natedogg1026

I was wondering if there was a way that some of you experts could post some audio of the correct way to pronounce various banana names. You know like Ensete, balbisiana, lasiocarpa, Ae Ae, Ele Ele, Acuminata, Ventricosum and the ones mentioned a lot on here. I think I pronounce most of them right but just wanna be sure. So come on Gabe, Media Hound, Big dog, help us rookies out. Thanx!!

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the flying dutchman

Here the discussion about how to pronounce the Musa Basjoo



Ron

momoese

I know Ae Ae is pronounced "I" - "I" or eye eye as in eyeball, and Ele Ele is pronounced "L" "E" - "L" "E" like just saying the two letters together.

natedogg1026

Keep 'em coming guys. Thanx!

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D_&_T

Natedogg

Thanks for asking, been wondering samething

Dan & Tara

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harveyc

Mitch, I assume you mean in the English pronounciation of these letters. I took me some time in Italy before I realized "A"s were "AH"s and "E"s were "A"s and "I"s were "E"s etc. LOL

Proud owner of an I I and Eye Eye (two Ae Aes). And an L E - L E also.

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Lagniappe

O.K. What about coccinea....seriously !

turtile

I'm not how I should write these: (this is the way I think they are pronounced - not sure)

coccinea = cocks in e uh

ae ae = e e (e as in me)

ele ele = l e l e (both as in the letter)

ensete = en seat e

Acuminata = uh coom e nah dah

Ventricosum = ven trick o some (word/ letter)

Basjoo = baz joo

http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm

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natedogg1026

So i'm confused. Is it I I or E E, for Ae Ae? And is Ae Ae latin or Hawaiin? As far as Ensete, I've heard it so many ways.

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turtile

If you pronounce it in Latin, Ae Ae would be eye eye but biological names are usually pronounced Anglo-Latin (which is on the link).

J doesn't even exist in Latin but Basjoo uses it. Who knows what they were thinking when they came up with the naming scheme.

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AnnaJW

I'm sorry, but that sounds like a mold or bacteria.

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Lard Greystoke

Words are only tools. You say toe MAY toe, I say toe MOT toe, but as long as the correct slice is put on the hamburger, linguists will tell you the tool has done its job.

Botanical names tend to derive from Latin or classical Greek, so some knowledge of these languages is helpful. However both Latin and classical Greek are dead languages, so there's technically no "correct" way to pronounce them. Church Latin is pronounced differently from "classical" Latin. Languages change over time. The word "knight" would once have been pronounced something like "ke NIF te". Are we pronouncing it wrong today?

That being said, "coccinea" would probably be pronounced:

kok SIN ee a,

which is anglicized. Originally it derives from the Latin coccum, scarlet, which would be pronounced KOK um. So if you were a Latin scholar you could say

kok KIN ay a

with reasonable justification. There is no objective way to decide between these or half a dozen other variants, aside from common usage, and botanists are really too rare to have a common usage.

I would recommend that if you want to fake it, sound out all the vowels. Beyond that it probably isn't worth worrying about.

harveyc

Okay, here is some pretty official word on Ae Ae. I wasn't sure before and had been given some less than certain advice by a nurseryman in the tropics but then just got word from a nurseryman friend in Hilo, Hawaii that Ae Ae is pronounced "Ah-eh Ah eh". In other words, in English, a soft "a" followed by a long "a", repeated.

I talk to my two small Ae Ae frequently and hope they do even better now that I will be calling them by their correct name. LOL

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natedogg1026

I think if that's how they say it in Hawaii, I'll go with that. Thanx Harvey Now any words on If its ac-u-min-ah-tuh or oc-u-min-ah-tuh? How bout or-"NATE"-uh, or or-not-uh. Or even moos-uh or muse-uh? H ow bout more-ell-e? And how is Lasiocarpa pronunced? Sorry, I got a lot of questions. __---__nAtE

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magicgreen

Heys guys, as long as the other person knows what you mean, its all good!

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MediaHound

Velutina = vey-u-tina

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Gabe15

After having just completed my Hawaiian language midterm, these days I now know how to pronounce Hawaiian words.

Ae Ae (a hawaiian word, correctly spelled a'ea'e) is pronounced AH-EYA-EH, like a quick slurring of ah-eh ah-eh, although most of the time in Hawaiian its very hard to distinguish different sounds anyways.

'ele'ele (another hawaiian word meaning "black") is much how ive always thought of it as, which is pretty close to L-A-L-A (if you pronounce the english names of the letters). to be more percise and refined, its really like eh-ley eh-ley.

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frankthetank

Where would one find the .mp3 or video of these pronounciations ?

natedogg1026

Thanx guys, anymore? How bout maurelli and Musa?

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Gabe15

If I find the time, I will make them and post them here.


Maurelii (correct spelling) is something like more-el-ee-eye

and Musa is moo-sa, though ive occasionaly heard mew-sa, but i stick with the former.

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