[Taxacom] Latin anyone?

[Neal Evenhuis]

At 12:13 PM -1000 10/14/10, Richard Zander wrote:
>Until computerized quality of translation from English to Latin and 
>vice versa gets orders of magnitudes better, I think we better keep 
>the Latin requirement for new names.
>
>I can't imagine using computerized translation for descriptions in 
>Chinese, Japanese, and Hindi into English, much less find them in 
>journals.
>
>Try this with English to Latin. Is the Latin comprehensible, 
>especially with technical words like strigose and whatnot? (Then ry 
>back to English again):
>http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=pT#en|la|
>
>One might suggest that knowing Latin well and ones own tongue might 
>be sufficient for anyone in the world to do alpha taxonomy, 
>particularly if we focus on learning/teaching adequate Latin to 
>taxonomists.
>
>Are there any testimonials from taxacom zoologists who have found 
>peace and serenity in not having a Latin requirement for publishing 
>new names? Or problems and frustration? I mean testimonials of 
>non-Latin foreign language descriptions, not logical or moral 
>arguments one way or the other. Is your reading of the non-English 
>literature, particularly that in non-Latin alphabets, a problem when 
>searching for or reading descriptions of new taxa?
>

Yes, we zoologists have oodles of peace and serenity by not having to 
do a Latin diagnosis -- but we still have to attempt translations of 
older descriptions and diagnoses when Latin was the ipso facto lingua 
franca....

-Neal