Learn English – How to pronounce eu in a latin word

latinpronunciation

How should I pronounce the latin name Sporosarcina pasteurii? According to Pronunciation of Biological Latin : "Latin biological names in English speech are usually pronounced with English letter sounds." But I am not sure what is the letter sound of the eu, ii, and sarcina?

Best Answer

The usual English way to pronounce eu in a word from Latin is as "long u" (which in IPA can be any of /juː/, /uː/, /jɜː/, /ɜː/, /jʊ/, /ʊ/, /jə/, /ə/ depending on the context). For example, the first syllable of the word neuter is pronounced the same as the word new—as /njuː/, or /nuː/ in American English. But because Pasteurii is built on a non-Latin name, it is likely to be pronounced with the "nurse" vowel (IPA /ɜː/) instead, which loosely approximates the value of French /œ/. Compare the word Pasteurian/pasteurian, which Merriam-Webster says is pronounced "\ paˈstərēən \" = IPA /pæˈstɜːriən/.

The traditional pronunciation of word-final -ii in a word from Latin is /iaɪ/, but nowadays some people say /ii/ due to influence from the "restored" pronunciation of Latin.

Sarcina should be pronounced with stress on the third-to-last syllable, because the i was short in Latin according to Lewis and Short. If the i were long in Latin, the regular pronunciation in English would put the stress on the second-to-last syllable and give the i the quality of /aɪ/ (as in the word vagina or the place name Carolina). A word ending in -ina that is properly stressed the same way as sarcina is machina in the phrase deus ex machina (the OED indicates stress on the first syllable of machina).

Altogether, I would pronounce Sporosarcina pasteurii as /ˌspɔːroʊˈsɑːrsɪnə pæˈstɜːriaɪ/. The vowel in the second syllable of Sporosarcina could be reduced to /ə/, and in British English, the first syllable might be pronounced with /ɒr/ instead of /ɔːr/. The second syllable of pasteurii might perhaps be pronounced with the "CURE" vowel, as /pæˈstjʊər-/ (or in American English /pæˈstʊr-/ or /pæsˈtʃʊr-/). The last two syllables of pasteurii might be pronounced as /ii/ instead of as /iaɪ/. Of course, in a British English accent, there would be no r consonant after the a in Sporosarcina (/ˌspɔːrəʊˈsɑːsɪnə/ or /ˌspɒrəʊˈsɑːsɪnə/) and in an American English accent this syllable would be pronounced with an r-colored vowel (something like /ˌspɔ˞roʊˈsɑ˞sɪnə/ or /ˌspo˞roʊˈsɑ˞sɪnə/).

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