Scientific names (Latin) pronunciations

[Peter Lacey]

I won't tell them the one about how the Kangaroo got its name Brendan!!! Its true about the scientific names being from numerous languages, after all the B. baumgarteni is named after the German entomologist Baumgarten; the P. pederseni is named after Pederson; there's two nationalities involved for a start!! Just out of curiosity, is Brachypelma smithi another way of saying Smithie's Brachypelma?

Now I'm intrigued to know how kangaroo got its name.
I seem to remember Smith was an esteemed figure in the past who identified the Brachypelma species.
I've always wondered about P. cambridgei, is it named after Cambridge or someone called by that surname and if so why do we stick an i on the end and why are the surnames not used as Capital letters instead of lowercase?

[Colin D Wilson]

Now I'm intrigued to know how kangaroo got its name.

one story is the word "gangurru" refers to the grey Kangaroo, so the word has been generalised to mean the whole family.
I go along with the explanation that my cousin (who lives near Adelaide) told me after talking to the locals, when the first explorers landed on the continent they were amazed at the strange creature hopping around, when they asked the locals what they were called they said "kangaroo" which in their language meant "i don't know" the explorers thought that it was the name of the animal and so the name stuck.

We use binomial nomenclature to describe species, technically a two part name (although there are exceptions as we know for sub species)
The genus is always started with a capital letter, the species a lower case. the names should either be italicised or underlined to indicate their presence.
The "i" after the name basically means "of (belonging to)" or "after (named after)" when a persons name or place is used.
We don't capitalise the species part of the name if it is a name or place because it changes into a descriptive word

[Peter Lacey]

Now that's what I call an answer, well done Colin


Show off!

[Rebecca Norris]

do you pronounce the C in Poecilatheria as a K or as CEE though, both seem to be accepted.

I use the K..

[James Box]

i'd assume K, if only because it's not Poe-cees, it's Pokies lol

[Colin D Wilson]

I also use the "K", although according to ONE of my latin tutors after an "e" the "c" should be pronounced "cee"
Good job there was no verbal exam like in the French "O" level.

[James Box]

lol i bet your Latin tutor was right... the nickname Pokie may have come from someone who didn't know that haha

[Colin D Wilson]

It would be nice to go back in time and listen to the Romans talking to get a proper insite into the language eh?
Even the Italian language (very close to this topic) has become lazy and there's a difference in how the youngsters speak compared to my age group which differs again to the elders.

[James Box]

i no wot u mean innit

lol

[Colin D Wilson]

Yeah, sorted man, wicked, safe

O come italiano, Sì ordinati uomo, malvagi, sicurezza

[Clinton Hogben]

i no wot u mean innit

yo blood how ya doin

God I feel old what the hell happened to our language? what was wrong with it to need such drastic changes


respect no wot i sayin

Winston

[Peter Lacey]

language is always changing Clint, take a look back at the "English" language of Shakespeare or better still the language of Chaucer and you'll find its quite different to the language we use today.

IMHO I iz l33t & u iz all noobz

[James Box]

evolution of languages is fine...laziness isn't innit blud.
hehe

[Colin D Wilson]

Whilst vaguely attempting not to stray off topic ( Yup Guilty as charged )
Chaucers a fairly good example Peter, but the Shakespoke dude invented his own language and would have spoken exactly the same as someone from the west country.

[Peter Lacey]

exactly! the "language of Shakespeare", not quite what we're using now though. Our language is woven by many sources and evolves as others shape it. Even the meaning changes and like it or not with current trends the good ole vowel is under threat and punctuation is even slacking from stalwarts like the BBC.
Personally I like a subject to go off on a tangent as it continues debate on what might otherwise be an answered question.
However, scientific names, why do they have that term when many are not scientific at all? !!!!