Subject: Re: [lojban] Questions and observations about taxonomy

From: "James F. Carter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 09:26:02 -0700 (PDT)

I don't claim authoritativeness for any of these; call them personal
preferences.

On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Pierre Abbat wrote:

> Is {panju} the correct term for a sponge, meaning animal of the phylum
> Porifera? Or is it the thing that holds water, whether it's the skeleton of
> said animal or a piece of cellulose foam?

A malglico demon tells me to go with present-day secular usage and say
/panju/ is the solid foam. But we have /fonmo/ and I think the truly
lojbanic way would be, for the techological device, to use /sligu-lig/ in a
lujvo: /ligfonmo/. /panju/ is reserved for the poriferan creature.

> Are both millipedes and centipedes clacinki?

They both have the long body form (clani). But (a) they aren't insects
(cinki); (b) many arthropoda are long. In any case, any reasonable
metaphor would cover both. What's the official distinction anyway: four
vs. two legs per segment?

> Should the colloquial term {miptera} "bug" be applied to both Hemiptera and
> Homoptera, or should {moptera} be used for the latter?

If I remember my taxonomy, definitely homoptera should be kept separate
from hemiptera, particularly if there's a nice contrasting fu'ivla.

> {salmone} includes both trout and salmon. The two terms are mixed in the
> genera, with no obvious arrangement.

Right, it's sufficient to cover genus Salmo with one cognate word, even if
Western fishermen are accustomed to a separate word for the trout species.
In Los Angeles, fishmongers sell "red trout", which looks and tastes very
similar to salmon, but is obviously from a smaller fish.

> Can anyone think of a better common name for a pigeon than {tcacpi}?

/voiratcu/ = "flying rat".

> Does the term {xanto} include the mammoth as well as the elephants? (asked by
> nitcion)

I say yes. And both the forest and savanna elephants (recently shown to be
separate species, not mere variant populations) should even so be included.
If you need to distinguish, add a modifier.

> What exactly does {smani} mean? (asked by me a long time ago, with no answer,
> and again by nitcion)

The whole order Primates. It's pretty clear from the way all the keywords
are strung out that that was the original intent. And then "la broda cu
smani" is literally true. Anyone familiar with USA politics knows the
referent of "la broda".

> Is {gurni} the correct term inclusive of mavji, bavmi, zumri, e lo simsa?

Looks like it to me. But my (old) gismu list includes /sobde/ = soy with
the keyword "grain/bean", which to my mind is cheating on "grain". Hmmm,
I'm wrong. /gurni/ is the *seed* of such a plant. How about /gruspa =
gurni spati/ = "grain plant" for the category? But if we're doing
taxonomy, agricultural relevance is not a taxonomic trait, and /srasu-sas/
= "grass" might be a better root word.

James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897 FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555
Email: [email-masked] http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)