Vernacularizing scientific names

[Michael Gochfeld]

I agree with Chris that where there are no English american names, that
anglicizing the scientific name might be desirable.
I have advocated this for Neotropical birds.  Why is Collared Micrastur (used in
several books) less desirable than Collared Forest-falcon?
Chris mentioned all the plants whose horticultural names are actually the genus
name.  In birds we have Trogons (for Trogon spp).
Some generic names lend themselves to this, others don't.  Eagle flows of the
tongue better than Haliaeetus  (yes there really is a double  'e').
I have always thought that leps names were more awkward then bird names----not
sure if that is a function of my age or not.

I can't imagine calling something a Harkenclinus, but a group called the
Satyrium's wouldn't be bad.

Erynnis, for example, would be just as easy as Duskywing.

Mike Gochfeld

"Chris J. Durden" wrote:

> I have noticed that in some languages like French the default common name
> for a species is formed by vernacularizing the scientific name. If we
> applied this useful rule to English we could enjoy such names as the
> Antiope Nymphaly, the Plexippe Danay, the Rape Pieris, Macoun's Oenean and
> Fritz(gaertner)'s Celaenorrhine. This was tried in the 19th Century as
> noted by Scudder but did not seem to catch on. The advantage to this system
> would be that those who knew the scientific names would know which species
> was being talked about and others would no longer be intimidated by Latin
> word order and foreign-sounding words.
>     I would advocate this approach for coining new common names for those
> species that did not have a well established American (or Canadian) English
> common name. Another benefit would be that no common name would be longer
> than two or three words.
>     Remember that kids have no trouble with words they learn early. My
> mother was a gardener and she claimed my first word was Rhododendron.
> ................Chris Durden
>
> At 11:38 PM 5/8/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >Hmm-- Esperanto left out a few billion people! (and though I met many, even
> >thirty years ago, who advocated it, I couldn't get a complete Esperanto
> >sentence
> >out of any of them....)
> >
> >Del luego,
> >
> >Woody
> >
> >Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> >
> > > Ron,
> > > Ironically, English has become the lingua franca (I presume French once
> > held
> > > that distinction).  It offers many disadvantages in terms of grammar, but
> > > Esperanto (a dream of the 1950's never really caught on).  That would have
> > > given us the opportunity to coin a whole new bunch of vernacular names.
> > MIKE
> > > GOCHFELD
> > >
> > > Ron Gatrelle wrote:
> > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Niklas Wahlberg" <Niklas.Wahlberg at zoologi.su.se>
> > > > To: "leps-talk" <TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com>
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 5:17 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: [leps-talk] Dutch Names !!! No Finnish names!
> > > >
> > > > > No, no! I think Finnish names are even better! There are even less
> > people
> > > > > speaking it in the world and we have such wonderfully long names. How
> > > > about
> > > > > punakeltaverkkoperhonen (Euphydryas aurinia)??!! :-D And the great
> > thing
> > > > is
> > > > > that you pronounce it like you pronounce the latin names...
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > Niklas
> > > > >
> > > > > PS its almost summer here, saw a male auroraperhonen (Anthocharis
> > > > > cardamines) and a couple of lanttuperhonen (Pieris napi) on my way to
> > > > work
> > > > > this morning.
> > > >
>
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