The BBC announcers, at the time of the discovery, called it the "coal - uh - canth." Whilst they are not the final arbiter in such matters, they are a respectable source.
Seal a canth is closer to how I have heard it-- (one of the Volkswagon commercials on TV-- when the mechanic finds a full size spare-- and compares it to a Coelacanth) maybe VW has a site where you could "re watch" some of the commercials-- I don't remember seeing it this year, but did see it at about chrismastime.. so its not that old a commercial (I don't know if aired out side of US)
Coel--- is from the Latin Coelus, heaven. In late Latin, pronounced, as you correctly noted, chaylus, as in Regina Coeli (re-geena chaylee). In the English pronunciation which used to be used, this comes out as regina (rhymes with vagina) see-lye. So the prefix 'coel' would be pronounced seel and coelocanth is see-lo-canth. (I think this is the correct spelling.)
and while it is a big ugly fish--it has a heavenly name--
but one that (pronounciaton)is so at odds with its spelling-- (at least to me) that it almost belongs in the Misled/ awry thread--
I read the story (an other one was found about 10 years ago) and then when i heard almost the same story on the news (and heard see-lah-canth) I thouhgt 2 different fish had been found--a Co el ac anth and a See lah canth! Felt like a real dummy!
How strange is was to see your post... i'm an avid Acrophobia player (an online word game where you must create topical sentences from randomly chosen letters - great fun!) and i've used Coelacanth several times since i read about the recent South African sighting, if for no other reason than to stump my fellow players.
BTW, here's a far more interesting fish for you to check out... just cross your legs before doing so:
I spent a few weeks in the Ecuadorian Amazon several years ago, and although we were told it was okay to swim in the river (and we did quite a lot, often drifting downstream for hours, surrounded by enormous blue morpho butterflies, with occasional lines of parrots winging overhead...), our guide said to get out of the water if we had to pee, or if we got a cut. I knew before this trip that piranhas would go after blood in the water, but had no idea that the candirú was a threat as well. Although my guide did not mention the name of the fish, it was pretty clear from his presentation that he viewed the candirú as a much greater threat than the piranha (which only eats you alive).
The Latin for heaven was caelum normally. The Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm gives for coel- see cael-. ae, pronounced [eye] and oe, pronounced [oy] both went to e in medieval Latin and followed the rule that turned a c from a hard [k] sound to a soft sound, [ch] in Italianate Church Latin or [ts] in German Church Latin. This sound became the [s] sound in various non-liturgical Latins, of which scientific is one.
This notwithstanding, the AHD gives the etymology Greek koilos, hollow, + Greek akantha, spine, through the Modern Latin Coelacanthus. I have found no evidence that the Greek koilos ever produced anything in Classical or Medieval Latin unless some blasphemous 12th century monk editorialized caelum to coelum to indicate his belief that the concept of heaven was a hollow mockery.
What this long winded diatribe comes down to is another vote for [see luh canth].
Heavens!! I went off half-cocked; must be the candiru lurking nearby. Please, teacher, I really did know the correct gender and spelling of caelum; don't know how I came to post anything so silly.
"Modern coelacanths are deep-sea fishes of the family Latimeriidae. The name refers to their hollow fin spines (Greek: koilos, "hollow"; akantha, "spine")."
I have heard of this-- it lives off nitrogen--(which is why it normal lives in the gills of other fish) and it can sense a strong source of nitrogen in water, and swims upstream to the source--
It seems if there is a flow of urine, the urethra is wide enough for it to swim in. (but it can't swim up a stream out of the water-- so you can stand on a dock, or boat deck) So it could happen– but I guess it didn't happen very often (still who wants to take that kind of a chance?)
and yes, i am sure women would be more vulnerable-- but it might actually enter their bladder since there urethra is so short--
Heaven/heavens The singular vs. plural is confusing all over the Bible. Genesis I:1 uses the Hebrew "ha'shamayim" which is plural. In the Psalms, you can have heaven or heavens, and there is a verse in I Chron., in the prayer of King Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, which has "the heaven of heavens". What are you to make of that? Where are the resident Biblical & liturgical experts? Father Steve?
The key here was warning not to micturate ("P" silent as in bathing) In the waters mentioned there dwells a tiny crustacean, that homes in on the stream of warm water, and enters the male urethra, and has backwards direct spines so it cannot be removed on the spot. If it got into bladder, in old days, death frequently ensued. Equally horrible alternative when only partway up male urethra, was amputation just above that point. A potent reason for not polluting the Amazon. wwh
Etymology from the greek as noted by others and used in words such as coelome (referring to the gut - important to phylogenists as an important differentiator between the stages of evolution exhibited by animal phyla. Hence also the phylum Coelenterata) and Coeliac disease.
I had occasion to ask a Catholic priest once. The question was fresh in my mind since we were just returning from a rehearsal of the Mozart Requiem and had stopped off for something to eat. One of the people in our group recognized a couple enjoying a beer and some food as being a priest and a nun. I introduced my self and asked. The nun knew no Latin and the priest struggled to recapture what little he had learned but hadn't used since the Great Changeover. He had no answer for me. It was all I could do, upon learning that neither were anywhere near fluent in Latin, to keep myself from stuttering out, "But, that means you don't have benefit of clergy."
seel-a-kanth, and the BBC should be ashamed of itself. When hot news breaks they have to have reporters on air before the pronunication department get to them, but this was hardly urgent, and mispronunciations are usually fixed by the bulletin one hour later.
The confusion of -ae- and -oe- comes from mediaeval Latin where they were both pronounced long -e-, and the italic forms (in hand or print) were virtually identical.
>seel-a-kanth, and the BBC should be ashamed of itself
I'm not convinced about the BBC here. I have only ever heard "seel-a-kanth" and I'm an avid BBC Radio 4 listener. The only problem is that I've never seen it written down so I didn't associate "coelacanth" with the word that I had heard - the shame!
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on those phonetic spellings. Decide for yourself:
