Linguistic imperialism

[Joe Laferriere]

On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Jeannette Ridder wrote:

> Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:48:11 +0100 (MET)
> From: Jeannette Ridder <RIDDER at rulrhb.LeidenUniv.nl>
> To: josephl at CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Linguistic imperialism
>
> Dear Joe,
>
> I am never really  giving a reaction to the discussions in TAXACOM, because
> so much other people always do already. I have followed a little bit the
> discussion going on about the Latin diagnoses. I must tell you that I am with
> you very happy that thesse latin diagnoses are there. I had a chinese article
> with about four new names which I could not really read very easy as you will
> understand. But fortunately the author of the article did not give only the
> diagnosis in latin, but the whole description. Now isn't this service or not?
> I really think it is good to have a language for this kind of use that is not
> suffering from political or economical problems.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jeannette Ridder-Numan
> Rijksherbarium Leiden
>
Thank you very much. American botanists generally treat the Latin
diagnosis as a nuisance, often farming the chore out to Latin scholars
because they themselves are completely ignorant of Latin (or think they
are). I have seen non-US botanists (including in Latin America) rely very
heavily on these descriptions.