CLEMatiS, cleMAHtis, cleMAYtis

[ANNE V. GILBERT]

Duane:

> For the last thirty years or so I have been involved with botanical
> Latin, and I can tell you that pronunciation is all over the lot. (See
> how many pronunciations you get for kalanchoe.) That is partly because
> some people come at it from a classical base and some from a church
> background and some attack it with nothing but raw nerve.

How common is ka LAN choe?  Just curious. That's the way I always heard this
plant(which I'm growing).
>
> But mostly it is so variable because (1) it is mostly written, not
> spoken, and (2) there is really no identifiable group of experts to
> standardize it through their use. Horticulturists are not noted for their
> language background. So in spite of numerous flower room brawls, there
> really is no right and wrong about it. I just give something like
> Oenothera erythrosepala my best shot and dare anyone in the room to
> correct me.

I've heard two variants for Homo sapiens, so it's not limited to plants.
Anne G


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