Talk:Oology

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Please give pronunciation for the word "oology". --Juuitchan

1. Pronounce the first letter separately (flat o-). By itself, it forms a syllable.
2. Place the stress on the second syllable (-ol). The second "o" is not a flat "o."
3. The third "o" is a flat "o." It forms the third syllable. In practice, however, nearly all speakers of English say "uh" simply because it is easier to leave the vocal cords open and say "uh" (who is going to notice?). "Uh" is called The natural sound because it is the easiest sound for human vocal cords to produce.
4. -gy forms the fourth syllable. It is pronounced "ge" (with a short e).

Countless words in English end in -ology (pronounced "ol'o-ge"), but, in practice, pronounced "ol'uh-ge" (see #3 above).

Hint: don't be finicky about pronouncing the third syllable as a flat "o" because you will only seem to be an odd person. College professors and academicians are amongst the few people who have the need to pronounce the word precisely (for example, when at a podium giving lectures, etc).

Oology is a strange word because it contains four syllables, but only six letters.

151.201.128.252 11:12, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Ō-ol'ō-ġy is in a dictionary.

The suffix "-ology" appears in common words such as Psychology, Meteorology, Biology, Mythology, etc. 151.201.128.252 18:20, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

See Natural vowel. Superslum 20:43, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Collecting eggs

Needs some specification; i.e. presumably the eggs you buy in the supermarket are still fair game for collectors in most places? 144.124.16.33 15:30, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Why does it need specification? I would have thought that it was logical which type of egg collecting was meant by the author of this page. "Collecting eggs" is exactly the same as "collecting coins". Most coin collectors do not collect, say, circulated pennies, because they're everywhere. It stands to reason that in a similar way, egg collectors do not collect chicken eggs, because they're also ridiculously easy to get a hold of. thefamouseccles 13:07, 04 May 2006 (UTC)

At some point 'Egg collecting' should probably be split from 'Oology' and have a separate page considering that Oology (around a century ago) was considered to be a respectable part of ornithology, and has since become, at least in some quarters, associated with illegal hobby collecting without any scientific credibility. Maias 12:10, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Referring to the comment by Maias, I dispute the neutrality of removing all scientific credibility from an activity solely because it has now become illegal. I think we should discuss that old egg collections, for example, were essential in providing the (scientific) evidence that led to the banning of DDT as an agricultural pesticide in many parts of the world. It is clear that DDT was a much greater threat to bird life than oology! Any sentimental or legal objections to egg collecting should not lead to the dogmatic statement that it is not scientific. This kind of value judgement is alike to anti-vivisectionists talking about 'pointless medical experiments' when in actual fact, there must be some point to the experiments, even if in some people's opinion their benefit is outweighed by their cruelty. Let's keep value judgements out of Wikipedia please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.49.82.162 (talk) 17:36, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I think by definition it is its illegality that makes it unscientific. For example, if an illegal egg collector collected scientifically valuable data, let's say hypothetically that xx species of bird laid more eggs in natural than in agricultural habitat, or that the second clutch of xx species was larger than the first, he would be unable to publish this discovery because of the illegality of his activity, so there would be no benefit to science. If unpublished and uncirculated 'science' is not science, then the 'unscientific' nature of egg collecting is a direct product of its illegality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.24.27.242 (talk) 23:36, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

In the US, one can obtain permits for collection for scientific purposes (more easily if done under the auspices of a university or museum). And yes, in ornithology, the word oology is more than just collection, it's the research/study/investigation of eggs also. A brief summary: https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2014/05/oh-oology/ - is that worth linking to in the page somewhere? Metasilk (talk) 17:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

new source

Piece on egg collectors in the latest New Yorker. Could be used to enhance the article. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/22/130722fa_fact_rubinstein?currentPage=all - Metalello ^talk 13:17, 15 July 2013 (UTC)