Zompist Bboard Again

Am I the only one who, when hearing professional people taking about plants¹³, has to be restrained from yelling "It's not /ei.sə/, it's /aːker/!!! Did you learn anything at school?"

¹ The BBC's programme about the RHS Chelsea Flower Show² is currently on the TV.
² See also Garderner's World, and similar.
³ Not just the TV, but in garden centres and similar places.

alice wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2026 2:41 pm Am I the only one who, when hearing professional people taking about plants¹³, has to be restrained from yelling "It's not /ei.sə/, it's /aːker/!!! Did you learn anything at school?"

…and now I know I’ve been pronouncing it wrong all this time. (Well, in my head. Out loud I just say ‘maple’.)

Again, you have mishandled your Latin in the title: wrong case, wrong declension class. It must be De Horticultura.

Taxonomy is one of the fields where the traditional English pronunciation of Latin survives.

I learned Classical pronunciations in school and Ecclesiastical pronunciations in the church choir, which was interesting. I remember a friend and I briefly going through a phase where (in practice sessions - we wanted to be defiant and irreverent, not disruptive) we would insist on singing Panis Angelicus with the Classical pronunciations we were taught in school: [ˈkoe̯.lɪ.kʊs] non [t͡ʃɛː.li.kus].

Yes, well, if that weren't enough, I heard two completely different pronunciations of (the variant of Ebola currently ravaging DR Congo)¹ on the news tonight. When I were a lad, etc.

¹Parenthesises inserted for clarification