Perhaps I did not make myself clear in my initial post.
 
I am not suggesting an online database of multinational common names, which
would be of some interest but not great relevance.  Impractical for the
time-limited malacologist perhaps, but not for the zealous amateur.
 
However, I think we might find more useful a shelling phrasebook, in
commonly-spoken languages of regions where collectors might be inclined to
travel.
 
In the phrasebook, we might find how to say:
 
"Where do the shrimp/lobster/scallop boats dock?"
"What time is low tide?"
"Do you know where to find shells?"
"Does anyone sell shells in this town?"
"Is there a dive shop in town?"
 
And so forth, in each of several languages, such as Tagalog, Spanish,
Portuguese, French, Arabic, etc.
 
I hardly imagine this to be impractical, certainly not absolutely so.
Hence the clarification, as surely Jose misunderstood my intent.  General
useful shelling phrases; not species-specific names, Latin or common.
 
The French-English shell glossary, by C. Geerts of Belgium, was originally
published as a supplement to Tom Rice's "Of Sea and Shore" magazine.  It is
15pp unbound and Tom likely still has it in print, at less than $5.00.  It
contains US, AU, and UK common names in French equivalents, as well as
descriptive adjectives and shell feature terms, and an assortment of
helpful general shell-related terms.
 
I don't know of any Spanish shell glossary, but it would be handy.
 
Jenny
 
----------
> From: Jose H. Leal <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Spanish shell terms
> Date: Friday, 01 May, 1998 9:04 AM
>
> At 04:43 PM 4/26/98 -0500, Jenny wrote:
>
> >Jose, might the AFS database contain common names or terms en espanol?
>
> No, the AFS includes only American English names of North American
shells.
>
> >If not, is there a glossary out there similar to the French-English
shell
> >term translator, in Spanish?  I think I will need it for talking to the
> >locals about shells during my time in Honduras.
>
> I am not aware of such translator. Although Spanish is one my favorite
> languages, I was born in Brazil, where only Portuguese is spoken
> (Portuguese is about as different from Spanish as Dutch is from German).
> However, drawing from my experience with Spanish-speaking collectors,
> scientists, fishermen, etc., from many Latin American countries and
Spain,
> such translator would be largely impractical because of the broad
regional
> differences in common names. This has been stressed ad nauseam in this
> thread about common/scientific names. There are many common-name
> differences between countries and, in some countries with long coastlines
> (for example Mexico, Chile, Argentina) the same species of seashell may
> have several common names. That's why scientific names of species have
been
> used in the same basic format for 240 years! Although some of us may not
> like them, Latin names are really necessary when we need to communicate
> across international borders.
>
> >Wouldn't a comparative glossary of French/Spanish/Arabic/English shell
> >terms be a nice addition to someone's web page?  This would be a great
help
> >to far-ranging shell seekers.
>
> Absolutely impractical. Read above.
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________________________
> Jose H. Leal, Ph.D.
> Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
> Editor-in-chief, THE NAUTILUS
> [log in to unmask]
> 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
> Sanibel, FL 33957 USA
> (941) 395-2233; fax (941) 395-6706