SUGGESTED INTERNATIONAL IDEAL PRONUNCIATION OF KILLIFISH NAMES

Abstract : pronunciation of taxa names is free, but by far too much heterogeneous, while pronunciation of ancient Latin and Greek is now standardized and international ; then, guidelines are suggested with codes of major keys of pronunciations in English ; major proposed changes concern the pronunciations of vowells, (1) 'ay' -not ayi- for 'e', 'ih' -not eye- for 'i' or 'y', (2) 'oo' -not 'euh'- for 'u', (3) all consonants are spoken 'hard', not soft, notably 'g', like 'good', (4) all names dedicated to a person or with a local-vernacular language are pronounced according to their national way (possibly, for example, with a soft 'g', etc.). But, in total, nothing to worry : it is easy… there are only 5 vowels, each with only one sound ('ah', 'ay', 'ih', 'oh' 'oo', in English) for each to memorize in Latin-Greek and only 10 consonants ('b', 'd', 'f', 'g' always hard, 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'p', 'r', 's' -as 'ss', 't', 'x' -as 'ks'-, and 'z' in Greek, all the time like in English), therefore much less than in your (modern) language (with 26 and more letters, all the more with accents and with nuances of pronunciations, not to mention regional variations !), the only trick concerns proper names (local-vernacular) but there are not so many !

The topic, on how to pronounce names of fish, either generic or specific, seems trivial…
It is not at all the case, on the contrary, it is rather like opening the Pandora box without knowing the consequences !

There is no international way to pronounce taxa names, most of them derived directly or indirectly from ancient Latin language, there are only local traditional ways.
Above all, please note that there are no rules in the Code of Nomenclature produced by the I.C.Z.N. at CURRENT VERSION (or earlier versions).
Then everybody is free to pronounce the way it seems appropriate to him-her, according to own language, traditions, culture, fancy, etc., notably with the (erroneous) influence of Christian religions that give (variable along time) clues on how to pronounce Latin during the mass (and other events).
Therefore North American or English-speaking people have their way (notably by pronouncing names with an '-i' ending as 'eye' like 'hi' or with an '-us' ending as 'ous' like in last syllable of 'fabulous' or in 'hush',
and Frenchies fuse the end of feminine dedication with an 'ae' ending like 'ay' or the usual ending for a species in neutral gender with '-arum' (or -orum) like 'arom' (or 'orom'),
and the Germans are influenced by their way of pronouncing 'ü' (or 's' like 'z') or the Italians by their way of pronouncing 'cc' or the Spaniards by their way of pronouncing 'll', …
and all use their local language by their way of pronouncing personal names for dedicators (distinct, except when the dedicator is native of their own language), …
etc., etc., but everybody is wrong at least at some point, even if it is without consequences when 2 or more people from the same country are talking together, however much less so, when people from several countries talk on fish (actually it is a bit like in the Babel tower).
Then, notably if you want to understand and respect others, or if you want to be trendy and accurate like Killi-Data, or if you belong to a new country (e.g., Asiatic, African) where influence of religious Latin is weak or none, or if you believe good communication starts by sharing the same way of speaking, then here are the general guidelines for the proper way to simply, pronounce Latin by International standards, letter by letter and pronounce names of dedicators with their own language ; beware, this is not a requirement by Killi-Data (nothing is imposed, it is just an ideal proposal to better understand each other and to try to converge habits towards correctness):

[side notes (page last update on November 10. 2024) : these pronunciation guidelines are updated regularly according to reactions of visitors, in order to achieve the best understanding from various nationalities, via the mailbox at the end of this page ; please understand that the codes (phonemes) of pronunciations, below, such as 'ay' for 'e' or 'oo' for 'u', correspond to the way they are pronounced in English, the sound would be the same in, say German or French (sse table), but the code to symbolize them would be different, e.g., 'é' for 'e' and 'ou' for 'u' in French, 'eh' for 'e' and 'uh' for 'u', not 'ü' with umlaut in German, therefore those guidelines are truly international.]

