Scientific Names.....?

[Atmospheric]

What were scientists thinking when they decided to use Latin!?
How long did it take you to actually LEARN all the scientific names for your T's? To actually look at the species and it come to the tip of your tongue instantly? I know, for me personally, I'll have the occasional brain-lapse and go dumb: "what species???? Uhmmmm wellllll it's a... Spider.....?"

 

[sdsnybny]

Still learning but I came across this helpful aid that I can reread to boost my memory and pronunciation skills of the names. some are straight up tongue twisters.
http://atshq.org/articles/beechwp1.html

 

[Biollantefan54]

I can't really think of a set amount of time. I was just reading all the different ones on the internet and learning about all of them for a while and eventually it just kind of 'sticks'. I can look at a name once or twice and pretty much remember it now. It might help that I think the names sound cool too lol.

 

[EulersK]

What language would you prefer that they use? It would need to be unbiased, so a dead language is a must. Would you prefer Gaelic?

I can't say that they're very hard, some just look like letter vomit (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, I'm looking at you). It's very phonetic, at least for English speakers. Once I got more than a few specimens, learning the taxonomic names was a must in order to properly talk about them to other hobbyists.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

For me it's very easy

 

[Haksilence]

For me it's very easy

It's because you're Italian. Latin has a strong foundation in your language. You have an unfair advantage.

That being said it doesn't take me long, hearing the correct pronunciation one is usually good enough for me.

 

[BobBarley]

Whenever I see one I don't know how to pronounce I just look it up and listen to the pronunciations a few times and I can usually get it.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

You have an unfair advantage.

Hoc habeo, quodcumque dedi.

But wasn't an advantage at all for my manly parts back then, during school days

 

[Atmospheric]

Gaelic would be interesting.

 

[14pokies]

I was OBSESSED with dinosaurs by the time I was two and then pythons by the time I was 4-5 ( when it finally sunk into my head that no matter how hard I searched I would never find a living dinosaur)
Even at that age I thought the latin name of snakes and lizards sounded cooler so I learned them in place of common names.
So for me it wasn't much of a jump from words like plesiosaurus and stegosaurus to P.brongersmai and P.bivvitattus Etc and then names of tarantulas . I still butcher pronunciations from time to time so don't beat yourself up over it.

 

[Rogerpoco]

Yeah,growing up sucks. No-one REALLY cares what my favorite dinosaur is,now that I'm 40+. Everyone seemed to want to know when I was younger.
It's a Stegosaurus,BTW,but again,no-one really cares now...
Ya,I have,IMO,a decent vocabulary. If I hear something in my head,I usually believe it is right,until I hear different.
Is no worries. We all see/hear/pronounce things a little different,doesn't mean it is wrong.

 

[Coconana]

Since my mother was a breeder, I learned the scientific names of our tarantulas fairly early on in life. Growing up and keeping a room full of T's as an adult? Oh my.. I knew the names, but pronouncing them right was my biggest issue!

I used to pronounce Haplopelma as 'ho-phone-o-felma' for some reason. Pterinochilus used to be 'puh-tro-no-chil-us', though now that I realize the P is silent, it's since turned into 'tro-no-chil-us'. I still pronounce Poecilotheria as 'poe-see-lo-theory-uh'. Talking to other hobbyists in person is always a bit embarrassing for me, as I'm never quite sure if the person I'm talking to will find my Latin pronunciation coherent or not

 

[Rogerpoco]

Lol,part of my username,Poco,has been my nickname my entire life,Parents yearbook before I was born had my name(I am Roger E. Blair 111-Grandpa was Roger,Dad was Eddie,they ran out of names,ha!)
Because of that,Poecilotheria comes out in my head as "Pokolitharia",because of how my name is pronounced.

 

[BobGrill]

Each Genus has a certain amount of species in it. One you get the genus name down it's pretty simple. It's actually a very easy and efficient way of classifying organisms, so scientists had the right idea in doing it this way.

 

[comradewho]

They used Latin because in Europe Latin was the common language during the time modern science was being developed.

In terms of pronunciation, there is no official pronunciation. They are only accepted pronunciations. Really, if you look at the accepted pronunciations (and some people will actually correct you), they seem (to me) pretty anglicized. Anglicization is actually a political practice that was employed by the British Empire, the intentional rejection of correct pronunciation of words in their original languages, so that the use of those languages would be marked by Britain. Considering that Latin is a much closer origin to Italian and Spanish than other Latin-influenced languages, with Latin literally being developed in Italy, I imagine that the words would actually be pronounced more similarly to words in Italian and Spanish - but again those are not the commonly accepted ways to pronounce in the hobby.

 

[Haksilence]

I pronounce poke-ill-oh-theory-a
But I've heard persons pronounce it many ways, I'm just partial to this one because it actually has 'pockie' in it

 

[TownesVanZandt]

Hoc habeo, quodcumque dedi.

But wasn't an advantage at all for my manly parts back then, during school days

Is Latin still mandatory in Italian schools? Unfortunately we no longer have have Latin as an optional third language in our schools, but back in the days beating Latin knowledge into the kids was considered the best way of ensuring that they grew up to become civilised adults I´ve studied Church history at the university so we did have courses in Ancient Greek, Latin and Biblical Hebrew. Since then I have only partly kept my Greek up to date, so even though my diploma states that I am supposed to know Latin, that is no longer the case .

Considering that Latin is a much closer origin to Italian and Spanish than other Latin-influenced languages,

From a grammatical point of view, Romanian is the modern language closest to its Latin origins.

 

[crlovel]

Years of Catholic school, it's not hard.

 

[Pociemon]

What were scientists thinking when they decided to use Latin!?
How long did it take you to actually LEARN all the scientific names for your T's? To actually look at the species and it come to the tip of your tongue instantly? I know, for me personally, I'll have the occasional brain-lapse and go dumb: "what species???? Uhmmmm wellllll it's a... Spider.....?"

I use counless hours learning names in the beginning, not only names, but also behavior and traits. it was a very good time for me these days, i did not no much about T´s then, but was eager to learn, and i did...

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Pterinochilus used to be 'puh-tro-no-chil-us', though now that I realize the P is silent, it's since turned into 'tro-no-chil-us'.

?
The "P" isn't silent at all here on this part of the world for Pterinochilus murinus.