Pronouncing esquirolei

[wuness]

Although I'm not a new member, I was hoping one of the senior members could help me pronounce this Paph. species (or subspecies of hirsutissimum).

wuness

[raybark]

Well... It's named after an English orchid collector named "Esquirol", which is either "ESS-kih-role" or "ESS-kwih-role", depending upon his lineage. I'd simply add an "eye" to the end of one of them.

[PaphMadMan]

Opinions may vary, but I'm with Ray on this. When a genus or species name is based on a person or place name, the pronunciation should reflect the way that person (or those native to a place) would pronounce it, and Ray demonstrated that well.

[raybark]

Some of my favorites in that respect - and most often "violated" - are neofinetia, stanhopea, and gomesa.

The first is often pronounced "Nee-oh-fin-EE-sha" or "Nee-oh-fin-eh-TEE-ah", but as it is named after a French botanist named Finet (Fee-Nay), it really ought to be "Nee-oh-fee-NAY-ah".

The second was named after the Earl of Stanhope, but is often pronounced "Stan-hope-EE-ah", rather the the proper "Stan-HOPE-ah".

Similarly, the last was names after someone whose name rhymes with "homes", so rather than "Go-MAY-say", which I often hear, it should be "Gomes-ah".

[PaphMadMan]

That would always depend on knowing how to pronounce the name in the first place, which might be different depending on family or region.

Usually, there is no hope in Stanhope. Something like STAN-op is probably most common. So STAN-op-ah.

Mr. Gomes from the home country of Portugal might say something closer to the Spanish name Gómez (2 syllables), while his cousin who grew up in England would probably say Gomes (1 syllable, rhymes with homes), and their Brazilian second cousin would use 2 syllables again but possibly ending in a softer sound closer to s or sh than to z.

And knowing Finet is a French name, one might be tempted to use full French pronunciation of the resulting Neofinetia, in which case the t is pronounced but the sound is s.

In any case there really is no right or wrong. Whatever communicates. Even with names that could be pronounced in Latin that wouldn't necessarily be the best choice, or one pronunciation universally practiced.