Language for taxonomic names, redux

Arthur Reutenauer arthur.reutenauer at normalesup.org
Wed Feb 22 14:56:25 CET 2017


> Moreover, the odds that people would in fact tag for this purpose are
> vanishingly small. I doubt for example the author of
> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jennifer-garner-joining-foxs-simon-homo-sapiens-agenda-978267
> would write instead «Jennifer Garner Joining Fox's 'Simon vs. the <span
> xml:lang='xxx'>Homo Sapiens</span> Agenda'» or the author of
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/h-erectus-cut-chewed-way-through-evolution
> would write «<span xml:lang='xxx'>H. erectus</span> cut, chewed way through
> evolution», just to take two examples off a web search.

  In the first example, the term “Homo sapiens” is arguably an English
word, but then it begs the question how text-to-speech software would be
helped by tagging binomial names separately.  I would assume that they
should, generally speaking, be interpreted according to the spelling
rules of the surrounding language, and pronounced as such.  That’s why
the <a> in “Homo sapiens” is pronounced [ei], after all (at least in
American English).

	Best,

		Arthur


More information about the Ietf-languages mailing list