BioLists - Taxonomy Now

The power of nature's names at your finger-tips.

Now at "proof of concept stage"
Aiming for over 3M names via
crowdsourcing, it is already
usefully functional.
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LANGUAGE LIST for COMMON NAMES

In addition to informal Vernacular Names (intended to be in the Languages listed below), BioLists is trialling two novel, contrived series of "formal" species-level Common Names: for all species, each and every name is unique.

See if one or other of these new series will cut corners for you!

- UTILITY Names - Every species named in the database gets one unique name in the Latin script.
These consist of the species' Genus Name, an underscore, and one or more leading characters of the species' "trivial" name.
- TAG Names - Each named species adopts one Tag name from among its Vernacular names: otherwise, use its Utility Name.
Each name is selected from the best known Vernacular Names for the species. It is in Latin script, and one or more other scripts, yet to be decided. Choices will favour widely-used indigenous names from the species' home territory. As Tag names, these may be of most use outside the home range of their species.

All species names in Time-bands 2000 and 2010 have their Utility and Tag Names added to the database ready to go directly into your BioLists.
The program does not search for these formal names - they will be found as Genus and Vernacular Names respectively.
Utility and Tag Names cannot be keyed-in within BioLists. As with the informal Common Names, should never be italicised.

VERNACULAR (language-based) NAMES

When creating a new BioList, you can elect to search on Common Names in one or two of the following languages. Your selected Common Names are searchable and available for adding to your BioLists where they can be edited.

Languages for which BioLists is currently holding most Common Names (Plants and Birds, etc) are:

L.45 - - Esperanto (New Zealand Birds)
L.51 - - British Isles English (includes freshwater species)
L.58 - - New Zealand English (many well known New Zealand and European species)
L.95 - - Maori (Polynesian) (NZ species) This may be seen as a model for applying Common Names in other languages.
L.98 & 99 - Canadian and European French (Whales & Dolphins)
L.104 - Italian (Whales & Dolphins)
L.105 - Species Name [the Genus+species binomen in Latin].
ALSO, all species-level names have their Species Name (binomen) as a "Common Name", as in the "Ecologic Format" option.

Species-level Scientific and their Common Names are present in the following Taxonomic Groups for the Time-band 2000 Classification.
Sundry temperate Flowering Plants - some aquatic and garden plants; Elm Trees.
Birds - most marine and water-related species; Pigeons.
Whales, Dolphins, Otters, Elephants, Dogs, Cats, Bears, Primates,...

Genus-level Names: As above, and:
All Flowering Plants
All Frogs; (almost) all Birds; some Mammal ORDERS

Higher levels:
All Family-level and ORDER-level Names:

NB: All Genus (and therefore species) names can be captured in BioLists by using their Family, (or ORDER).

Languages available for Vernacular Names:
Complete List, at May, 2013 Summaries

Class	CLASS	Languages	Languge			Class	CLASS	Language
No.	& SubClasses		Seq. No.			No.		Seq. No.
	UTILITY & TAG		1	\|			UTILITY & TAG	1
1	AFRICAN	Amharic	2	\|		1	AFRICAN	2~9
1		Berber	3	\|		2	ARABIC	10~14
1		Hausa	4	\|		2	HEBREW	15
1		Igbo	5	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES	16~28
1				\|		3	Austro.-INDONESIAN	16~20
1		Ndebele	6	\|		3	Austro.-JAVANESE	21~22
1		Shona	7	\|		3	Other AUSTRONESIANS	23~28
1		Swahili	8	\|		4	CHINESE	29~44
1		Yoruba	9	\|		4	Other CHINESE	37~44
				\|		5	ESPERANTO	45
2	ARABIC	Arabian Pen. Arabic	10	\|		6	GERMANIC LANGUAGES	46~67
2		Filipino Arabic	11	\|		6	ARMENIAN	46
2		Middle-Eastern Arabic	12	\|		6	DUTCH	48~47
2		North-African Arabic	13	\|		6	ENGLISH	49~60
2		Standard Arabic	14	\|		6	GERMAN	61~64
2	HEBREW	Hebrew	15	\|		6	NORSE	65~67
				\|		7	INDIC LANGUAGES	68~83
3	AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES			\|		7	DRAVIDIAN	68~71
3	Austro.-INDONESIAN	Bacasan A.-Indonesian	16	\|		7	INDO-ARYAN	72~83
3		Batak Karo A.-Indonesian	17	\|		8	IRANIAN LANGUAGES	84~87
3		Javanese A.-Indonesian	18	\|		9	JAPANESE	88
3		Kakartan A.-Indonesian	19	\|		10	KARTVELIAN	89
3		Malayan A.-Indonesian	20	\|		11	KOREAN	90
3	Austro.-JAVANESE	Bamyumas A.-Javanese	21	\|		12	MALAGASY	91
3		A.-Javanese (Standard)	22	\|		13	NAHUATL	92
3	Other AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES			\|		14	POLYNESIAN	93~97
3		Betawi Austronesian	23	\|		15	ROMAN / ITALIC LANGUAGES	98~114
3		Cebuano Austronesian	24	\|		15	FRENCH	98
3		Filipino/Tagalog Austron.	25	\|		15	ITALIAN	104
3		Malagasy Austronesian	26	\|		15	LATIN	105
3		Sundanese Austronesian	27	\|		15	PORTUGUESE	106
3		Tetum Austronesian	28	\|		15	ROMANIAN	110
				\|		15	SPANISH	111
4	CHINESE	Mandarin (Standard)	29	\|		16	SLAVIC LANGUAGES	115~123
4		Nothwestern Mandarin	30	\|		17	THAI	124
4		Northern Mandarin	31	\|		18	HELLENIC	125
4		Southwestern Mandarin	32	\|		19	URALIAN	129
4		Southern Mandarin	33	\|		20	VIETNAMESE	131
4		Southeastern Mandarin	34	\|	========	======	=========================	===============
4		Singaporean Mandarin	35	\|
4		Taiwanese Mandarin	36	\|		Class-#	CLASSES	Sub-Class Refn. No.
4	Other CHINESE	Cantonese/Pinghua	37	\|		2	HEBREW	15
4		Hakka Chinese	38	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN-INDONESIAN	16
4		Jin (North-central) Chinese	39	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN-JAVANESE	21
4		Min Chinese	40	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN - OTHER	23
4		Putongua/Guoyo Chinese	41	\|		4	CHINESE - CHINESE	37
4		Taiwanese-Hokkien	42	\|		6	ARMENIAN	46
4		Wu (Shanghai) Chinese	43	\|		6	DUTCH	47
4		Yue Chinese	44	\|		6	ENGLISH	49
				\|		6	GERMAN	61
5	ESPERANTO	Esperanto	45	\|		6	NORSE	65
				\|		7	DRAVIDIAN	68
6	GERMANIC LANGUAGES			\|		7	INDO-ARYAN	72
6	ARMENIAN	Armenian	46	\|		8	IRANIAN	85
6	DUTCH	Afrikaans	47	\|		15	FRENCH	98
6		Dutch	48	\|		15	ITALIAN	104
6	ENGLISH	Australian English	49	\|		15	LATIN	105
6		Brazilian English	50	\|		15	PORTUGUESE	106
6		British Isles English	51	\|		15	ROMANIAN	110
6		Canadian English	52	\|		15	SPANISH	111
6		Caribbean English	53	\|	========	======	=========================	===========
6		Indian English	54	\|		Class	Sub-Classes in Alpha-Seq.	Sequence No.
6		Malagasy English	55	\|		6	ARMENIAN	46
6		Malaysian English	56	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN-INDONESIAN	16
6		New Guinean English	57	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN-JAVANESE	21
6		New Zealand English	58	\|		3	AUSTRONESIAN - OTHER	23
6		South African English	59	\|		4	CHINESE - OTHER	37
6		United States English	60	\|		7	DRAVIDIAN	68
6	GERMAN	Austro-Bavarian German	61	\|		6	DUTCH	47
6		German (Standard)	62	\|		6	ENGLISH	49
6		Pennsylvanian German	63	\|		15	FRENCH	98
6		Swiss German	64	\|		6	GERMAN	61
6	NORSE	Danish	65	\|		2	HEBREW	15
6		Norwegian	66	\|		7	INDO-ARYAN	72
6		Swedish	67	\|		8	IRANIAN	85
				\|		15	ITALIAN	104
7	INDIC LANGUAGES			\|		15	LATIN	105
7	DRAVIDIAN	Kannada	68	\|		6	NORSE	65
7		Malayalam	69	\|		15	PORTUGUESE	106
7		Tamil	70	\|		15	ROMANIAN	110
7		Telugu	71	\|		15	SPANISH	111
7	INDO-ARYAN	Assamese	72
7		Bengali	73
7		Gujarati	74
7		Hindustani	75
7		Kashmiri	76
7		Maldivian	77
7		Marathi	78
7		Nepali	79
7		Oriya	80
7		Punjabi	81
7		Sindhi	82
7		Sinhala	83

