ペルーケナガアルマジロ (etc.) could be quite difficult for someone to tease apart without the kanji as a guideline. I agree that it should be b) when (and only when) we can be certain that it is true the meaning of the name. If there's any doubt or ambiguity it should be left without kanji. This is one of my suggested "policies" for taxa names (and I would also apply it to names of families, orders, etc.).
Rene
On 2012-04-13, at 11:13 PM, Jim Breen wrote:I want to raise a point of policy on adding kanji to
animal, etc. names that are usually in katakana.
Consider the two new entries:
ケナガアルマジロ - screaming hairy armadillo (the mind boggles)
and
ペルーケナガアルマジロ - Andean hairy armadillo
The "ケナガ" is clearly from 毛長, and sure enough there
are a few WWW hits for 毛長アルマジロ, so it's safe
to add that form and mark the entry "uk".
But ペルー毛長アルマジロ gets no WWW hits at all.
Should we:
(a) take the position that it's never written with 毛長 (since
there are no WWW hits) and leave it in katakana only;
(b) be a bit prescriptive and put in ペルー毛長アルマジロ
anyway, on the grounds that it may well be like that in some book
and that ケナガ is really reflecting 毛長. Of course
ペルーケナガアルマジロ will be in the entry, and with the "uk"
tag will come to the front in clients like WWWJDIC.
I'm inclined to (b), but it would be good to have a discussion
about it.
Jim
--
Jim Breen
Adjunct Snr Research Fellow, Clayton School of IT, Monash University
Webmaster: Hawthorn Rowing Club, Treasurer: Japanese Studies Centre
Graduate student: Language Technology Group, University of Melbourne