Talk:Elytron

Pronunciation

This edit changed the given pronunciation from /ˈɛlɪtrɒn/ to /ˈɛlaɪtrɒn/, listing two sources. The first, Miniature Lives, gives no pronunciation in the portion available in the Google Books preview. The citation gives a page number (313), but the Google Books preview lacks page numbers for some reason, so I can't confirm whether that's one of the available pages. The second cited source, The Canadian Entomologist volume 41, appears to give no pronunciation anywhere (though I didn't have the patience to check every instance of the word), and it's 111 years out of date besides.

On the other hand, even a brief search turns up other reliable and contemporary sources that all give the /ˈɛlɪtrɒn/ pronunciation or a close variation of it ([1] [2] [3]). I checked over a dozen sources (though I didn't vet them for reliability), and not one of them lists anything like /ˈɛlaɪtrɒn/. Thoughts? — Ardub23 (talk) 18:56, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

I suspect the edit was influenced by Minecraft rather than anything else. I have looked at three dictionaries, two online (Collins and Merriam-Webster) and a paper copy of the OED and all give the non-diphthongal version /ˈɛlɪtrɒn/, so I cited Collins since it uses IPA and re-edited the pronunciation. I have left the other sources since they corroborate the definition and etymology - but say nothing about pronunciation DL67 (talk) 01:15, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

FWIW - professional entomologists in English-speaking countries almost universally pronounce the first two syllables as in the word "elite". It is exceedingly rare to hear a "hard Y" sound. Dyanega (talk) 17:12, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

image

It seems odd that the article for elytron has an image displaying hemelytra instead. Yes, they are similar, but they are not the same. ~TPW 16:13, 5 July 2022 (UTC)