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 Post subject: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 4:15 am 
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Please help me with this. I hear three different ways to say Hematite.

He-ma-tite

Hem-a-tite

Hema-tite

Which one do you think is proper.

Old poster back again!!!

Carl


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 4:21 am 
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http://webmineral.com/sounds/HEMATITE.WAV


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 4:38 am 
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Thank You Tim. That is the way I pronounce Hematite. My watchgeeks tell me I pronounce it like I am some kind of aristocrat. I tell them that I have studied gems but they still pronounce the first way because a TV watch salesman pronounced that way.

Thanks Again. CARL


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:00 am 
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You could forward Tim's link to them. 8)


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:20 am 
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Waaaaiiiiit......that doesn't sound right. Hematite derives from the Greek "haima", meaning blood, because the rich red color of ochre reminded the ancients of blood. Think of hemoglobin and its pronunciation (not the charge of its coordinated iron though). The prefix "heme" is pronounced "heem", kinda like meme or gene.

So really, it should be "HEEM-a-tight", unless you're an old stubborn British person that deliberately uses pronounciations from the colonial era. :mrgreen:


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:42 pm 
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Hemoglobin is pronounced by uppity medical people to distinguish themselves from us uneducated common folk who don't speak Greek. :-)

Incidentally, some dictionaries give the short 'e' version of hemoglobin as a second pronunciation. After all, we don't usually spell it "haemoglobin" any more.


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:10 pm 
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AlBalmer wrote:
Hemoglobin is pronounced by uppity medical people to distinguish themselves from us uneducated common folk who don't speak Greek. :-)

Touché!


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:13 pm 
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The pronunciation in Tim's link is correct.


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:57 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
The pronunciation in Tim's link is correct.

... :shock:
I'll take that as Word of God. Definitely a weird pronunciation, but I'll run with it :)


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:16 am 
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It does go against the general rules of English whereby a vowel followed by a consonant and another vowel is usually pronounced hard.

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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:53 am 
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You know, I've got to throw this in there. When I was doing my ochem research, I was using hematite to catalyze or inhibit reactions. Every single person in the 20+ person lab group pronounced it the way I mentioned, with the "eem" sound instead of the "em" sound. That included all the people from other English-speaking countries like the UK and India.

Also:
Webster


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 Post subject: Re: How to pronounce Hematite
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 10:32 am 
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Well, if you really want a debate, pronounce demantoid.

Hematite, Schmematite, who cares. (And yes, I always defer to pronunciation in India when in doubt) :P


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