Language for taxonomic names, redux

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Thu Mar 2 04:15:07 CET 2017


On 1 Mar 2017, at 21:42, Kent Karlsson <kent.karlsson14 at telia.com> wrote:

>> Nobody spells Carl¹s name as Linneus.
> 
> It shouldn't, but happens anyway. Esp. if it is someone not used to write that name, like, say, a programmer (programming language tag insertion software)... But also but also people who "should know better”.

Um. OK. Splendid. 

Emperor Michael I (pace John Cowan) decrees that “fears that users of subtags won’t understand how to learn how to spell them” are hereby declared baseless fears. 

> His proper name (after ennoblement) was Carl von Linné.

Splendid. Nobody cares about his ennoblement except Swedes. Or let’s be anarchists and ignore the ennoblement, since that happened after the useful work he did. 

> And at that point even some of his works used the Latinised version "Carolus a Linné”.

Cool. It doesn’t matter. “linne” is a misspelling, “linné” is prohibited, “linnæus” is prohibited, “linneus” is a misspelling, “taxon” is obscure, so it’s got to be “linnaeus” or “linnaean”.

I declare that I am minded to approve a subtag with one of those two names, and the prefix “la”. Mr Mabbett seems to have absented himself from discussion so I will work with Doug (doing most of the work at his request) to draft a new proposal. Anybody have GOOD arguments against, make them. 

> "På de flesta av hans publikationer använde han den latiniserade formen Carolus Linnæus (som brukade stå i genitiv, alltså Caroli Linnæi). Efter att han adlats 1757, tog han namnet Carl von Linné. På några av publikationerna latiniserades detta i sin tur till Carolus a Linné.”

Meget interresant. Tak for at dele det. 

Mochael


More information about the Ietf-languages mailing list