Suggestion: Tag or Sub- tag for Scientific names
Martin Duerst
duerst at w3.org
Mon Feb 3 09:22:36 CET 2003
I disagree that this should get its own tag. Scientific Latin is
not a language, because it does not allow everyday and general
communication. It can be seen as a special notation the same
way that math, chemistry, programming languages are special
notations. Language tags explicitly exclude such notations.
Regards, Martin.
At 15:15 03/02/01 +0000, ietf-languages at pigsonthewing.org.uk wrote:
> LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM
>
> Name of requester : Andy Mabbett
>
> E-mail address of requester: andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
> Tag to be registered : SC (or possibly "LA-sci")
>
> English name of language :
>
> Scientific names (aka "Latin names") of living things
> ("Scientific Latin")
>
> Native name of language (transcribed into ASCII): n/a
>
> Reference to published description of the language (book or article):
>
> There is no single published description of this "pseudo
> language". However, the following small sample of the available
> literature may be of use:
>
> The Christian Science Monitor "What's in a scientific
> name? Maybe your own."
>
>
><http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/2001/01/04/fp15s1-csm.shtml>
>
>
> Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
>
> <http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/taxonomy.html>
>
> A Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names.
> Kastner, J.
> Oxford University Press. 1986.
>
> The Dictionary of American Bird Names.
> Choate, Ernest A. Revised by R. A. Paynter, Jr.
> Harvard Common Press. 1985
>
> CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names,
> Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology
> Umberto Quattrocchi
> CRC Press November 1999
>
> Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names in Latin,
> English, French, German and Italian
> M Wrobel and G Creber
> Elsevier 1996
>
> The Scientific Names of the British Lepidoptera - Their
> History and Meaning
> A. Maitland
> Harley Books 1991
>
> Plus the many websites listed at:
>
> <http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/taxonomy.html>
>
> and titles listed at:
>
>
><http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26fiel
>d-subject%3DScientific%20nomenclature%20%20cl
>assification/202-3492600-6446218>
>
>
> Any other relevant information:
>
> There is currently no language tag to denote the use of
> the scientific names (often erroneously called "Latin
> names") of living things, such as plants and animals
> (e.g. Homo sapiens). While such names are often composed
> of, or derived from, Latin terms, they can also be
> created from "Latinised" words taken from other
> languages, including Greek, English & other Western
> languages, languages local to the habitat of the plant
> or creature described, place names, word- play, family
> names and even words invented for fiction (e.g.
> characters in Tolkien or Star Trek).
>
> For example:
>
> Brachypelma albopilosum
> (Brachypelma, from the Greek)
>
> Ekgmowechashala philotae
> (the North American Lakota language)
>
> Uluops uluops
> (from "ulu", an Eskimo knife)
>
> Linnaea borealis
> (in honour of Linneaus)
>
> Ardeola grayii
> (in honour of John Edward Gray, a
> biologist)
>
> Nepenthes sumatrana
> (from the place name "Sumatra")
>
> Phyllidia polkadotsa
> ("polka-dotted")
>
> Draculoides bramstokeri
> (in honour of the character Dracula and
> its author, Bram Stoker)
>
> Calponea harrisonfordi
> (in honour of Harrison Ford, the actor)
>
> Ba humbugi
> (a quote from Dickens' 'A Christmas
> Carol')
>
> Ytu brutus
> (a quote from Shakespeare, "Et U,
> Brutus?)
>
> Polemistus chewbacca
> (a character from the film 'Star Wars')
>
> Crex crex
> (onomatopoeia)
>
> Phthiria relativitae
> (a play on "The Theory of Relativity")
>
> Abra cadabra
> (a magical pun)
>
> Orizabus subaziro
> (a palindrome)
>
> Agra vation
> (a play on "aggravation")
>
> Bombylius aureocookae
> (a play on "oreo cookie")
>
> Heerz lukenatcha
> (a play on "here's looking at you")
>
> Cyclocephala nodanotherwon
> (a play on "not another one")
>
> Zyzzyx chilensis
> (???!!!)
>
>
> The use of the tag "LA" for Latin, while it may act as a
> useful guide for pronunciation in some cases, is clearly
> inappropriate for many such names, which will not occur
> in regular Latin dictionaries.
>
> I propose a tag for such names (which commonly occur in
> the midst of prose written in another language), or,
> alternatively, a sub- tag of the "LA" tag.
>
> The tag will allow clients to be aware that they should
> NOT translate Scientific names when translating the text
> of a document in which they are included; Homo sapiens
> is Homo sapiens in French, German, English or Serbo-
> Croat.
>
> There is convention to abbreviate second occurrences of
> such names:
>
> <http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000047.htm>
>
> thus:
>
> "Homo sapiens has a bigger brain that H.
> erectus"
>
> and that the proposed tag (or sub-tag) will potentially
> allow the second such occurrence to be pronounced in
> full by speech synthesis software, as it would be in
> normal speech:
>
> "Homo sapiens has a bigger brain that Homo
> erectus"
>
> Scientific names are conventionally rendered, on paper
> or screen, in italics (or sometimes underlined) <ibid.>;
> a unique tag will potentially allow rendering to be
> facilitated automatically by clients (or via style
> sheets in HTML and other mark- up schema).
>
>
> I am grateful to Harald Tveit Alvestrand for his
> response to my initial suggestion.
>
> I have been advised that an "asbestos proof" suit might
> be needed; as a newcomer to this system, I trust that
> this will not be the case; I will gladly submit a
> revised proposal, in the light of guidance from friends
> more learned and familiar with the procedure than I.
> Comments from zoologists, botanists or taxonomists would
> also be welcome.
>--
>Andy Mabbett
>
>Birmingham, UK
>andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
>--
>Andy Mabbett
>
>Birmingham, UK
>andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk
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