# How to pronounce hydei?



## Marconis (Jul 11, 2010)

How do you pronounce the specific name of these fellas? On Wednesday I am meeting with my professor to discuss marine flatworms, and I mentioned in my email that I culture D. hydei (he does research on Drosophila), so our conversation will no doubt turn into a fruit fly discussion. I want to make sure I've got my pronunciation down pat.


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

I have always pronounced it like the girls name.


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## edwing206 (Apr 9, 2008)

I pronounce it high-dee-eye.
Edit: I take that back, I'm not helping an Arsenal fan...


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## Marconis (Jul 11, 2010)

edwing206 said:


> I pronounce it high-dee-eye.
> Edit: I take that back, I'm not helping an Arsenal fan...


Hahaha, mean.

I'm currently taking an intro to linguistics course, so you think after learning IPA I'd be able to pronounce it.

I think the options are as follows:

high-dee-eye
high-day
high-dee
high-dye


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## edwing206 (Apr 9, 2008)

Haha I kid!

I think the "I" at the end has to be pronounced. 
Like when you say lamasi, it's lamas-eye as opposed to lamas-ee.


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## Marconis (Jul 11, 2010)

Yeah I think you're right actually...I know that demasoni is pronounced de-mas-o-nigh.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

I pronounce it

high dee eye


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

Heidi Eye.


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## Marconis (Jul 11, 2010)

Looks like high-dee-eye it is! Thanks guys.


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## Capybara (Oct 30, 2010)

Binomial nomenclature uses latin. If you are going to follow a strict latin pronunciation, "e" is pronounced like "they" and "i" is pronounced like "machine" (in this case). So it would be "Hi day eee".


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## Marconis (Jul 11, 2010)

Wow, so that actually does resemble IPA pronunciation. Cool.


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## packer43064 (Nov 30, 2010)

I just say Hi-Dee.

Most people will understand regardless.


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## bristles (Jan 19, 2011)

Cool topic, I always called them hi-day & didn't worry about the correct Latin pronunciation as all the romans are dead  but I have much greater insight now, thanks


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## salix (Mar 28, 2008)

I've always heard it
hi-dee-i
or
high-dee-i
or
hi-dee-eye
or
high-dee-eye
or
heidi-i
or
heidi-eye

Oh wait, I think that's all the same 

Deb

Ummm, how about hide-e-eye?


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## What'sAGoonToAGoblin? (Sep 4, 2010)

_Hydei_ is pronounced "hi-dee". If it were spelled _hydii_ then it would be pronounced "hi-dee-I".

With that said, there are actually no "correct" ways to pronounce any scientific name. The main requirement is that the name is spelled correctly.

On top of that, many scientists can't even agree on the proper pronunciation for many taxa, and it is nothing short of a silly argument. You must realize that Latin words spoken by people who speak different languages will NEVER be spoken as they would be from a Latin tongue. That is fundamentally impossible.

For example, _Dendrobates_. Some people say "dendro-baits", and some people say "dendro-bait-eez". Neither pronunciation is incorrect. Regardless of which pronunciation is used, anybody with prior knowledge about dart frogs knows exactly what is referrred to, and that is the sole purpose of scientific names.


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