how to write the plural of latin and greek words in english

[Sean Edwards]

Thomas,

A can of worms, and one about which different people have strong and
differing views. Journals will have their house-styles. My own view
is that English is the language we speak, and that Latinized plurals
can run very close to pretension. Many words (such as "taxa") are so
well established that "taxons" would certainly raise an eyebrow if
not a hackle. You cannot be consistent, but only lean one way or the
other.

Cognate issues include:

1)      pluralization of taxa. Here I think biologists have no choice.
The regular "a gladioli" and "some gladiolis" are classic gaffs born
of pretension or simple ignorance.

A taxon is a singular concept; there is only one (legitimate) genus
Gladiolus. You may use it as an adjectival noun, as in "several
Gladiolus species" or "several Gladiolus plants". This also gets
round the issue as to whether the last "s" of Sphagnums goes into
italics or not. You still do see pluralized taxa in scientific
journals, which shall remain anonymous.

If it is English that you are speaking and not botanical Latin, then
it is no business of mine, but it seems therefore that you should use
an English plural. It does take some courage to say
"gladioluses", "funguses", "cactuses" which sound wrong and ring of
inverted-pretension (which is even worse?), and I usually take the
coward's way out.

2)      pronunciation (and spelling) of foreign place names, and the
tight-rope here between pretension and PC can on occasion be of
negative width. Personally I am delighted that the French etc. have
their own word for London, and would have no wish for them to change,
but I do understand that there may be other issues of sensitivity for
other countries. And for international databases there would be an
argument for one spelling only.

Sean
(don't take pedantry too seriously)

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sean.edwards at man.ac.uk
Sean R. Edwards BSc PhD, Keeper of Botany, The Manchester Museum,
Manchester University, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

'phone: +44 (0)161-275-2671/2;        fax: +44 (0)161-275-2676
web: http://www.man.ac.uk/museum/
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