Latin

[ricardo]

There is no question how many people speek bengalese , hindi or chinese, but
how many people using second language, and WHAT second language THEY are
using...

How many taxonomists speak english or able to read english text...  how many
of taxonomist speak or can read chinese "!!!!!

If you question wrong way  you get bad answer....

>Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere wrote:
>
>>I hope there is some limitation put on which languages
>>are so permitted. A publication, for example, in Hopi
>>and Yoruba will do few people any good. I would suggest
>>the following list:
>>
>>English
>>French
>>German
>>Russian
>>Portugese
>>Chinese
>>Arabic
>
>
>I wonder upon what hasis this list of languages is selected.  In the 1997
paper
>in Taxon to which I referred earlier, I note:
>
>... the reality that, in the world as a whole,
>languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Russian, Arabic and Bengali, have
>many more speakers than any of the languages using the Roman
>script, with the exception of English and Spanish (Famighetti 1995,
>p. 642; Crystal 1987, p. 287).
>
>Crystal, D. 1987. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge
>      University Press. viii + 472 pp.
>Famighetti, R. 1995. The world almanac and book of facts 1996.
>      World Almanac Books, Mahwah, New Jersey. 976 pp.
>
>Hence, from Laferriere's list, English, Chinese, Russian and Arabic can be
>justified in terms of extent of use, but why French, German and
Portuguese?.  In
>particular, given the inclusion of so many European languages, why not the
next
>most widely spoken after English, namely Spanish?
>
>John McNeill
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum,
>  100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
>  Tel. and fax # 416-586-5744  e-mail: johnm at rom.on.ca
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>