How do you say it?

[Andie]

I actually started saying bet-ah, then I heard everyone saying bay-ta so I switched, rotfl. When I learned that was technically incorrect I switched back.

I think wanting to pronounce a breed/species correctly, at least for me, comes in large part from the dog show world, where breed names like keeshond (KAYS-ond) and samoyed (sam-OY-ed) are commonly mispronounced. You can often tell who knows what they're talking about by whether or not they know how to pronounce the breed name, so now I always make an effort to be precise regardless of WHAT I'm talking about.

Obviously, however, in the fish world the same rule of pronounciation=education doesn't hold true, since many people who clearly know what they're doing have said they say 'bay-tah, but for me it's just become force of habit now

 

[OrkyBetta]

I think since both of the pronunciations are in the dictionary (bayta is the alternate pronunciation.) Neither one is really wrong. It's just an opinion. Just like the envelope ANvelope thing.

 

[Bloo]

I agree that it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but the correct pronunciation is "betah" according to English grammar rules (yes - anal retentive person here )

lol yep I'm with you on this one !

 

[Ethos]

Bet-ta sounds like the "ghetto" version of "better", therefore I will ban that pronounciation from my vocabulary.

B)

 

[MegTheFish]

I say bet-ta...always have and always will. Even though everybody else I know says bay-ta, I don't mind being different

 

[LifeBear]

Stop posting that BET tah is the CORRECT pronunciation. We all KNOW that, even the ones that say BAY tah.

You Aussies have it lucky, your accent lends itself to saying BET-tah more easily than my southern US accent does. No one around here would know what I am talking about if I said BET-tah. Even the local breeder says BAY-tah, although she would know what I meant if I said it "correctly."

Maybe we should lobby to have the scientific name changed. Or we could say that people who say BET-tah are using the scientific name while people who say BAY-tah are using the common name.

 

[Seahorse]

Wow this poll got close, bay-tah was winning by double yesterday!

Hmm I am noticing that a lot of countries apart from the USA, say bet-ta. Anyone else see that? But here in the USA, both are said, with bay-tah being slightly more common.

 

[splashluff]

I think wanting to pronounce a breed/species correctly, at least for me, comes in large part from the dog show world, where breed names like keeshond (KAYS-ond) and samoyed (sam-OY-ed) are commonly mispronounced.

OMG... I just want to smack people when they say KEYS-HOUND. I'm like, what? A dog that hunts for keys? . I've actually heard announcers at dog shows says KEYS-HOUND, and SAM-OID...

LOL, anyway. I kindof feel like I *should* be saying BET-uh now with all of these replies. Now that I'm thinking about this, I have heard Betta breeders pronounce it that way, it just got burned into my brain after hearing everyone at LPS-Petsmart-Petco say BAY-tuh

 

[Andie]

I've actually heard announcers at dog shows says KEYS-HOUND, and SAM-OID...

Gah, for real?!! I would FLIP! Actually, I'd just laugh I know breeders who'd flip, though . . . I can actually understand SAM-oid a bit more because it's much more commonly used- kinda like bet-ah But Kees-hound? Or worse, Keesh-on? Yikes!