FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tom Mazanec]

In the impossible event that I have a mineral named after me, people might be tempted to pronounce it "maz-an-es-ite" and not "maz-an-ek-ite" as it should be. Are minerals named after places safer? In the nearby town of Mantua, a man was looking for the "Man-too-ah" city hall, and no one could help him. Finally someone said "Oh, you mean 'Man-oo-way'".
I hope to start talking to mineralogy buffs soon. Is there some guide to keep me from embarrassing myself?

[alfredo]

I agree with you that minerals named after people should be pronounced the way that person pronounced their own name, but all too often a wrong pronunciation gets so deeply embedded in collectors' minds that it's hard to correct.

One of my pet peeves is sugilite, named after Dr Sugi, whose name is pronounced with a hard "g" as in "geese", although almost everyone says it with a soft "g" as in "gene". Hauyne and Whewellite are others named after people and usually wrongly pronounced. And then there are the several copper minerals of greek origin with "chalco..." in the name, which ought to be pronounced "kalko..." rather than with the soft "ch" of "chase".

[Pete Modreski]

I certainly agree, that this is a perennial challenge, how to pronounce these names.

To Alfredo, I just want to go on record, when I pronounce those copper mineral names, I say "kalkopyrite", "kalkocite", and to bring in a sulfate too, "kalkanthite". My impression has always been, that it is the British who pronounce those names with a soft c, but in the U.S., most say a hard c/k sound.

And, Tom, looking at your name and without knowing anything about your ethnicity, I think I would have guessed that it was perhaps a Czech name, and I would have pronounced it (I think) "Mazanets".

[crocoite]

ecandrewsite named after E. C. Andrews technically should be pronounced ee-cee-andrewsite :)

[John S. White]

I have always been amused that some collectors are reluctant to say certain mineral names because they fear they will mispronounce them and embarrass themselves, thus revealing their amateur status. NOT A PROBLEM! I have found that collectors, dealers, mineralogists, etc, don't really care how a mineral is pronounced and I have known a number of professional mineralogists who routinely mispronounce mineral names. In fact it may matter only to the person for whom the mineral is named. Our fearless leader Jordi did, I fear, have me stumped for a while a few years ago. He was being shown a flat of vivid blue crystals and after the seller had left I ask him what the mineral was. In his reply he pronounced it kar-LET'-ton-ite. It took me a while to realize that he was referring to carletonite, better pronounced KARL'-ton-ite.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi to everybody!
All of mineral and scientific names are possible to be pronounced wrong. For example, there is a very common and invasive plant titled to the British botanist Mr. Buddle and whose scientific name is "Buddleia davidii". In Italy we usually pronounce it "Boodlay-ee-ah da-vee-dee", as it should be said in Latin! I may quote several examples of, among animals, plants and minerals as well!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Tobi]

A very interesting discussion, I often think about this problem and I don't think it matters what language you speak, there are always some tricky names in the mineral world. Alfredo gave an example that I also know from the German language:

[Jamison Brizendine]

The mineral variety that always trips me up is Chalcedony, to save myself embarrassment I just call it an agate.

[Tom Mazanec]

[John S. White]

I have always pronounced it a-NAL'-seem. Max Hey's "A Pronouncing Index of Accepted Mineral Names" (which is very old now and not always correct, in my opinion) really muddles it and I can figure out what he preferred. Will try to show what he suggests if I can.

[John S. White]

Okay here is the way Max Hey suggests analcime should be pronounced: ĂNĂ·LSĪM.

The A with the cup over it is pronounced as a long A, as in band. Not much help in my opinion.

[Roger Warin]

Hi,
I believe that there is no rule. Chalco is a root that comes from the Greek word χαλκóς (chalkos) and pyrite (copper pyrite, although the structures are different).
In ancient Greek is pronounced "kalkos".
However, French Shalco we say as we say a chalcophile "shalcophile" element but Malakite said. Malashite strikes the ear.
And I say "shalkopyrite", "shalkocite", and to bring in a sulfate too, "shalkanthite".
There is no rule but only the use prevails.

Similarly, the mineral auricupride is an English term that offends the French chemist. But this is not a matter of pronunciation.

Roger.

[Pete Modreski]

So, I have learned from these exchanges, that the French pronounce the chalco- words as "shalco". I never knew that! I making my comments I had meant to state clearly, that as I understand it, the usual British pronunciation is "chalco", with the soft ch as in "cheese"--I believe that's generally true in England, is it so?

And, interesting, Roger, that you comment on "auricupride" as sounding bad to the French [chemist]. That name sounds so logical and appropriate, to me in English--it's so good to have a mineral name that states so clearly, what the composition is! And it seems so logically formed from Latin roots.

[Fiebre Verde]

[Roger Warin]

Yes I agree with you, but there is no French translation of the term "auricupride". This name is official (IMA).
Roger.

[alfredo]

The IMA only specifies official mineral names in english, not other languages. Usually most mineral names are pretty much the same in different languages, except for the suffix. But some languages, like japanese and chinese, will use different names, and many european languages have their own names for species that were known for centuries (Everybody has a different name for gypsum, for example).

[Tom Tucker]

The website, webmineral, has audio pronunciations of many species.

[Tobi]

Funny to see that I'm not the only experienced mineral guy here who has sometimes questions about the pronunciation of some species' names ;-)

Another example: What's the correct accentuation on "dioptase"? Is it DI-op-tase, di-OP-tase or rather di-op-TASE? The same question in German if it is DI-op-tas, Di-OP-tas or rather Di-op-TAS ...

The webmineral.com soundfile says "di-OP-tase", according to this it should be Di-OP-tas in German. But I think most German-speakers rather say "Di-op-TAS"; I must confess me too. How do the English-speakers handle it, do you pronounce it the way the soundfile (https://webmineral.com/sounds/DIOPTASE.WAV) says, that means stressed on the second syllable?

[Pete Modreski]

Since there are so many ordinary words in the language(s) that are pronounced differently--and especially, accented/inflected differently, when the same language (here I guess I am speaking of English) in different parts of the world, it is probably too much to expect that mineral names will ever have a standard, agreed-upon pronunciation!

A few very common mineral names that people often ask me about, and for which I usually say "just take your choice", are peridot and hematite. My personal preference is PER-i-dote, but I know that many gem cutters prefer PER-i-doh, or even per-i-DOH. And for hematite, I normally say HEM-a-tite (as in the clothes-sewing word, "hem"), but I acknowledge that HEME-a-tite (long "e", the way we say haemoglobin) is prefered by many, and I probably say it that way, oh, 40% of the time too.