TransWikia.com

Insight into the pronunciation of the word algae?

English Language & Usage Asked on May 24, 2021

Can anyone provide some insight into the pronunciation of the word algae? Various dictionaries give either the /g/ version as in gear or the /dʒ/ version as in jeep. For example:

Is there an American or British convention for pronouncing this word? Are these conventions the same on both sides of the Atlantic?

Is one pronunciation more common in biology circles or technical circles that the other one?

4 Answers

I (American English) have only ever heard /ˈældʒi/, to the extent that this question surprised me—I hadn't really considered the possibility of pronouncing the word any other way, although I am well aware of the variation in the pronunciation of g in other words such as fungi.

I listened to the first 20 pronunciations of algae on Youglish. The 4 speakers who used [g] all sounded like they had an accent other than American English.

When I listened to the first 18 British English pronunciations, 14 of them used /giː/, 1 used /geɪ/, and 3 used /dʒiː/.

A WordReference Forums thread from 2009 seems to provide further anecdotal support for the idea of a UK/US split.

Based on this, it does seem to me that the ratio of /dʒ/ to /g/ is higher in the US than in other areas (the Oxford English Dictionary also seems to indicate this with the order in which it gives the pronunciations for British English and American English, as tchrist says in a comment below GEdgar's answer).

I don't know of any tendency for the word to be pronounced differently by biologists and non-biologists. There is no uniform, unanimously agreed-upon system of pronouncing biological terms in English—in general, there is similar variation among biologists as among other speakers in the pronunciation of words taken from Latin.

Correct answer by herisson on May 24, 2021

There are different systems for pronouncing Latin. And then, when a word is adopted in English its pronunciation may then change to fit English-speakers better. So it is not surprising that pronunciations vary.

According to the OED, the difference in UK/US is in the letter a, not in the g. For the pronunciation of the g in algae, in both US and UK, /g/ and /dʒ/ are both given. But for the singular alga, only /g/.

Answered by GEdgar on May 24, 2021

IMHO, alga should be pronounced close to /al-guh/, but algae should be pronounced /al-jie/, or rather like Algy, short for Algernon, would be pronounced.

After all, as the poet said, "Algy met a bear, / A bear met Algy. / The bear was bulgy, / The bulge was Algy."

As for fungus/fungi, the singular would be /fun-gus/ or /fung-us/; the latter would be /fun-ji/, but /fun-ghi/ is acceptable. I would be tempted to use "focuses" and "locuses" for almost all but the most technical mathematical uses--which are usually read and not spoken aloud.

Answered by tautophile on May 24, 2021

I had four (wasted) years of Latin in High School and I can tell you that the Latin plural -ae is always pronounced "eye." When I watch NOVA on PBS I always cringe when astronomers pronounce nova as NOV-EE, instead of the correct NOV-EYE.

Answered by user414791 on May 24, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP