LATIN, THE RENAISSANCE LINGUA FRANCA, AND ENGLISH, THE 20TH-CENTURY LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE - THEIR ROLE IN BIOTAXONOMY

In response to the plea by Filgueiras that Latin diagnoses remain mand atory for the establishment of names of new taxa, and to his protest a gainst the use of English as an alternative to Latin, foreseen in the Draft BioCode, the role of these two languages in biotaxonomic descrip tions is discussed. It is pointed out that the origin of the existing requirement for Latin diagnoses of new taxa under the botanical Code i s based not on Latin being a neutral language, or a simple language, b ut on the fact that it was the language of scholarship in the 18th cen tury, at the point of origin of modem biological nomenclature. Likewis e the suggestion that a BioCode should permit English diagnoses is not a matter of linguistic chauvinism but a simple reflection of the real ity that English is the dominant language of science as we enter the 2 1st century.