ICZN

[Chris J. Durden]

Michael,
    We have the same problem with "English" as a new international language 
of technology, business and communications.
    Which is "correct" of these fabricated technical terms - "pictel" or 
"pixel". The first is an Old World usage which is correctly constructed 
from the English words picture and element. The second is a New World usage 
correctly constructed from the slang word pix and the English word element. 
As with Pidgin English as a universal language for communication, we are 
stuck with "Pidgin" (Columbic?[1]) Latin as a universal language for 
scientific names.
......................Chris Durden
[1.] as a native of Corsica was Columbus an Italian or a Frenchman or was 
he a royal bastard from Spain? - see the paper by the spider expert Bonnet.

At 08:44 AM 4/26/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>I second Norbert's point. But (or And), like the names we are
>discussing, the code itself isn't stable. So it can be changed, and I
>think one way that compels its change is when there are changes in
>usage.
>
>The late Gene Eisenmann  of the AMNH pointed out to me (while he was
>alive) that a number of the "corrections" made when species were
>assigned to new genera, were grammatically incorrect. I.e. the author
>thought they were masculinizing or feminizing an ending, but did it
>improperly (if I recall it was usually because they misunderstood the
>gender of the generic name).
>
>I think its reasonable for the original describer of a new species to
>get gender agreement right. But scientific names are not Latin
>sentences, and stability ought to be more important than grammar which
>(as Norbert pointed out) most of us (and certainly most future students)
>wouldn't recognize anyway.
>
>Mike Gochfeld
>
>
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