Re: September CPN + N.xiphioides + Latin descriptions
dave evans (T442119@RUTADMIN.RUTGERS.EDU)
Fri, 29 Sep 95 17:06 EDT
> From: Fernando Rivadavia Lopes <ferndriv@USP.BR>
> Subject: September CPN + N.xiphioides + Latin descriptions
>
>
> I think it's a pain in the .... to have to sort out all those Latin
> descriptions, and I at least consider myself lucky because my native
> language is Portuguese and I have good notions of Italian and Spanish to
> help me out. Xenophobisms apart, if this was up for a vote, I'd want to
> dump Latin descriptions altogether and go for English. Or even using
> Spanish, German, French, or all of these would be better. I mean, it's
> much easier to find someone who speaks one of these languages (to help
> out when publishing a new species) than someone who speaks Latin! The
> irony is that the use of Latin was intended to overcome this multiple
> language problem.
I agree with Fernando on this. While I have very little in the of
"Higher Education" and only speak English (so maybe I'm biased), it
does seem to be the most pragmatic solution. Latin is dead and so
was picked for use so as not to favor any nations (besides Vatican,
I suppose). Now, much later, it seems the whole world is favoring
English more and more as an universal language so the scientific
community should take heed of this change and perhaps alter the way
these descriptions are validated.
Dave Evans