I recently came across one of those lexicographical gaps that drive me crazy. There is a bird called the grandala (Grandala coelicolor); as that Wikipedia article suggests, that is its only name in English, and yet it is not in any dictionary I can find — not even the OED, which has no entry for it, just a lone citation using it (s.v. fire-tailed: “There are two birds of striking colour, the beautiful little Fire-tailed Mixornis..and Hodgson’s Grandala”). It has a Wiktionary stub, but that has only a definition and a photo. All of which means that I have no idea of its etymology, and the only help I have gotten for how to pronounce it is this video, whose narrator says /grənˈdɑːlə/; she’s probably right, but I’d like to have an official source. Does anybody know more?
Is that a name in English, or a name in Latin?
Information about its namer is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Houghton_Hodgson
That claims that he was fluent, among other things, in Nepali, and Google claims that grandala is the Nepali for grandmother.
https://dibird.com/species/grandala/ gives a list of species names in different languages including a Nepali one which Google transliterates as ‘himali grandala’ and translates as ‘Himalayan grandmother’.
But whether any of that is true I could not tell you, and I doubt it helps with English pronunciation!
Remark from B.H. Hodgson’s publication of the species in ‘Additions to the Catalogue of Nepâl Birds’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 12 (1843), p. 448 (available here, boldface mine):
So New Latin Grandāla ‘big wing’, a compound of grandis and āla?
name in English
How about long-winged blue chat?
Sure.
That is the etymology given here, although they mention no sources.
It’s a striking bird: this video shows the remarkable wings, and the trees full of cobalt-blue males and gray females.
Other genera named by Hodgson include Latin and Greek compounds as well as local names.
How about long-winged blue chat?
“The female is sordid slaty, or blue-black, with a brown smear” is vivid, if not very chivalrous.
That is the etymology given here
“L. grandis large; ala wing”: excellent, and I thank you for digging it up! I must say I’m surprised; I was sure it would turn out to have an origin in one of the local languages.
@Xerîb: New Latin Grandāla ‘big wing’, a compound of grandis and āla?
That’s what Jobling says, with a “perhaps”. (Edit: Sniped by Y.)
WP “chat (bird)” says the chats are subfamily Saxicolinae and include genus Grandala. However, the WP Grandala article puts Grandala in family Turdidae, in which case the William Barnes English name should now be “long-winged blue thrush” rather than “long-winged blue chat”.
“The female is sordid slaty” — indeed Hodgson named it a separate species, G. schistacea.
I would say /grænˈdæːlə/ but that’s probably more because of the dialect I speak; there are thousands of words in my vocabulary which I have never heard spoken and this is one of them.
Also: “Transfer Grandala from Muscicapidae to Turdidae as a basal taxon within that family (Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006a; HBW; Fjeldså et al. 2020)” is a comment in a spreadsheet which I have from the IOC World Bird List.
Consulting Cornell’s University’s eBird: https://ebird.org/species/granda1, identified as one of the thrushes. BB in VA
As Jen in Edinburgh points out and several sites seem to confirm, it’s local name is himali grandala, हिमाली ग्राण्डला. But ग्राण्डला suggests a pronunciation /grɑːndəlɑː/ rather than /grəndɑːlə/.
Well, now I’m confused again.