Honorific -i or -ii

[Athanasios at]

Commenting on Art. 60.11 and Rec. 60. C  of the ICBN, R. Mill writes :

The only exceptions to
>this rule are where the person's name is already in Latin or
>Greek, or has a well-established latinized form

The question thus comes to what can be accepted as a 'a well-established
latinized form', and I have been advised to treat all personal names
already spelled with Latin letters (including K, Y, W, see Art. 60. 4), as
latinized. Why ?

Simply because this is what we do with many plant names.

Looking at generic names (e.g. those conserved and appearing in the ICBN),
we can find many not having  a 'proper' latin suffix, but still fully
acceptable as new Latin names: e.g. Neurocaulon and Lithothamnion, amongst
red algae.

Thus, why not applying the same rule with personal names, and regard all
those spelled with Latin letters as having 'a well-established latinized
form'.
Hence such names should be given just the Latin genitive inflection (-i,
-ae, ...etc).

A classical problem has been the name Magnus, some scholars treating it as
magni and others as magnusii.
The argument for accepting the latter is that Magnus is not a Latin
personal name (hence follows Rec. 60 C.1), although it surely possess 'a
well-established latinized form'  (hence follows Rec. 60 C.2).

best regards

Athanasios


Athanasios Athanasiadis
University of Goeteborg
Dept of Marine Botany
Carl Skottsbergs Gata 22 A
S-413 19 Goeteborg, Sweden
E-mail "athan at marbot.gu.se"