Pronunciation: Retina (as in Kodak RF)

[BrianShaw]

Yes, I quite agree. But I've never experienced that kind of discussion in person. Now, Jon, I'll be forever reluctant to participate in any local photo club. Thanks for clueing me in!

 

[dll927]

All these attempts at pronunciation look like a case for using the International Phonetic Alphabet, which pretty much covers any language with "agreed upon" sounds.

Someone mentioned 'church' Latin, which is medieval Latin, not classic. When I took Latin, we were taught that ALL c's were (k) and ALL g's were 'hard' as in 'go'. V was always pronounced w. Incidentally, the reason W is "double u" is that that was precisely what it originally was cf. Latin "equus" - horse.

Church Latin corrupted some of that. "G" before e or i softened to "j" and "C" before e or i also softened. Caelum (Heaven) in classic Latin began with the "K" sound, whereas the church pronounced it 'chelum' with a 'short' e.

Tu es petra, et super hanc petrum (a)edificabo ecclesiam meam. That's the inscription at the base of the dome at St. Peter's. Interpreted, it's "Thou art the Rock, and upon this rock I will build my church".

 

[dll927]

A typo -- In the last paragraph, "petrum" should be "petram". It's the accusative singular, (needed after the preposition 'super') and "petra" was a 'feminine gender' word.

 

[BrianShaw]

Thanks very much for the Latin lesson. My service as an altar boy was at the very end of the "Latin era". I remember memorizing the Latin Mass but pronunciation wasn't of the utmost importance . I suppose what is in your heart is sometimes more important than the correctnesof the words spoken??

In high school I took Spanish (which was a mistake) because Latin seemed at the time to be of limited utility. Whenever I have the chance I plan on re-doing a few things that I may have done wrong in my childhood -- like never learning piano and Latin. At least I learned how to expose film properly when I was a kid!

 

[Sylvaticus]

Dialects aside, many (most? all?) languages can have simultaneous pronunciations for loanwords ranging from an approximaion to the original pronunciation to a fully assimilated pronunciation. For the place where a car is kept, you might have Frenchy pronunciation like ga-RAH-zh, a half anglicised pronunciation pronunciation like GA-rah-dge, or a fully anglicised pronunciation like GA-ri-dge. So it is with Retina too: Germanish re-TEE-na or anglicised REt-(e)-na. So the confusion, and the query, are understandable. And the road is opened for endless arguments, eternal because both are right.

 

[Frank K]

When I grew up in Brooklyn, having hung around the camera stores of their day, it was called a RET-i-na like in the eye. I would imagine that the powere that be in Kodak back then chose that name for that very reason. But you never know!

 

[dll927]

Brian -- I majored in Spanish, which is the reason I had to take Latin. Spanish, along with French, Italian, Portuguese, and some Roumanian, are the so-called "romance" languages, meaning those derived from Latin.

I then spent 34 years teaching Spanish, and since I taught in East L. A., I also taught what we call ESL, English as a Second Language.

As for the Latin, my day was in the second half of the 1950's, and I don't know if they still have the Latin requirement. (I went to San Jose State.) Interestingly enough, the prof I had for Latin (also my main Spanish prof) was quite Catholic, so doing things as the classic Latin must have seemed a little odd. But that was before John XXIII!.

Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est, cuaram unam incolunt Belgae, etc......

 

[drmatthes]

Amici mei, retinere picturam in emulsione pelliculae aut receptoribus electronicis nos delectat. Propterea censeo discussionem finitam. Argumentatio oratorum linguae dependat oratoris aut usus dialecti regionalis. Diversitas linguarum res Babylonica, lingua res mutabilis dum tempora mutant.

Jesko

 

[Frank K]

Pax et Bonum

 

[jonasv]

I studied Latin and Ancient Greek for six years in high school, simply because I thought it was interesting. Looking back on it, they were the most usefull classes I ever had...

 

[Dougg]

With only one year of high school Latin on top of two of Spanish, I struggle to follow the learned words. I would have enjoyed learning more Latin...

But I expect the folks in Rochester pronouced it RET-ina

 

[bsdunek]

"RETna"

"RETna"

Well, when Dad bought one back in '48, that's what it was called by the Detroit Camera Shop (long gone, may it RIP). I have his Retina II, and what a nice camera it is. Coated Schnider f2.0 lens, Compur 1 - 1/500 +B&T shutter (with no flash sync). Of course it has knob wind, shutter must be cocked prior to shooting, and focus must be at infinity to close the front. My wife also has her Dad's , and we can go shooting as a couple and everyone wonders what we are doing. They are fun, however you want to pronounce the name! 😎

 

[FrankS]

re TEE na

You say tomato, I say tomato!

 

[Solinar]

It's tomatah, Frank!

 

[BrianShaw]

Amici mei, retinere picturam in emulsione pelliculae aut receptoribus electronicis nos delectat. Propterea censeo discussionem finitam. Argumentatio oratorum linguae dependat oratoris aut usus dialecti regionalis. Diversitas linguarum res Babylonica, lingua res mutabilis dum tempora mutant.

Jesko

Now I'm starting to understand! 😀

 

[KoNickon]

I believe that when Kodak bought Nagel (based in Stuttgart, I think), Nagel was already making the Retinas. I'm sure in Rochester they always called them RET-inas, but to my way of thinking, at least, the German Re-TEE-na is more correct.