, whiny, shreaky voice, saying "Latin is NOT a dead language! It is the most living language in the world today!" Of course we did not believe her, but it was good theatre.

Still, there are more-or-less standardized conventions about botanical Latin pronunciations, which do differ from classical Latin, just as Church Latin differs in its own ways from Classical.

In modern English, all plant families are pronounced with the final "aceae" as AY-see-ee, with the Ay being the strongest accent in the entire word. The leading syllables may have minor accents. Similarly, in modern Spanish, it's always said AH-say-ah-ay (that's written for the English-speaking reader), again with that first syllable accented. And Spanish does not use minor accents elsewhere in the entire word. I presume other modern languages each have their own take on the pronunciation.

With a short word like Rutaceae, the Rut (said root) is at the same unaccented level as the last two syllables. In something longer, like Arecaceae, it will nearly always be anglicized to AIR (schwa sound) KAY see ee, with the Air part with a minor accent. In Hamamelidaceae, one would say HAM (schwa sound) MEL (schwa sound) DAY see ee, with the Ham and the Mel minorly accented and the major accent on Day. That system makes the word flow comfortably from a speaker of English. In most American English accents there will be four different tones there, with the schwas a bit lower even than the ending see ee.