Latin names: WHY?

[Dean Lofthouse]

Haha, I brought this up a few years ago and got a slating for my efforts

[easy-lift guy]

It all go's back to Genus-species 9th grade Biology/Botany. The plants of a Genus are often easily recognisable as belong to the same group. Species on the other hand defines an individual plant or tree. Some species can be further divided into sub-species that contain plants or trees not quite so distinct that they are classified as Varieties. On occasion I will use the Genus-species name simple because I remember it from class otherwise I mainly use Common names to keep the drama of trying to sell a job and or my knowledge to a miminum.

elg.

[b101uk]

Its because gardeners etc etc want to sound intelligent and keep the information from the peasant classes thus retaining a hold over them, but there is little intelligence in using a dead language when significant parts of the world population don’t understand it.

 

The sciences don’t have this problem any more (note medieval Latin), the standard language of being a pilot is English, many medical/science papers are disregarded unless they are now in English (note medieval Latin), there are significantly more English/Germanic words in Asian language than there is of Latin, most of the world population would be able to relatively quickly translate English into there native language vs. Latin, most of the world is exposed to English.

 

You should remember the Latin used in botany etc is a mix of medieval Latin and ecclesiastical Latin used from about 400AD for scholarly pursuit ware as Germanic languages stretch back to >500BC long before the Romans got up here, Anglo Frisian, Primitive Saxon and North Germanic all went into making English along with some French and Latin, however if you don’t speak a word of French or Spanish and you listen to a conversation about the countryside and things within it you will understand very little, ware as if you listen to a similar conversation in Dutch from the Frisian area or Norwegian and even German you will understand much more of the conversation.

 

As for myself I don’t give two hoots about Latin naming as I just wont use it, I had enough problems learning to spell and write English

[daveindales]

The scientfic world could not function without a universal language, wether it be for fungi, bacteria, trees or animals. Everyone knows some botanical names for instance Rhododendron and Magnolia. We were told at college that they were botanical names not latin as a number of trees have part non-latin names eg Malus 'Golden hornet'. Although, I dont use them day to day, they still have their place

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

latin rocks, it takes effort to learn I agree, but it is a "specific" and universal language, when somone asks me what metaseqioua glyptostroboides is i know EXACTLY what they mean. chestnut for example, sweet= castanea sativa, or horse= Aesculus hippocastinum.

 

You use whatever language you like, but if you want to work and communicate in a scientific way, latin IS the language.

[Dean Lofthouse]

When in Rome ............

 

 

But we are not in Rome

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

When in Rome ............

 

 

But we are not in Rome

 

latin is the basis of all european languages anyway, it was this universal link that led to its common use in science.

 

this threads a no brainer for me, not even an argument to be had on the pros and cons.

[scotspine1]

When I went out to work in the US, they would call our common Lime....'Linden' and what we would call London Plane they call 'Sycamore'. Both our Lime and what they called Linden was Tilia × europaea. To complicate matters further in some states in the US Linden is referred to as Basswood.

 

The London Plane/Sycamore - What I thought looked like London Plane in the US was in fact the American Sycamore...Platanus occidentalis, not London Plane (Platanus × acerifolia) which is a hybrid of Platinus orientalis and Platinus occidentalis. Our Sycamore is good old Acer pseudoplatanus. The American Sycamore and British Sycamore are two completely different trees.

 

This is why Latin/Botanical names are important so we can all understand exactly what we are referring to with regards to trees/plants/animals etc. around the world.

 

The second part of a Latin name ie pseudoplatanus in Acer pseudoplatanus does not refer to the species as commonly thought. pseudoplatanus is the specific epithet, Acer is the Genus, Acer pseudoplatanus is the species. It's a common mistake to refer to the second part of a Latin/botanical name as the species.

 

specific epithet - Wiktionary

 

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Edited July 17, 2011 by scotspine1

[Xerxses]

Ok from now on I will only use swedish names on trees since this thread ruled out latin as a universal language!

 

My Hägg is filled with caterpillars what are they?

[Dean Lofthouse]

Excuse my analogy, but why speak german to order your fish and chips.

 

"Eeerrrm.. could I have a portion of Melanogrammus aeglefinus with solanum tuberosum please ? "

 

To me it is rediculous and unneccessary in the uk and is used mostly to enhance the Victuals of those less fortunate than myself