Names

[Michael Apel]

Dear taxacomers,

actually the discussion about "standardization" of common names for
organisms appears slightly strange to me, since a Swedish scientist
established a system of standardized names already  in the 18th
century. Knowing that swedish would probably not be generally
accepted for an international system, he used latinized names, latin
being the scientific language of that time.
 So, why should that system of naming animals internationally using
latinized names not be sufficient ourdays? Do you really think,
that students who are not willing to learn latin names for organisms
would rather learn a japanese, serbo-kroatian, arabic or german name
for the same species because this name is the official standardized
common name?? Or is the idea behind the whole story that latinized
names should be replaced by anglicized ones for international use?
(No, I don't want to start the "language-imperialism" discussion
again.)

Michael Apel
FI Senckenberg
Frankfurt a.M., Germany

email: mapel at sng.uni-frankfurt.de