• the pronunciation of adjectives and substantives follow Latin (or Latinized Greek), whereas the pronunciation of names dedicated to a person or to local group of people, like a tribe (etc.), follow local way of pronouncing the names whenever they are Latinized or not.
• Although complicated or complex at first sight, Latin and Greek sounds in English are simple for all alphabetic languages users, notably there are about 10 letters in the Greek alphabet that have the same sounds as their counterparts in the Latin alphabet, and most words with a 'c' in Classical -international, scientific- Latin derive from ancient Greek words pronounced as 'k', hence the logical sound 'c' in Latin s 'k', even if followed by 'e' or 'i' (to the contrary of Church Latin or to French-Italian derived words).
• Pronunciations of vowels is clearly different (in part) from the way in other various (western or southern) countries
• 'a' is pronounced 'ah' ('h' being just mute), like 'alpha' in English, NOT 'ay' like in 'bay' or 'bacon' in English
• 'e' is pronounced 'ēh' ('h' being mute) or 'ay' (or 'é' in French!), like 'day' in English, NOT 'euh' like 'hush' in English
• 'i' is pronounced short 'ih' ('h' being mute), like 'with' in English, and NOT eye, like 'pie' or 'cry' in English, and NOT long 'i' or 'ee', like 'flee' or 'knee' in English
• 'o' is pronounced 'oh' ('h' being mute), like 'core' in English (and in many current languages)
• 'u' is pronounced 'oo', like 'wood' in English
• all the above vowells may be either pronounced in Latin as short as above or as long (like in English, respectively 'father', 'mate', 'beep', 'only', 'boot'), but those differences short-long are NOT taken into account in zoology (everything is short… besides there is no stress in some syllables either in zoology)
• there is no 'y' vowell in Latin, therefore it should be pronounced like 'i'
• there is no 'euh' (or 'huh') sound in Latin, like 'hush' in English, therefore it may only apply for proper names in that language (see further)
• there is no 'ü' (with umlaut or tréma) or 'uu' sound in Latin, like 'Über' in German, therefore it may only apply for proper names in that language (see further)
• there is no fused vowels in Latin (to the contrary to, for example, French, Portuguese), and in names with fused vowels like 'ae' or 'oe', or 'oi', each vowel is to be pronounced separately
• all consonants are pronounced in a hard way, NOT in a soft way when it exists in any language, and individualized (for example 'g' is pronounced like in the first, hard, syllable of 'garage', not like in the last, soft, syllable of that word, for example, 'n' or 'm' or 'l' or 'r' or 's' are not fused under certains conditions like in French, Itallian and Spanish, hence they are written (coded) as 'nn', 'mm', 'll', 'rr', 'ss' to stress they are individualized in Latin-Greek or to avoid confusions)
• 'b' is pronounced normally, like 'bee' in English
• 'c' is pronounced differently, like 'k', then always hard, like 'chemistry' in English
• 'd' is pronounced normally, like 'do' in English
• 'f' or 'ph' is pronounced normally, like 'feel' or 'elephant' in English
• 'g' is pronounced always hard, like 'gore' in English
• 'h' is not pronounced, like 'hot' in English (even with air expiration or else), whatever it is alone or preceeded by most consonants (exception if a 'p', see above)
• 'j' is pronounced like the vowel 'i' (see above), unlike in English (and other languages, similarly or differently), but this letter does not exist in Latin
• 'k' is pronounced normally, like 'kit' in English, but this letter does not exist in Latin (see Greek, below)
• 'l' is pronounced normally, like 'lad' in English and NOT fused when doubled, like 'paella' or 'calle' in Spanish
• 'm' is pronounced normally, like 'mad' in English and NOT fused with a preceeded vowell, like 'ambigü' in French
• 'n' is pronounced normally, like 'no' in English and NOT fused with a preceeded vowell, like 'pente' in French
• 'p' is pronounced normally, like 'pad' in English
• 'q' is pronounced normally, like 'c' or 'k'
• 'r' is pronounced normally, like 'role' in English (and if you want to be strict or purist, do roll the letter)
• 's' is pronounced normally, like 'set' in English, NOT as a 'z', like 'easy' in English, NOT as a (soft)g, like 'treasure' in English (it is symbolized 'ss' herein)
• 't' is pronounced normally, like 'table' in English, NOT softened when followed by a 'h', like 'synthesis' in English
• 'v' is pronounced as 'oo' like the vowell 'u' (see above), NOT as 'v' like 'view' in English
• 'w' is pronounced like the vowell 'u' (see above), as 'oo', then a bit different from 'w' like 'wind' in English<
• 'x' is pronounced normally, as 'ks' like 'axis' in English [and it is quite near in Greek pronunciation like 'Xoros', 'xenos', 'xeros']
• 'y' is pronounced like the vowel 'i' (see above), like in English (and other languages), but this letter does not exist in Latin (see Greek, below)
• 'z' is pronounced as a soft 'ss', unlike 'easy' in English), but this letter does not exist in Latin (see Greek, below)
• doubling a consonant like 'll', or 'mm', or 'nn', 'pp', or 'cc', etc., does not change the pronunciation of the single consonant, it is herein designed to avoid the French pronunciation of fusing the sound with the preceeding vowells (unless it is precised by for example 'ah-(fused)n-n-', but it is pronounced twice if it is written twice in the name
• note that it is very different from Church Latin or Italianate Ecclesiastical Latin (for example, according to Wiki, Catholic worshippers use a 'sh' soft sound when the 'c' is before certain vowels, including 'e', like in 'pacem', and 'i', like in 'fecit', whereas Classical Latin is always pronounced hard, then 'c' is hard as 'k', no matter what)/li>
• note that, if derived from Greek (pure), it is different in some special cases but differences are either subtle in sound from Latin for 'b' or 'g' and then they are not taken into account herein, or, significant, (1) for 'th' as soft 'f' -between 'f' and 't'-, like 'synthesis' in English, (2) for 'z' as 'z' like 'easy' in English, (3) for 'y' as Latin 'i' like 'bid' in English (intermediate with German 'ü'), (4) for 'eu' as 'euh' like 'hush' in English, not 'ay-oo' (like in Latin), not 'ih-oo' [then not like Eureka), and those differences are taken into account herein)/li>
• for a proper noun, it is different, i.e., a name dedicated to a person is pronounced like it is in his-her country of birth or origin (e.g., 'dageti' is to be pronounced 'da-(soft)g-ay-t-ih', like the 's' of 'treasure' in English, and NOT 'da-(hard)gay-t-ih' and NOT 'da-(hard)gay-t-eye')… see case by case in the database
• for a proper noun, it is also different, i.e., a name dedicated to a local group of people, like a tribe (= vernacular name) or a place or a region, it also follows the local way of pronouncing the names, whenever they are Latinized or not (e.g. 'shoshone' is pronounced 'sho-sho-nee', 'bamilekorum' is pronounced 'bah-mih-lay-ko-room')… see case by case in the database and the 2 following frequent cases :
• 'u' is pronounced 'euh' ('h' being mute) like 'hush' or 'hurt' in American English, for names of people and locality
• 'u' may be pronounced 'y' (like 'uu' or 'ü' in German), for names depending on the country
• finally there are exceptions, i.e., pronunciations of names fixed by very old usage (mid 19th century or before), such as the way was pronounced Poecilia as 'poh-ay-ssihh-li-ah' and not as preferable 'poh-ay-kih-lih-ah' or Cyprinodon as 'ss-ih-pr-ih-noh-doh-nn' and not as preferable 'k-ih-pr-ih-noh-doh-nn', but to be coherent with subsequent names with the same root, those names are tentatively suggested to be modified herein.

