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
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