Goura
GOO-rah
Genus
Goura — the crowned pigeons
Literally: A kind of pigeon
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goura | A kind of pigeon | New Latin (gour, =a) | Feminine singular noun; the terminal -a is the New Latin nominative ending. Likely coined from an indigenous Papuan vernacular name for these large ground-dwelling pigeons of New Guinea. |
Goura is a single-word genus name, a New Latin feminine noun in the nominative singular. It functions as the entire binomial head; species epithets within this genus (e.g. Goura victoria) agree with or are appended to it. The word is treated as a noun in apposition when combined with a species epithet.
Pronunciation
- GOO-rah Two-syllable word: stress falls on the penult (Rule 1). 'ou' follows the Greek digraph convention (ou = long 'oo', as in 'boot'); final -a is short 'uh'.
Other readings
A superficially plausible Greek split is G(= connecting initial) + oura (Greek our, =a: 'the tail'), but the dictionary contains a direct entry for goura (NL: 'a kind of pigeon'), making that the authoritative reading. The Greek tail-root analysis should be rejected for this name.
The New Latin term gour, =a is directly attested in the dictionary as 'a kind of pigeon', confirming the name is a Latinized form of a vernacular (likely Papuan) word rather than a Classical compound. The genus Goura (Bonaparte, 1854) comprises the three species of crowned pigeons (Victoria, Western, and Scheepmaker's), all native to New Guinea and among the largest living pigeons. Because 'ou' is not listed among the canonical diphthongs in the pronunciation rules (ae, oe, oi, au, eu, ei, ai), strict rule-application would yield three syllables: Go-u-ra, stressed on the antepenult (GO-oo-rah). However, 'ou' in New Latin names from Greek invariably represents the long Greek ου (= 'oo'), collapsing to two syllables GOO-rah, which is the universal common usage and is adopted here.