Syllable stress of botanical names varies with the language spoken by the person using the botanical name. In English-speaking countries, the
Botanical Latin
Botanical Latin is a technical language based on New Latin, used for descriptions of botanical taxa. Until 2012, International Code of Botanical Nomenclature mandated Botanical Latin to be used for the descriptions of most new taxa. It is still the ...
places syllable stress for botanical names derived from ancient Greek and Latin broadly according to two systems, either the
Reformed academic pronunciation, or the pronunciation developed initially in some large part by
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
gardeners, horticulturists, naturalists, and botanists of the 19th century. The two systems of pronunciation are sometimes referred to as the "classical method" and the "ecclesiastical method".
The two systems differ significantly in pronunciation, but little in syllable stress.
[
What follow are the rules of stress of reformed academic pronunciation of Latin (intended to approximate the stress rules of ancient spoken Latin). Words of Greek origin are generally pronounced according to the same rules; native ancient Greek rules of stress are not used.
Generally in Latin each vowel or diphthong belongs to a single syllable. Classical Latin diphthongs are ae, au, and oe. Diphthongs from Greek can include oi, eu, ei, and ou, and ui also occasionally occurs in botanical Latin. Syllables end in vowels, unless there are multiple consonants, in which case the consonants are divided between the two syllables, with certain consonants being treated as pairs. In words of two syllables, the stress is on the first syllable. Words that contain three or more syllables have stresses accorded to their syllables by the quality and location of the different vowels in the words. In words of more than two syllables, the stress is on the ]penult
Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...
imate syllable when the syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, otherwise the stress is on the antepenult
In linguistics, the ultima is the last syllable of a word, the penult is the next-to-last syllable, and the antepenult is third-from-last syllable. In a word of three syllables, the names of the syllables are antepenult-penult-ultima.
Etymology
Ul ...
imate syllable.
Whether a vowel is long or short in a classical Latin word is a function of the vowel and its relationship to the consonants that precede or follow it.breve
A breve (, less often , neuter form of the Latin "short, brief") is the diacritic mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used in Ancient Greek, it is also called , . It resembles the caron (the wedge or in Czech, in Slo ...
s for short vowels. Botanical Latin does not traditionally include macrons or breves, and they are prohibited (as diacritics) by the (Article 60.6). Some books follow the mediaeval tradition to add an acute accent to mark the stressed syllable.
Rules
To determine the position of the stress of Latin terms:
* Vowels followed by two consonants are generally stressed. Thus ''Po-ten-tíl-la'', as the I is followed by a double L.
* Diphthongs are to be stressed, too. Thus ''Al-tháe-a'', as AE is a diphthong.
See also
* Traditional English pronunciation of Latin
The traditional English pronunciation of Latin, and Classical Greek words borrowed through Latin, is the way the Latin language was traditionally pronounced by speakers of English until the early 20th century.
In the Middle Ages speakers of Eng ...
* Latin regional pronunciation Latin pronunciation, both in the classical and post-classical age, has varied across different regions and different eras. As the respective languages have undergone sound changes, the changes have often applied to the pronunciation of Latin as wel ...
Notes
:Significant differences between the two systems occur in pronunciation of diphthongs "ae", "eu", "oi", consonants "c", "g", "m", "s", "w", "x", and consonant groups "bs", "bt", "cc", "gg", "gn", "ph", "sc", "ti".[
]
References
{{reflist
Botanical
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
Botanical nomenclature
Phonology