All names are given a suggested (proposed) international ideal phonetic (from English) pronunciation in Killi-Data knowledgebase, either in member's section or in ENCYCLOPEDIA in public section. Readers who find hard to believe such differences between their habits and Church Latin and herein international pronunciation may benefit from visiting the WIKI page with the same results and purely English codes.

In conclusion, it is free to pronounce Latin or Greek or Vernacular-Local language derived generic and specific names, whatever it is (and it may difficult to change fixed habits), even if it is better for communication purposes to use herein suggested pronunciations. And note that on the Internet, specialized websites on how to pronounce words (not, only taxa) sometimes present 2 or much more options and for each language, thus… you have 4 (respectable) options on how to pronounce names ! 

1. 'individualistically'… you use a given way for each name, logical or not, randomly or not, case by case, whatever influence you want to follow, either your (modern) language, or-and Church Latin, or-and others' (modern) languages {this is arbitrary, possibly anarchic, but still respectful freedom to I.C.Z.N.},
2. 'moderately'… you make some efforts and you forget about not proper endings (like 'eye' in English speaking countries, like 'ous' in French, etc.) {this is respectful freedom to people with other languages},
3. 'seriously'… you go further by respecting the dedicators of the names (not only those of your language), by using dedicators' languages (this is rarely difficult for westerners since there are no Chinese dedicators for killifish, yet !) {this is respectful freedom to dedicators},
4. 'altruistically'… you (progressively, but responsibly) adapt to herein ways of pronouncing names according to international Latin or if any to local proper names (after all, there are not more than 100-200 frequently used distinct names for aquarium killifish) {this is respectful freedom to all people}.

Now, please contact the editor (mailbox at bottom of this page)…

• if you need a specific explanation or a clarification and-or you find an error ;
• if you would like to add a comment on one of the definitions or to enrich the table ;
• if you wish to propose that a missing term is added and defined.

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• What are they? INTRODUCTION to Killies
• Their color patterns, their morphs and variability? BEAUTIES of Killies
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•                                  ALERTS | GLOSSARY | QUIZ | SAMPLE | OPTIMIZATION | |

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  Let's play, just for fun...	Answer
  One Cyprinodontiformes species has been sent to space, within an Apollo mission, for laboratory experiments. Do you recall its name?	QUIZ13

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