I say tomato...

[onionhead]

I'm currently doing battle with the delightful grass they call Couch and I was wondering how it's actually pronounced:

   Is it 'Cooch' or 'Cowch'?

Cos there's me complaining to my allotment neighbours about cowch when suddenly I hear someone else refer to it as cooch. Gah, the horticultural faux pas of it all! And while I'm on a roll: Nicotiana...

   'Nico-tee-arna' or 'Nico-shee-arna'?

Thanks.

[onionhead]

[sarah]

tis cooch. ( or as we say round here effing cooch)
and its nico-tee-arna ( or tobacco plant)

[tim]

'Scuse me? BOTH are correct - depending upon your location.

[jennym]

We call it twitch round here :)

[sarah]

'Scuse me? BOTH are correct - depending upon your location.

:-[ I stand corrected and apologise most sincerely

[tim]

:)

[Ceratonia]

I would say Ni-ko-SHE-ana rather than nico-tee-arna, too, but wouldn't like to claim I was correct.

Stearn's Botanical Latin books have a nice pronunciation guide and I think the general rule is that -ti- is pronounced 'sh'.

Nicotiana is named after John Nicot who brought tobacco to France, so is perhaps an exception to the general rule?

Was speaking to a Dutch friend yesterday, who is the chairman of an allotment society near cambridge. She was talking about 'cooch' rather than 'couch' but also says "Daalia" rather than "Daylia"  and I expect she pronounces Fuchsia as "Fuksia" rather than "fyoosher", too.  :)