I’ve left comments (including in IDs) in English, Spanish, French (most recently on something identified as inconnu, which turned out to actually be said fish), and Portuguese. I don’t think I’ve left a comment in Italian, which I’d probably baraguinate as badly as Portuguese. I’ve been in Portugal …

I mostly identify reptiles in the Northeastern parts of North America, so I mostly use English. I have identified one or two painted turtles in Quebec, which I have used basic French for. This thread is making me think that I should start identifications in Italy to hone my Italian skills.

English under most observations. French under observations made in French-speaking regions (Québec, France, Madagascar). I leave comments in Spanish cobbled from my own limited knowledge of the language and Google Translate, although I try to make these as short as possible. I truly realize the minu…

What OS and desktop environment are you using? I use KDE on Linux, and I have four keyboard layouts set up.

Usually I use English, unless the observer has asked a question in German or is obviously an older German person. Very rarely (if I know that English isn’t really spoken by most in the area an observation was made in) I will use deepL to translate something, and leave a disclaimer that I’ve just tr…

I basically only use english, unless I have been adressed in german or spanish before. Generally, english is the language that most other people coming across a certain observation will understand as well.. it sometimes feels a bit impolite to me to switch to german or something else for no reason

However, since we’re all here labeling living organisms using Linnaeus’s taxonomic classification, we should all learn Latin, and write and communicate in that language, as stated in the text: “Praeludia sponsaliorum plantarum.” If the comment is inappropriate, don’t suspend me; instead, tell me so…

That works for the ivory towers. Greek is also required.

Yes, of course, even Ancient Greek. Writing it seemed excessive to me! I eliminated it from the final draft of the published text.

I’ve seen brief treatment in Latin for new taxa as late as the 1980’s.

For plants it used to be mandatory up to 2011… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_Latin

What languages do you write comments in when identifying?

General

phma November 20, 2025, 6:36am 36

That thread is still open, if you have any questions about pronouncing Botanese or Agkistrodon or other names.

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What languages do you write comments in when identifying?

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