TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of connecting vowels after stems ending in the same vowel
T2 - a proposal to emend Appendix 9 of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes
AU - Pallen, Mark J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Mark Pallen is supported by the Medical Research Council CLIMB-BIG-DATA grant MR/T030062/1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Microbiology Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/12/6
Y1 - 2023/12/6
N2 - The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) provides guidance on the formation of names from compound words. This includes recommendations on the use of connecting vowels, which are meant to make names easier to pronounce. However, deployment of a connecting vowel when the preceding word element ends in the same vowel can make a name harder to spell or say, bringing us into conflict with the recommendations that we should avoid names that are disagreeable and difficult to pronounce. Given that there are many precedents where connecting vowels are not used in this context, particularly in names formed from the term ‘alkali’, I hereby propose an emendation to the ICNP to drop the connecting vowel when the preceding word element ends in the same vowel.
AB - The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) provides guidance on the formation of names from compound words. This includes recommendations on the use of connecting vowels, which are meant to make names easier to pronounce. However, deployment of a connecting vowel when the preceding word element ends in the same vowel can make a name harder to spell or say, bringing us into conflict with the recommendations that we should avoid names that are disagreeable and difficult to pronounce. Given that there are many precedents where connecting vowels are not used in this context, particularly in names formed from the term ‘alkali’, I hereby propose an emendation to the ICNP to drop the connecting vowel when the preceding word element ends in the same vowel.
KW - compound words
KW - connecting vowels
KW - prokaryotic nomenclature
KW - taxonomic nomenclature
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178850687&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1099/ijsem.0.006191
DO - 10.1099/ijsem.0.006191
M3 - Comment/debate
C2 - 38054495
AN - SCOPUS:85178850687
SN - 1466-5026
VL - 73
JO - International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
JF - International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
IS - 12
M1 - 006191
ER -