Extraterrestrial Homo sapiens (of each element) Discussion

[tigrisomega121]

I'm working on a realm inhabited by humanoid air, earth, fire, and water elementals. Thus, I have a question about the structure of their scientific names. They translate as follows: (Air) Homo sapiens aer
(Earth) H. s. terra
(Fire) Sapiens ignis homo
(Water) H. s. aqua

I know switching fire to H. s. ignis is grammatically incorrect, but would that be acceptable in this case? By the way, I translated "wise flame man" as well and got "homo sapiens flamma."

 

[Ignis Umbra]

In fact, none of those really make any sense. For example, homo sapiens aer means "a wise man (who is) air", since homo and aer are both nouns in the nominative case. You'd be better off using adjectives to describe the qualities of the elementals.

Homo sapiens aerius - Wise man of the air (= wise man who has air-like qualities)
Homo sapiens terreus - Wise man of the earth (=wise man who has earth-like qualities)
Homo sapiens igneus - Wise man of fire (etc.)
Homo sapiens aquarius - Wise man of water

To the moderators ( Iohannes Aurum, Aurifex, etc.): Could we perhaps modify this so it receives an appropriate title and is relocated properly?

 

[tigrisomega121]

Okay and thanks. I put it here because I had the translations I thought I needed for my purposes and meant to include a note about possible relocation in the first post.

Some of these elementals have animal-like qualities in addition to control over an element. For example, the character who prompted this topic has the wings and tail of a bird. Would you recommend including that in the scientific name as well? If so, where would it be?

 

[Ignis Umbra]

Some of these elementals have animal-like qualities in addition to control over an element. For example, the character who prompted this topic has the wings and tail of a bird. Would you recommend including that in the scientific name as well? If so, where would it be?

A true scientific name really only consists of two words, so adding more descriptors makes the phrase less of a scientific name*. If you want the phrases to be more like scientific names, and if the distinguishing qualities of these entities are their supernatural abilities, I'd recommend using the names I provided. If you're not particularly interested in the names being truly scientific, then you can delineate the features you'd like translated as well.

*You can drop homo in each of the names above if you'd like.

 

[Aurifex]

I'm working on a realm inhabited by humanoid air, earth, fire, and water elementals.

What are humanoid air, earth etc? I'm struggling to conceive of such things.

*You can drop homo in each of the names above if you'd like.

But what would a "sapiens aerius" be? It sounds most implausible as a scientific name.

A true scientific name really only consists of two words, so adding more descriptors makes the phrase less of a scientific name*.

That's not really true; identifiably distinct subspecies can and do have three-word Latin names.

 

[scrabulista]

Aurifex you need to watch Fantastic Four.....Ben Grimm's alter ego is The Thing, a man made of rock. Johnny Storm is the Human Torch, a man of fire. Sue Storm is the invisible woman - not quite a woman of air but not that far off either. They are not separate species nor even subspecies though....just...mutants. As the need arises they morph back into their human form.

You would drop the sapiens before you would drop the Homo.
(The being belongs to the same genus but is a different species.)
We do have Canis lupus familiaris as man's best friend. Sometimes this is written as Canis familiaris.

It is not unprecedented to use a nominative to describe a subspecies.
One I think of off the top of my head is Panthera leo leo.

Are these beings subspecies of man or a different species?

 

[Ignis Umbra]

That's not really true; identifiably distinct subspecies can and do have three-word Latin names.

I wasn't aware of this, but I am now. Thanks.

 

[tigrisomega121]

The edited version is below with the edits italicized. Apparently, I need to give stuff more thought before posting about it.

I'm pretty sure this needs moved because it's asking for ideas in addition to a more accurate translation. Please move it to where it fits.

Recently, I created a species of extraterrestrials known as the Zeppac, who can breathe both air and water. Physically, they resemble the basic structure of the human form with a head, a torso, two arms and two legs. However, their hands and feet, each of which has three digits, are webbed because of their aquatic nature with the hands having flexible webbing and the feet having rigid webbing. Other qualities that set them apart from humans are the gills on their necks and snake-like tails. All of that said, I'd like "sapiens", or another form of "wise," to be included in their true scientific name for which I have a rough idea, now, "sapiens coluber" (translated from "wise man-snake" with Google translate). Thus, what's a better translation that means something like "wise man with snake-like qualities", and what would you people suggest as their scientific name?

 

[Pacifica]

"sapiens coluber" (translated from "wise man-snake" with Google translate).

It just means "wise snake".

something like "wise man with snake-like qualities"

A possibility is Homo sapiens anguineus.

 

[tigrisomega121]

H. s. anguineus was my initial thought as well. However, I tabled it because they can't reproduce with humans. Thus, I realize that I may need to go an entirely different way with the name at this point in time. Is Homo anguineus a viable option?

 

[Pacifica]

Homo anguineus is just leaving the "wise" part out.

 

[tigrisomega121]

I realize this. It'd be along the lines of Homo neanderthalensis. Granted, I, probably, need a new genus name because my understanding, which may be wrong, is members of Homo would be able to reproduce together.

 

[Pacifica]

You'd probably need a coinage then, mmm...

 

[tigrisomega121]

That brings us back to something like "sapiens coluber". Google translate provides "colubra", "colubrum", "serpens", and "serpentem" as translations for snake that haven't been mentioned here yet. Is there a way to use any translation of "snake" mentioned in this topic as the genus?

 

[Pacifica]

Yes. The genus name traditionally comes first, though, so you should change the order and sapiens should come second. Using different synonyms for "snake", these are options for "wise snake":

Anguis sapiens.
Serpens sapiens.
Coluber sapiens.
Colubra sapiens.

Colubrum and serpentem aren't different words but different cases (grammatical forms) of coluber and serpens, not the ones you need here.

 

[scrabulista]

Anguis, Serpens, and Coluber don't work because they are already genera in other families.

 

[tigrisomega121]

I'll, probably, end up using a pseudo-Latin form the species' common name, Zeppac, as the genus. Any suggestions along those lines because I'm fairly sure genera always end in a vowel?

 

[Laurentius]

I'll, probably, end up using a pseudo-Latin form the species' common name, Zeppac, as the genus. Any suggestions along those lines because I'm fairly sure genera always end in a vowel?

Why'd they always end in a vowel?

 

[Pacifica]

Just in this thread, anguis, coluber and serpens show they don't.

 

[tigrisomega121]

Very true. What's really sad about my typing of that message is I'd looked at this list, which includes such genera as Austropithicus and Paranthropus, earlier yesterday. I know the genus now (Zeppacus). However, I still need the species and both subspecies because there are two distinct populations of Zeppac, one near-surface with two-tone red skin and one deeper down with two-tone blue skin. What are some options besides those on the list I just linked (sapiens, etc.)?

To the moderators ( Iohannes Aurum, Aurifex, etc.): You may be able to be merge this into Homo sapiens (of each element) using this name because they are, technically, extraterrestrials as well.