[Taxacom] Language tags for scientific names

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <002201c8d946$0fbc5cc0$2b4c4451 at magnifica2>, Paul van 
Rijckevorsel <dipteryx at freeler.nl> writes

>However, the following are also formal  (=not to be translated) names 
>of plants
>
>Brassica oleracea 'Nichtschiessender'
>Cucumis sativus NOA'S FORCING ('Noas Trieb')

Which is comparable to a person's name, in prose.

If an English document contains the name "Bill Major", how do we ensure 
that, when the document is translated into German, it stays as it is, 
and is not translated as "Rechnung Mayor"? [*]

Answer: there is no formal method in HTML, nor encoding in 
IETF-languages, for doing so; although if that were marked up as 
someone's name using a microformat (in this case, the hCard microformat) 
then the necessary semantics are in place, for software to recognise the 
need to preserve the original spelling.

[*] Apologies if my schoolboy-German is incorrect.

-- 
Andy Mabbett