birding-aus

Capitals and common names

To: Robert Inglis <>
Subject: Capitals and common names
From: Carl Clifford <>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:55:44 +1000
One problem, Bob. To which language would the term " common names" refer? To 
make it absolutely clear, one would have to use  the term "English common 
names".

Carl Clifford

On 14/04/2013, at 11:57, "Robert Inglis" <> wrote:

> In the name of pedanticism............
> 
> There must be a better label than “English names”. Personally, I prefer 
> “common names”.
> 
> Or should we only capitalise/capitalize the English versions of bird common 
> names?
> 
> It would seem that some non-English speaking (as a ‘first’ language) 
> birdwatchers also capitalise bird common names. For example my copy of 
> “Robert’s Birds of Southern Africa” lists common names in a number of 
> languages and they all capitalise the names. That is, to maintain the 
> pedantic theme, except for the Zulu names which all start with one, two or 
> three lowercase letters immediately followed by what looks like the actual 
> name headed by an uppercase letter. I don’t speak or understand “Zulu” (I 
> barely understand English these days and that is certainly often the case 
> when it is written) so I can’t comment on that form of spelling and format.
> Of course, that version of that field guide was published in 1984, before 
> “texting” and “SMS” so it also has punctuation and the text uses complete 
> words.
> 
> Do, for example, German, Japanese, Spanish (but to name a few) birdwatchers 
> refer to “English names in their everyday birding conversations?
> 
> Just to make it clear, I always capitalise (but rarely capitalize) bird 
> Common Names.
> 
> Bob Inglis
> Sandstone Point
> Qld
> Australia
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