[Taxacom] Neoromicia nanus or Neoromicia nana?

Tue Jan 14 08:33:56 CST 2014

Wel, i tink eglish needs simpl makin, 2. Tha gramer is 2 hard 4
feriners, unles stoody stoody stoody lyk laten. 

richerd 

____________________________
Richard H. Zander
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA  
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Evol. Syst.: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm
UPS and FedExpr -  Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis
MO 63110 USA

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Chris Thompson
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 7:20 AM
To: Francisco Welter-Schultes; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Neoromicia nanus or Neoromicia nana?

All:

Sorry, but a little history ...

Yes, when Linnaeus started his Systema Naturae, Latin was the accepted, 
universal language of science / scholarship / etc.

but our Science (at least Zoology) has moved on from there.

Today a name is simply an universal, unique tag for a concept that
denotes 
what we call a "species," and an indicator of where we place the species
in 
a hierarchical classification.

So, as I once proposed, the ICZN could be simplified and greatly reduced
if 
the historical factor of language / gender was removed.

Unfortunately, a significant portion of people objected.

So, today we now have had to build a new registration system (ZooBank)
and 
create digital identifiers as these people objected to adapting the old 
system to the new digital interconnected world, etc.

HOWEVER, as a practical solution for all who proposed new species-group 
names, they can declare that those new names are simply "arbitrary 
combination of letters ... to be used as a word." If done, then their
ending 
does not change.  And the best practice is always to have a derivation 
paragraph / sentence to explain to future users what you as the original

author intended the name to be, etc.

As for the past, beware of Art. 33.3.1, what I call the "Tubbs" clause.
That 
is, regardless of whether name is properly or improperly formed
originally, 
the "... spelling ... in prevailing usage ...  is deemed to be the
correct 
original spelling."

So, one needs only to determine whether Neoromicia nanus is used more
than 
Neoromicia nana. Language is irrelevant as usage determined the "correct

original spelling!"

Oh, well

Sincerely,

Chris

-----Original Message----- 
From: Francisco Welter-Schultes
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 7:26 AM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Neoromicia nanus or Neoromicia nana?

> On 1/13/14 11:11 AM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
>> This is perhaps a good example of why the Code requires
simplification?
>> Endless debate over Latin grammar doesn't really help biological
>> understanding!
>>
> I figured you wouldn't be able to restrain yourself. This is precisely
> why I commented that we can use registration to solve the problem.
Once
> a name is registered as a noun or adjective, the debate ENDS.

I am not in favour of a rule that the First Person to Place an Entry
into
an electronic data resource has the right to take such a decision and to
stop a debate in this form. There must be escape rules what to do if the
entry is incorrect, and there again the debate would continue.

>
> Robert's arguments, BTW, are sound, but the ICZN does indeed work
> differently from botany; if a name can be either a noun or an
adjective
> (which is what is claimed for nanus), then it is noun by default under
> Art. 31.2.2.

I also regard this point as valid, however I do not consider this as a
useful rule. It seems the rule is not used in the community, at least
not
strictly, and at least not by the malacological community. It should be
replaced by a better rule in the next edition. I fully agree with
Stephen.

Francisco

Francisco Welter-Schultes
Zoologisches Institut, Berliner Str. 28, D-37073 Goettingen
Phone +49 551 395536
http://www.animalbase.org

_______________________________________________
Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these 
methods:

(1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org

(2) a Google search specified as:
site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom 
your search terms here

Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013. 

_______________________________________________
Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
methods:

(1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org

(2) a Google search specified as:
site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here

Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.