[Taxacom] Latin anyone?

[Richard Zander]

That's not exactly what I meant, Neal. How much trouble do you and other zoologists you know have in translating descriptions of new taxa published in languages other than English? Like Chinese? 
 
Are all exotic language taxonomists now publishing their new names in English, in your experience? Maybe they are.
 
Or do zoologists now just ignore all descriptions of new taxa published in Chinese, Hindi and similar non-Latin alphabet langulages? Also, how do you know when a description of a new taxon in a group of interest is publshed in a non-Latin alphabet foreign language paper? 
 
R.
 
_______________________
Richard H. Zander
Missouri Botanical Garden
PO Box 299
St. Louis, MO 63166 U.S.A.
richard.zander at mobot.org
 

________________________________

From: Neal Evenhuis [mailto:neale at bishopmuseum.org]
Sent: Thu 10/14/2010 7:00 PM
To: Richard Zander
Cc: fwelter at gwdg.de; TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Latin anyone?



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.
>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