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We are refurbishing the signage in our dinosaur area. I'm curious if other museums include dinosaur name pronunciation on exhibit panels (ie: Parasaurolophus Para-soar-ol-of-fuss). If so, what standard of pronunciation do you use (it seems it can vary quite a bit)? Have guests found it useful? Are there ways you've attempted to communicate pronunciation other than on exhibit panels, maybe through an audio interactive or other interpretation?

If you've chosen to leave pronunciation out of your exhibit, could you please let me know why.
Thank you!

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Beth Gibson
Exhibit Developer
Pacific Science Center
Seattle WA
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Beth, In addition to the conversation about pronunciation, I'm eager to share some more general thoughts about the perceived value of the naming of plants and animals. There are schools of thinking that suggest that the scientific naming of things satisfies an innate urge and encourages participants to think: "Now that I've heard the name of that thing I'm satisfied. And now I can move along."
It would be interesting to test/explore an option of identifying your dinosaurs by their ecological niche or their directly observable characteristics in a way to make them more accessible, memorable, and relatable. Is knowing "Parasaurolophus" as important as recognizing them as "trumpet-headed plant-eating herd?" Because once you contemplate this, you may relate them to modern elk or bison and indeed this dinosaur was the elk of the Cretaceous. I don't always/absolutely adhere to this idea, but I do always think about whether the naming of things is vital to the message because it CAN get in the way.

Here's a passage from A New Beginning (Van Matre, Institute for Earth Education) that seated this idea in my thinking: "When you name something, you tend to stop thinking about it." Van Matre suggests people name things based on their own observations. "For example, I didn't know the name of the creek that flows in front of the entrance of our land in Montana for as long as we lived there. I recently found out the name of the creek was Lake Creek. Before I knew the name of the creek I called it the beaver dam creek with leeches, frogs, and tadpoles."

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Matt Kirchman
Museum Planner | Exhibition Developer | Visitor Advocate
ObjectIDEA
Salem MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2018 02:34 PM
From: Beth Gibson
Subject: Dinosaur Name Pronunciation on Exhibit Panels

We are refurbishing the signage in our dinosaur area. I'm curious if other museums include dinosaur name pronunciation on exhibit panels (ie: Parasaurolophus Para-soar-ol-of-fuss). If so, what standard of pronunciation do you use (it seems it can vary quite a bit)? Have guests found it useful? Are there ways you've attempted to communicate pronunciation other than on exhibit panels, maybe through an audio interactive or other interpretation?

If you've chosen to leave pronunciation out of your exhibit, could you please let me know why.
Thank you!

------------------------------
Beth Gibson
Exhibit Developer
Pacific Science Center
Seattle WA
------------------------------

Hi Beth,

When we developed interactives for Dinosaur Moveable Museum we included both written pronunciation and audio recordings. The Moveable traveled around to schools so it was designed primarily for K-5 classes. This way kids who couldn't read the pronunciation could still understand how to say the name.

Best,

Robin

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[Robin White] [Owen]
[Principal]
[www.mediacombo.net]
[robin@mediacombo.net]
[646-472-5145]
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2018 02:34 PM
From: Beth Gibson
Subject: Dinosaur Name Pronunciation on Exhibit Panels

We are refurbishing the signage in our dinosaur area. I'm curious if other museums include dinosaur name pronunciation on exhibit panels (ie: Parasaurolophus Para-soar-ol-of-fuss). If so, what standard of pronunciation do you use (it seems it can vary quite a bit)? Have guests found it useful? Are there ways you've attempted to communicate pronunciation other than on exhibit panels, maybe through an audio interactive or other interpretation?

If you've chosen to leave pronunciation out of your exhibit, could you please let me know why.
Thank you!

------------------------------
Beth Gibson
Exhibit Developer
Pacific Science Center
Seattle WA
------------------------------

Hi, Beth -

     In recent years in the museums that I've worked with, I've not noticed a specific trend toward any one standard for this in interpretive text, but pronunciations are often included.  It might be worth reviewing recent popular (as opposed to scientific) literature to see what's being employed there.  We generally don't use scientific names when we talk about the creatures that we live with today, so we're at a slight disadvantage when we encounter those names in text.  Nobody says "last night, I almost hit an Odocoileus with my car on my way into town," they just say they almost hit a deer. 

     Having never lived with (non-avian) dinosaurs, we don't have common names for them, so we've always talked about dinosaurs using their scientific names.  Some species get a "free pass" on pronunciation simply because their scientific names are widely known (Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, etc.) and have become part of the vernacular, but many other taxa are not as widely known, and the nomenclature is becoming increasingly diverse as more species are described. 

     Historically, Greek or Latin names have been the norm, but today we're seeing many other languages in scientific nomenclature, often in recognition of the cultures and people of the locality in which a specimen is found.  For example, Qiaowanlong is a genus of Chinese sauropod dinosaur, and Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis is a species of hadrosaur from Alaska whose name comes from the Inupiat language.  Given this trend, I think that offering pronunciation guidance in interpretive text is probably more important than ever. 

     In addition to pronunciation, I think it is valuable to also offer a translation of the meaning of a name.  This helps the terminology seem less arbitrary and gives a reason why we're making everyone use these tongue-twister terms.  For example:

     Oryctodromeus (Or-ick-toe-dro-me-us) "Cave runner"

     This small herbivore is the first dinosaur species found to offer evidence of living in underground burrows.  Paleontologists think that ...    

    
     Hope this helps, and I look forward to seeing the new signage on our next visit to PSC.  :)

           Cheers,

               Michael

        

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Michael Holland
Principal/Owner
Michael Holland Productions

Redmond, WA USA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2018 02:34 PM
From: Beth Gibson
Subject: Dinosaur Name Pronunciation on Exhibit Panels

We are refurbishing the signage in our dinosaur area. I'm curious if other museums include dinosaur name pronunciation on exhibit panels (ie: Parasaurolophus Para-soar-ol-of-fuss). If so, what standard of pronunciation do you use (it seems it can vary quite a bit)? Have guests found it useful? Are there ways you've attempted to communicate pronunciation other than on exhibit panels, maybe through an audio interactive or other interpretation?

If you've chosen to leave pronunciation out of your exhibit, could you please let me know why.
Thank you!

------------------------------
Beth Gibson
Exhibit Developer
Pacific Science Center
Seattle WA
------------------------------