Somebody please help me pronounce Tliltocatl

[Arachnophobphile]

This is an old post but I wanted to add some info on pronunciation.

Tliltocatl is from the Nahuatl (pronounced naw-what) language for tlil (black) and tocatl (spider).

My understanding is that in Nahuatl, emphasis is ALWAYS on the second to last syllable, the trailing L in a TL ending is silent, but when TL is at the start or middle of the word both letters are voiced. I is pronounced like "ee." Grim Reaper's suggestion of Kleel-toe-cat is closest to my rendering, but I'd go with the following:

tl - pronounce both letters, as in atlas
il - like eel
so, TLIL = tleel

to - like toe
cat - like caht (like when you open up and say ahh, not a hard A like cat)
silent L
so, TOCATL - toecut

Technically the final t is not quite an English T because it has a suggestion of an S sound after it, but it's close enough, and the U sound in cut is a bit more like a cross between a and U, but again, close enough.

FULL WORD: tleel - TOE - caht, emphasis on toe, whereas the English tendency would be to emphasize tleel

(any native Nahuatl speakers, please correct me if I have any of this wrong, always learning)

I'm changing careers and a current student of linguistics pursuing a degree in ancient languages and I have some limited knowledge of central Mexican pronunciation. I've been thinking I can contribute to the community by creating a resource of spider names with the origin of the name, where possible, and a pronunciation guide (perhaps with sound clips) -- if people are interested in that. I notice even very experienced keepers often struggle with the Latin names, which is understandable because Latin rules are very different from English. I'm a newb keeper so can't add much in that area yet

Well thank you that is very informative.

I will however never in the remainder of my life be able to correctly pronounce alot of the scientific names.

I have enough trouble with English, haha.