Melaenornis
mel-ee-NOR-nis
Genus
the black bird
Literally: black bird
| Part | Meaning | Language | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| melaen- | black; blacken | Greek (melaen) | full root, connects directly to following vowel of ornis |
| -ornis | a bird | Greek (orni, =s, -th, -tho) | nominative singular form -ornis; stem orni-/ornith- |
A compound of two Greek roots with no connecting vowel needed, because melaen- ends in a consonant and ornis begins with a vowel. The genus name is a single Latin-treated noun of masculine or feminine grammatical gender (treated as feminine in ornithological practice). The two roots combine as a descriptive noun: 'black' + 'bird'.
Pronunciation
- mel-ee-NOR-nis Penult rule 5: the penult vowel 'o' is short but is followed by two consonants (r + n), so the penult 'nor' receives stress.
Other readings
A very remote alternative reading would split mela- (cheeks) + en- + ornis, but melaen as a single dictionary root meaning 'black/blacken' perfectly accounts for all six characters 0–5, making this the unambiguous reading.
Melaenornis is a genus of Old World flycatchers (family Muscicapidae). The diphthong 'ae' is pronounced as long e ('ee'). The segmentation melaen + ornis is unambiguous and covers the entire word with no remainder. Other roots found inside the word (mel 'honey/song/cheeks', laen 'cloak', aen 'bronze') are all shorter or cross-linguistic matches that are superseded by the cleaner melaen + ornis reading.