[Alpine-l] Vernacular Names. Was: Maori Plant Names >In so many cases I cannot but wonder, which came first. I suspect the Latin >name was adopted from the common name.
This might not be quite what you're thinking of, but there are quite a few botanical names that have a vernacular as the specific epithet. Camassia quamash, Arctostaphylos mewukka, Lomatium cous, Tipuana tipu. Note, to beat a dead horse slightly, that the first two could not possibly be Latin and therefore there can be no rules for pronouncing them in Latin (you can't have a rule for something that can't exist), and that "cous" is supposedly pronounced to rhyme with mouse (though if you rhymed it with goose it wouldn't be the end of the world). There are probably lots of others. Bob Nold Denver, Colorado, USA
_______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
