`Who decides on the pronunciation of a scientific name?'



Whoever's pronouncing it, so far as I can tell.



`Does it simply follow the Latin and/or Greek rules of phonetics as applied by the individual speaking?'



Nope. Well, I seem to recall hearing somewhere that Europeans tend to follow classical Latin rules of pronunciation, but Americans certainly don't.



`Does anyone care?'



Yup. And you can often find books or web sites that tell you `the rules' of pronouncing systematic names, but, in my experience, the rules generally don't fit what I hear professors say, and often just aren't applicable (because they require you to already know which syllables of a given word should be stressed, or something of the like).



`Do taxonomists make reference to scientific names in writing more than in the spoken word, so that it truly is of no consequence?'



Lots of scientists (and not just taxonomists) use systematic names in speech on a regular basis, so the pronunciation does matter to some extent. In general, though, what really matters is that you pronounce them in a way that's intelligible and doesn't sound too awkward.



Patrick Alexander

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