Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Drymarchon? I have heard a number of different pronunciations over the years and just wondered what is the commonly accepted as "correct" pronunciation.

The pronunciations I have heard over the years: (stressed syllable capitalized)

1. dry MAR shon (uncommon)
2. dry MAR chon (second most common)
3. dry MAR kon (most common)
4. DRY mar kon (common)
5. DRY mar chon (uncommon)
6. DRY mar shon (uncommon)

The one that I have always thought of as correct and the one I have always used is pronunciation number 3. It seems to follow the "rules" for latin pronunciation and was the pronunciation used by college Biology professors. The rules I'm referring to in particular are:

1. The rule of stressing the second to the last syllable if that syllable has a short vowel sound followed by 2 consonant sounds together ( rk drymarchon).

2. ch is pronounced as "k".

I can't remember hearing anyone pronouncing the Y as in "crypt".

So, what do you think is correct? I know it doesn't matter as long as everyone understands what you are talking about, but I'm just curious.

WW...feel free to wade in any time...

I'm going to say #3 (pronunciation of Drymarchon). As to the strange material you are finding periodically, HOPEFULLY it's not a molt from a parasitic organism, but just one of those rarely seen/found tonque molts. I've heard of these and seen them only once or twice in my 25 yrs. of keeping snakes. If you keep seeing it pretty regularly I'd worry. Hopefully we BOTH can get some input/ideas/observations on these things.

Thane
Thanes -N-Mandys place

As far as I can figure out, the word 'Drymarchon' is pretty much Greek.. but the 'ch' is a latinized or anglicized spelling, it would be 'k' in Greek. So I think it would be pronounced 'arKon'. Like Achilles = Akilleus. From what I've read earlier, the 'dry' means 'forest' (like dryad) and the 'archon' means ruler (like archosaur). So what I'm saying is... your Latin pronounciation rules are correct, but I'm not sure that the syllable-stressing rule applies to Greek words too. But if I had to guess, I'd say it's dryMARkon.
I always hate saying words I've only read in books out loud. My husband and I both took classical Latin in high school and therefore have a nasty habit of pronoucning V's in the middle of scientific names as W's, and saying mueller-ee instead of mueller-eye. Most people hate it when we use scientific names anyway.
So to sum up, this all reinforces my policy of never talking to anyone :x.

Barely having a grasp of the English language myself, I have struggled continually with a number of scientific names. Routinely baring my a$$ before the more gifted/experienced folks in the hobby. Not having the benefit of any Latin education let alone Greek, I generally mispronounciate all of them. I used to go with #6 but after seeing a similar thread some time ago, I'm trying to train myself to use #4.

Next question:

(Singing)...

You say Core -EYE- us and I say Core-AY-us
You say er-RIB-i-nus and I say ER-i-bin-us... LOL

J.

UNless I know it's otherwise...

the second to last sylable is stressed...

So...it's Dry-MAR-con
That's the way I always say it!

Dean