8	IRANIAN	Balochi	84
8		Kurdish	85
8		Pashto	86
8		Persian	87

9	JAPANESE	Japanese	88

10	KARTVELIAN	Georgian	89

11	KOREAN	Korean	90

12	MALAGASY	Malagaso	91

13	NAHUATL	Mexican	92

14	POLYNESIAN	Fijian	93
14		Hawaiian	94
14		Maori	95
14		Samoan	96
14		Tongan	97

15	ROMANCE LANGUAGES
15	FRENCH	Canadian French	98
15		French (European)	99
15		Haitian Creole	100
15		Malagasy French	101
15		North African French	102
15		Sub-Saharan French	103
15	ITALIAN	Italian	104
15	LATIN	Scientific	105
15	PORTUGUESE	Angolan Portuguese	106
15		Brazilian Portuguese	107
15		Mosambique Portuguese	108
15		Portuguese (European)	109
15	ROMANIAN	Romanian	110
15	SPANISH	Andalusian Spanish	111
15		Castilian (Standard)	112
15		Catalonian Spanish	113
15		Mexican Spanish	114

16	SLAVIC LANGUAGES
16		Belarusian	115
16		Bulgarian	116
16		Czech	117
16		Latvian	118
16		Polish	119
16		Russian (Standard)	120
16		Serbo-Croatian	121
16		Slavak	122
16		Ukrainian	123

17	THAI	Lao and Thai	124

18	HELLENIC	Anatolian/Turkish	125
18		Azerbaijani	126
18		Greek	127
18		Kazakh	128

19	URALIAN	Finnish	129
19		Hungarian	130

20	VIETNAMESE	Vietnamese	131
	END

Comments:

Each of the (Vernacular) languages listed above has been selected for scoring on three broad points:
- 1) it is spoken by a large number of people,
- 2) the Biodiversity Names are from an ecologically discrete region, and
- 3) the area is expected to contain endemic species.
In this way, use of a particular language will assemble regional Biodiversity lists relevant to localities even where actual spoken languages do not differ over a wider area. Our aim is to enable users to create one-stop, scientifically sound Biodiversity listings with local coherence. On the other hand, the unchanging Utility Names are able to relate names and lists from diverse regions.

Note that with three sets of Common Names being searchable, the system offers an effective translation service between users' choices of Language-2 and Language-3. Common names are always linked to their Scientific Names within a BioList Time-band classification which is a middle-of-the-road taxonomic Classification. Each species has a single, unique Utility and a single, unique Tag (Common) Names that can assist conservation by contributing to taxonomic stability.

In BioLists, Common Names stay back from the cutting-edge of the science where newly published taxonomies are hypotheses in need of testing and general acceptance by way of scientific publication This can easily take a year. Peer-review follows first publication of "new species" or of a new combination (of Genus + trivial name), or of a new (evolutionary) sequence within a Classification. Follow-up publications (which may require new research to be conducted) then either validate the new names or the new understanding that prompted the change of sequence; otherwise they reject or modify the proposal - or a debate ensues. Once agreement is apparent, new names are then, and only then, suitable for general use. At BioLists, we wait for such acceptance hoping not to add to any confusion.

Contributions of Common Names are welcomed here at BioLists. We especially need well-researched lists of from hard-copy publications or top-class websites with dated references. Please send long lists of common names in various Languages. Ideally, such lists should comprise all species in a Genus or small Family. But the other top priority right now is for strings of Genera within Families that are presently vacant. The lists should be created as a BioList; then forward the full BioList as a CSV file. To avoid overlap with other contributors, please register your interest with us at the start of your project.