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How do you pronounce "gibbiceps"?

Mike Wise

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I would like to know raymond82's opinion of Nijssen. I think I'd believe a native (Dutch) speaker over a web-based source that may or may not be edited for accuracy. As for the pronunciation of Latin words, I rely on my high school Latin book for proper pronunciation (almost as old as Rome itself!:D). An '-i' suffix is pronounced as a long 'i'. In Latin a long 'i' is pronounced like the 'i' in 'police' or the 'ea' in 'seat'. As much as I respect Dr. Innes (his book Exotic Aquarium Fishes still sits with my more modern books in my 'primary fish references' bookcase), but he isn't pronouncing Latin properly. Like I said before, it really doesn't matter that much, as long as we know which species we are talking about.
 

raymond82

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Amsterdam
EDIT -- I just noticed that "Pronounce How" gives the "English" pronunciation of words (whether the word is English or other languages), so that may toss "Nee-EYE-son" out the window.

That must be the explanation for it, although Nijssen is not a very common name I'm sure it's pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. Actually, as a general rule I think dutch words are pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable.

The combination of i and j is pronounced (roughly) as eye, but it's more like the i in iron. So basically, ij is pronounced like the letter i in English... I notice now it's not so easy to write phonetic English for a non-native speaker, especially when explaining dutch pronunciation...

With respect to the i at the end of Latin, in dutch the letter i itself is pronounced like the i in police, that's why we pronounce the i at the end like Mike suggested as ee. I never really doubted that that is the right way to pronounce it, but I never took Latin in school and I never met a native speaker... However, Italians pronounce the i like also like the i in police I think.

So: it's NYE sen ee. It's actually funny, cause since my girlfriend is Spanish we speak English at home and I used to pronounce nijsseni as neye SAY nee (they were a present form my girlfriend and my first ever apisto's, also the first fish I ever bred). Until I was at a fish market here in Holland and people didn't understand what I was talking about... ;)
 

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