Since I don't get to go to school like some of you and often times the stuff I read is never said on the videos I watch I have no idea if I'm saying these things right in my head. I have these all the time, but just to get started, here are a couple of the one's on my mind right now;

Alkaline- I have always said alka-line, like a straight line or whatever. But what occurred to me is that in words like alkyne, it is pronounced kine. Also I heard someone say it weird on a video once and was just wondering if I had that right. I know, lame.

Liebig- I heard this guys name said once and I was like whaaa?

Believe me, I got more, that's just the ones right now that I've came across in the last hour that I wondered about. I have been wanting to start a pronunciation thread for a while. With all the tiny, yet hugely impacting variations these chemical names can have I think it's an important topic for us that don't get to discuss it with real words with real people in the real world.

Yep, that's me, always beggin' for a spoon feedin'

Okay, since you asked. I know I can find the pronunciations in many different places. I just thought it might contribute over all to us newbies to have a thread that made some effort to draw attention to the issue of pronunciation since the smallest of changes in how you say a word can have a very big impact on what it means. It's almost like trying say good morning in cambodian and you end up asking the person if you can give their daughter the shocker instead because you said it wrong.  Believe me, I hit the books hard as a mutherfucker, as hard as I possibly can. I take in atleast one full lesson a day from somewhere, albeit with no proper structure or order, I still read AND watch a lecture everyday. I bet I haven't read a synth in a month beyond skimming. I read to learn chemistry, not a recipe.

I understand the unwillingness to encourage people to be even more lazy than they already are, but I would hardly call a pronunciation thread spoon feeding. Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.

Vesp, are you siding with me, or him?

That's an interesting one, because psilocybin, the chemical, is pronounced entirely differently from Psilocybe, the mushroom genus.

I'm not going to even try to use phonetic symbols, but psilocybin has the both the long "o" and long "i" sound.  Sill-Oh-Sigh-Bin.  I guess "Psilocybe" has the weird Latin i, o and e, more like Sill-Aw-Seh-Bay.

This could be fun.

It's a long "e" sound in Liebig, Lee-big.

I know it isn't a battle, my sill-aw-seh-bay eating friend, I just wasn't quite sure what you meant.

I think the pronunciation of Psilocybe in a cultural thing.  At the mycology conference where I first heard it, the hippies were pronouncing it like psilocybin, the professional mycologists were using the Latin pronunciation.

Also, I made it so the posts made in The Den of Iniquity doesn't count your posts -- this is due to boards no topic/off-topic and lightly moderated content. -Vesp

     In the Site Matters thread.

Dictionary of Chemistry by McGraw-Hill   Thanks Lugh

Praise da lawwdah....can i get an amine

 "I guess "Psilocybe" has the weird Latin i, o and e, more like Sill-Aw-Seh-Bay."

 Matey ALL latin is Pronounced as it is spelled...go and ask an Italian to "spell" an "Italian word" to you!! they 'pronounce it as it is written'..it just depends on the "alphabet sounds" you were taught i.e.  The "difference" in how Australians are taught in school to pronounce "Vowel" sounds, is Extremely different to how a New Zealand schoolkid is taught theirs...which is based on Maori phonemes

  Its All about Where you come from and the Accent you use/have....Tomaytoe----Tomartoe? (and they're "Actually spelt Tomato"......Meh!

 Its the Variations in the Chemical's name, themselves, that get me, i.e GAA=Ethanoic Acid etc etc...Hmmm?
 UPAC I'm working on :-)
 
 cheers