"Megapnosaurus" pronounced...

["Peschier, Jarno" <jpeschier@saralee-de.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Ivie [mailto:mivie@gemini.oscs.montana.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 11:57 PM
> To: Nick Longrich
> Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: re: "Megapnosaurus" says farewell...
> 
> [...] have you tried Megapnosaurus out loud [Meg-ap-no-sar-us],
> by the way, really roles of the tounge nicely [...]

[Cloacking device off...]

I am by no means taking sides in this whole debate *), passing (ad hominem)
judgement, saying I (dis)like the new name for Syntarsus or anything else
like that. And I also do not want to open a whole new can of worms on
pronounciation of genera, now that I mention it...

However... Please do not assume that a word is easily pronounced by just
checking how you yourself would pronounce it and then simply stating the
very subjective "{it} really rol[l]s of[f] the tounge nicely" (I added the L
and F there...).

As an example: I would definately not pronounce /Megapnosaurus/ as
"Meg-ap-no-sar-us", but as as "Me-ga-pno-sau-rus" (with stress on both the
first and forth syllables). But that's just silly old me, native Dutch
speaker that I am.

By the way: the P is also not silent for me, which I suspect it probably is
for a lot of you, comparing the sound to how I pronounce "pneumatisch" as
opposed to how I think English speakers pronounce the equivalent English
version of this word ("pneumatic").

Just my 2 (Euro) cents...

With mesozoic greetings,
Jarno Peschier (dinosaur@jarno.demon.nl)

*) Having said this: I'm a bit sorry that the nice name /Syntarsus/ has to
go (for the dinosaur I mean), I think it is unfortunate that Raath (sp?)
apparently did not get to suggest a replacement name, I do believe care has
at least been taking in trying to let this happen (although arguably not
quite enough, but since I'm not that intrenched into the field I will
refrain absolutely from passing judgement on whether enough care was taken
or not!), I get the jocular nature of the new name but do not think it to be
that funny, and finally I will no doubt get used to the new name in time. I
just think the energy spent on the whole discussion so far on the DML might
have been much better spent... <sigh>

[Cloaking device on...]