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

[MANMEET SINGH]

Sean Edwards

We seem to be mixing up scientific generic names and common english names.
The genus Gladiolus will always remain Gladiolus whether we are talking
about one or several species, since the generic name is supposed to be
noun, singular in nominative case. When we are using this as a common
english name (many generic names have similar common names) the plural may
be used as per common practice, where we have adopted several words from
other languages. The plurals Gladioli, Fungi, Taxa,Cacti are more
convenient and commonly used.

Manmeet

On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Sean Edwards wrote:

> 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)
>
> ***************************************************************
> 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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>