Mispronounced plant names

[Yamadori]

I've come across a few doozies in my time, but I was in the garden centre this morning and as I went in I passed two ladies chatting. One of them said "I want to get a Thunderbill".

Er... a what? Ten minutes later I came across them both again, strolling around the shrubs section. She was clutching a Berberis thunbergii. 😁

Has anyone else heard any good ones?

There's no point in posting the symbols for pronunciation unless everybody knows what they mean. And one would guess not.

It's a sunflower so 'Hee-li-anthus' in this house, as taken from the Greek word for the sun: Helios.

See - it's not just Latin after all.😂

@lcakethereforeIam Yes, you can call things whatever you like, but if you go into a garden centre asking for a Thunderbill, the staff are going to look at you as if you've gone crackers, and that's the word I overheard which prompted me to start this thread.

I say hewch(as in loch)erra. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it that way and if I did I'll have thought they were wrong 😬. Every day's a school day.

I say Hewk -erra.
I still don’t know if it’s wei gheela or wei jeela!

I live on the edge of Gower but I will sometimes say that I’m going down ‘The Gower’ if I’m talking about going to one of the beaches. I know some are pedantic about it.

The ch isn't like the ch in loch. It's like the ch in milch.

Same here!

They might struggle to help you find the plant you want which is the important thing, but that's an extreme example. A few questions will resolve most problems like that. I bet they've had more trouble when folk only have a vague description and no name at all. Most of the examples on this thread are minor differences in pronunciation. I spoke to a garden designer about the speedwell he'd used. He had no idea what I was talking about until I'd translated it into Veronica. Bluebells in Scotland might be harebells or wild hyacinth. I'm not a complete barbarian, I'm capable of using at least an approximation of the right name if circumstances require it. I'm glad the person who wanted 'Thunderbill' asked for it and wasn't deterred because of fear of being laughed at.

I disagree, at least they're unambiguous which is more than you can say forr many of the attempted alternatives. See ROWan upthread for example, You can always google the symbols if you need to.

Having said that, this thread is on my shortlist for Best Thread Ever.

I know it's an extreme example - it was quite funny and that's why I started the thread.

By the way, for anyone who likes bonsai trees - there is one species of tree commonly grown as bonsai which rejoices in the name of Syzygium. 😁

@Yamadori There's no point in posting the symbols for pronunciation unless everybody knows what they mean. The purpose of IPA is to represent sounds.

They are better than something like Day-lia or Dahl-ee-a because Dahl might be interpreted as Dal or Darl, then someone might say 'but It has no R in it/Is ir Dal like in Dalton?', or interpret the stress pattern the same as in Maria.ˈdeɪliə is far less unambiguous.

I'd write acetaminophen (əˌsiːtəˈmɪnəfɛn) as uh-si-tuh-MIN-uh-fen or if using my natural accent ah-SETT-ah MIN-ah-fen. The sound of ah could be misininterpreted - I mean the A sound in cat not car.

I hate colloquial names. I know at least three plants called Batchelors' Buttons. I'd rather people tried latin and it doesn't bother me if they mispronounce it. I hear a lot of 'rhododendrum' but I don't fell the need to judge; I know what they mean.
Also I say daylia. Don't know any real gardeners who say dahlia.

@PleasantPedant I'm not entirely sure that the rest of us on this thread are quite as serious as all that.

I’m not serious but I’m utterly fascinated by it all and have been googling the symbols.

They might struggle to help you find the plant you want which is the important thing

I asked the assistant if they had any erigeron (hard g I feel like Steve Wright) and after much to-ing and fro-ing and looking at her phone (or whatever the device was) she led me to the Eryngium. I then asked for lemon verbena and was led to the veronica. In her defence English wasn't her first language. And to my utter joy I found both plants on my next visit.

I have harebells flowering now, they are the most delicate, gorgeous wee flowers.

I'd write acetaminophen (əˌsiːtəˈmɪnəfɛn) as uh-si-tuh-MIN-uh-fen or if using my natural accent ah-SETT-ah MIN-ah-fen. The sound of ah could be misininterpreted - I mean the A sound in cat not car.

I'd not say 'min' because acetaminophen is a shortened form of N-acetyl-para-aminophenol. Amino is pronounced either ah-mean-oh or ah-mine-oh but is never ah-min-oh.

Wallflowers were ginnyflowers where I grew up, which I think people would know roughly what they were. I know someone who calls poinsettias ponisettias, which makes me itch to correct. There's no point though - if I correct people they don't take any notice (looking at you self-proclaiming malt whisky buff friend and your Eye-lay).

This thread so niche. I thought I'd chuck in the example of my floristry teacher who used to pronounce it Jip-SOF-filla which I always kind of disagreed with.
I really dislike the word clematis, which ever you pronounce it. It makes me think of genitalia 😖

I see your ponisettias @PleasantPedant and raise you ponse''as - no 't's, no 'i's.

In my family, they're known as 'the enemy' (sounds a bit like ah nenn oh mee) because they spread and are so vigorous. I class them as weeds really. I dug up one of their roots and it was the size of a parsnip and solid wood.

The week before Christmas, a stalk poked me in the eye and scratched my cornea! MIL and I had a wry laugh about how 'th' enemy' got me.

@afaloren - enema is a workable pronunciation too 😂

It does a bit doesn't it. I think the clem-ay-tis sounds like someone trying to make it not sound like...
Bollocks to orchids. I know someone who calls them orchards.

In the US, gypsophila is pronounced baby's breath ...

Hee lee AN thus - all Greek: helios = sun and anthos = flower (cf Anthea)

Scientific plant names are all over the place: a combination of Greek and Latin with classical style applied to everything.

Latin pronunciation changed over the centuries. Pronunciation in Caesar's era (approx100 - 44BC) is corroborated by Greek transliteration: His name was GUY-us YOO leeus KAI sar and this gives us Tzar/Czar and Kaiser as titles in the pre-revolutionary periods. Kaiser corresponds directly to the Greek spelling.
'Church Latin' comes later and is closer to modern Italian. Remember that French, Spanish and Portuguese (plus Romania, Romanche, Catalan, Venetian and a huge range of others) speakers are still pronouncing their Roman variants ... And modern Greek has moved on a few centuries too...

I think rOW-un is the Scottish pronunciation, whereas roe-un is the English one.

@Stillamum3 DH is Scottish and I’m English, so that tracks. I’d never heard it pronounced rOWWan until he said it that way, and he’d only heard r-OH-an as a name not a tree. Divided by a common language.