Dear Barry and Tweeters,
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Okay, here goes.
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With "pileated"--as is the case with many if not most?Latin-based words--if in doubt, go with a more latinate pronunciation. I think English is just about the only language where the ninth letter of the alphabet says "aye" (as in "Aye-aye, captain," or "I have something in my eye.") So, the pronunciation of the first syllable in "pileated" ought to rhyme with "pill," not with "pile."
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With "parula," we are dealing with a diminutive. The word means "little Parus," or maybe "titlet."?It ought to be pronounced, roughly transliterated, "PAIR-you-lah." This is in line with the pronunciation of other such diminutives as "blastula" and "cannula" (or?"canula").?The latter is not pronounced "ca-NOO-lah," but rather "CAN-you-lah."
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On the pronunciation of "towhee," I must confess to have allied myself with the Visigoths and other great unwashed (and unshaven). I say "TOE-wee," to rhyme with "pahoehoe." This bird was originally named Back East, where the Rufous-sided Towhee--let's not start a bar-room brawl over the recent adoption of the clumsy neologism "eastern towhee"--says "Chewink!" Some people, back in the day,?thought it sounded like "toe-WHEE!" The accent ought properly to adhere to the second syllable. Our birds over here don't say anything like "chew-INK!" Chewink,?in my opinion, ought to be the name of the east-coast bird, anyway.? A real stickler would insist on such a pronunciation, giving breath to the second?rather than the first,?but I reckon I will stick with "TOE-whee," since that is what my tongue is used to saying. I'll say twenty Hail Bartrams and move on.
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Saying "plover" to rhyme with "over" is?nothing if not a?barbarism. It rhymes with "lover." Those who rhyme it with "over" saw it in print, guessed wrong, and that was that. Alternatively, they head some other Alley Oop mispronouncing it and followed suit (or loincloth).
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I have never heard?anyone say?"fay-no-peep-lah." The pronunciation "fay-no-PEP-lah" is the only one to have reached my ears. I can't fathom how "pep" could end up being rendered "peep."
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Barry, with the bunting, you have saved the best for last. The pronunciation I have always heard, trusted, and used is "LAPP-us LAZZ-you-lye." This rhymes with "SNAP us?JAZZ you pie" or "CRAP bus?HAS you nigh." This pronunciation is attested by C. T. Onions in "The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology." However, the "Webster's Seventh Collegiate English Dictionary" says that the last syllable should rhyme with "me." And so it goes.
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I know another English teacher who goes on and on about "descriptive rather than prescriptive" pedagogy. Stuff and nonsense, I say. Learn the right way to say the words!
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That said, I was at Green Point last Sunday, and two fellows walked up to me and started dropping hints; they wanted to look at a bloody ketch out in the channel. I was looking for murrelets, and hadn't much time, so I?afforded them short shrift. When they insisted on asking me what I was looking at, I muttered something about cormorants. One of them immediately asked me, "Where are you from?" When I was a kid in New York,?I started off saying "cor-MORE-ant." I guess it still comes out that way sometimes!
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Yours truly,


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Gary Bletsch
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Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA
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garybletsch at yahoo.com
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Mentre che li occhi per la fronda verde
ficcava ?o s? come far suole
chi dietro a li uccellin sua vita perde,
lo pi? che padre mi dicea: ?Figliuole,
vienne oramai, ch? ?l tempo che n?? imposto
pi? utilmente compartir si vuole?.
?
?


--- On Thu, 3/17/11, Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net> wrote:

From: Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] RE: A plea for the correct use of the word "Merlin"
To: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
Cc: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 1:12 PM

PILE-eated or PILL-eated Woodpecker?
PAR-ula or Par-U-la Warbler?
To-WEE or TOW-hee?
PLUV-er or PLO-ver?
PhainoPEP-la or Phaino-PEEP-la?
LA-zuli Bunting or La-ZU-li Bunting?


I've heard experienced birders pronounce all those names both ways. Is there really a "correct" way to pronounce those names?


Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.