Initially I didn't want to participate here. However, there is a discussion
about "Latin" names; one mentioned "ancient Romans", another one said that
Latin was spoken over a large area with possibly different dialects (which is
certainly true). So Latin was not meant by everyone in the discussion as a
synonym for "scientific name".
The funny part, and that's why I break my silence, is:
Nobody noticed that the examples in the original e-mail (Neophema and
Polytelis) are not Latin. They are Greek!
Cheers,
Nikolas
BTW, there are ways to find out how words in ancient languages were pronounced.
The Latin name "Caesar" was adopted by the Greek and became "Kaisar" which
later became "Kaiser" in German. So most likely the "C" in Gaius Julius Caesar
was originally pronounced like a "K". However, later the same "Caesar" became
"Zar" in Russian, which apparently shows that there was a switch in the
pronunciation of "C" in early and later Latin...
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Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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