# Pronunciación de genitivos



## Margueritte

Hola.

En ciencias como la biología o la astronomía es común el uso de genitivos como Orchidaceae, Gramineae; o como Ophiuchi, Carinae, Crucis. ¿Cómo deben pronunciarse?

Saludos.


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## Outsider

Para un hispanohablante, sugiero "Orquidácee", "Gramínee", "Ofiuqui", "Carine", "Crucis", etc.


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## Margueritte

Muchas gracias. Yo pensaba que debían pronunciarse exactamente como en latín (y no sé pronunciar latín...)

¿Y para un angloparlante?


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## Scholiast

Hola! Angloparlante yo soi.

With the greatest respect, I do not believe most of these Linnaean terms to be genitives, rather they are nominatives, plural, always in a scientific context.

_Orchideae_, _Gramineae_, &c.

As to the pronunciation: it's a bit like singing Latin - different countries, with a Roman Catholic background (and some without it) will pronounce differently, for example "qui es in coelis": German-educated performers will always sing "kvi ayz in tsölees", Italians "qui ays in chaylis", and the Teutonic knights in Prokofiev's _Alexander Nevsky_ will sing something very odd.

In other words: for your scientific context it does not really matter, but in the context of an international scientific congress it would probably be sensible to conform to the English stress-pattern: _gramíneae_, _orchídeae_ &c.

There must be rules elsewhere on the forum for determining English stresses; the usual Latin rule is that the chief vocal stress falls as far back towards the beginning of the word as is permissible, provided that the word has no more than three syllables, but prefixes don't count.


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## Cosimo Piovasco

It's plural, nominative.


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## exgerman

_Ophiuchi, Carinae, Crucis_ are indeed genitives in the names of stars. A Ophiuchi is the brightest star in Ophiuchus, etc.


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## Cosimo Piovasco

But it's not the same. Orchideae means the family of orchideas, and the model is the first declination: rosa -ae -ae - am -a -a  pl: rosae - arum - is - as - ae - is


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## exgerman

Cosimo Piovasco said:


> But it's not the same. Orchideae means the family of orchideas, and the model is the first declination: rosa -ae -ae - am -a -a  pl: rosae - arum - is - as - ae - is



Here's the relevant part of the original post.


> genitivos como Orchidaceae, Gramineae; o como Ophiuchi, Carinae, Crucis.



As I said, the last 3 are names of constellations in the genitive case when used in the names of stars. Since the entire conversation has been about nominative plurals, I think it's worth pointing out that the original poster was half-right when she referred to genitives.

The forms of the Latin first declension are irrelevant to a second declension word like Ophiuchus or a third declension word like Crux.


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## Cosimo Piovasco

But the genitive is used only for the stars (that means "the star that belong to that sistem")
In lynneus sistem means the family of... (Orchidaceae: family of orchidee)

rosae (genitive) of rose
rosae (nominative pl) two (or more) roses.


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## Scholiast

Salvete omnes!

I must confess that I was premature (#4): there are some Linnaean botanical species which use a genitive form, such as _cedrus libani_. But I can say with confidence (after discussion with a professional biologist) that these are rare.

The Kew Gardens website (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/plants-fungi-A-Z) can supply an encyclopaedic list of wondrous things far beyond my competence as a Latinist to comment on.


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## XiaoRoel

La pronunciación latina clásica de las secuencias fónicas de que se habla son: -eae [eay], -ae [ay]; la /c/ se pronuncia siempre [k]; el grupo /ti/ ante vocal se pronuncia [ti]; /ph/ [f]; /ch/ [k]. En latín "científico" el diptongo /ae/ se pronuncia [ae] o [ε/e], la /c/ ante /i/ o /e/ [θ], /ti/ ante vocal [ti] o [θi].
Orchidaceae [orkidáceai/orkidáceae/orkidácee]; Gramineae [gramíneai/gramíneae/gramínee]; Ophiuchi [ofjúki], Carinae [karínai/karínae/karíne], Crucis [krúkis].


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