The plural forms

[Thomas Schlemmermeyer]

I heard the same theory, in a lesson given by Dr. Nelson Papavero, also a great
Brazilian Systematist.

I must confess, I do not understand the logics of this argument.

But, from a practical point of view, even in Brazil the majority of the
scientific community now writes "taxa" and not "taxons". As I am no linguist, I
always try to aligne my understanding to the understanding of the majority,
which, by definition, might be correct, under the assumption that one
understands a language as a spatio-temporally bound particular, and not as an
absolute universal.

On (         Wed, 1 Dec 1999 10:59:46 -0500
),         "Jose H. Leal" <jleal at GATE.NET> wrote:


>In the late 1970s, one of my professors of theoretical systematics in São
>Paulo, Brasil (who also happened to be a former priest, and a student of
>Latin and old Greek) mentioned in passing that the word "taxon" qualified
>as pseudo-Greek and that, as such, formation of its plural in Portuguese
>should be "taxons", not "taxa". Any truth to that? Comments?
>__________________________________________________________________________
>José H. Leal, Ph.D.
>Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
>Editor-in-chief, THE NAUTILUS
>jleal at gate.net
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