The following sound correspondences were used by JCB in Loglan 1 (Brown, J.C. 1989. Loglan 1. 4th ed. Gainsville (FL.): The Loglan Institute.) pp. 438-439, to map Linnaean names to Loglan; I think they are sound for Lojban, but am interested in opinions.
Note that these rules concern Linnaean names, which include words from far and wide; they are not restricted to Graeco-Latin.
Note that I rewrote these rules already in The Book, section 4.8. (JWC)
Aaaargh. I retract everything and anything then. The Book rules are binding, as far as I'm concerned. — mi'e nitcion.
- aa
- a. aardvark => ardvark
- ae
- ai-or-ae => e. aegyptopithecus => egiptopithekus
- c
- c before C/a/o/u => k; c followed by e/i/y, or matched in the symbol of an element word, unchanged. canid => kanid; but violoncello => violoncelo and californium => californium
- cc
- cc followed by e/i/y => kc; otherwise cc => k. succinta => sukcinta, but Echinococcus => ekinokokus.
- How about cc followed by e/i/y => tc? --mi'e tsali
- CC
- Any double instance of a C not c is replaced by a single instance of that C. Bettongia => betongia
- ch
- k. Escherichia => eskerikia
- Here, I think there is a case for Lojban 'x' instead.
- If this is German, which is what it looks like, it should be, it should be ecerixia. Similarly Eschscholtzia -=> ecoltsia (California poppy; the name is Äschholz transliterated into Russian and back). — phma
- In the interest of common sense, I'm prepared to go along with this: if the name is not Latin, native pronunciation should be emulated --- mi'e nitcion.
- ee
- i. sakeen => sakin
- eigh
- ei. leightoni => leitoni
- ew
- u. Andrewsarchus => andrusarkus
- h
- h in VhC => VCh to make it pronounceable. ahli => alhi
- In Lojban, I'd just drop it.
- ie
- i; non final ie unchanged. calorie => calori
- Error for kalori, of course
- igh
- ai. lightfooti => laitfuti
- ii
- i; non final ie unchanged. livingstonii => livinstoni
- lh
- lh- => elh; non-initial lhC => lC; non-initial lhV unchanged. lhoesti => elhoesti
- I'd just drop the h in Lojban.
- ng
- ngC => nC; ngV unchanged. livingstonii => livinstoni, but Bettongia => betongia. [Loglan-specific word breaking apart rules omitted.]
- oo
- u; except in 'zoo-' and other disyllables in which oo remains unchanged. lightfooti => laitfuti, but Zoothera => zoothera
- The diphthongal oo is of course Greek, not Latin (omega + omicron)
- ou
- u when within a natural form: youngi => iungi; when split between two forms, unchanged: thiourea = thio + urea => tiourea
- ow
- ao: owstoni => aostoni
- In Lojban, this becomes au.
- ph
- f; ph- => eph in very short words; non-initial ph unchanged when it will give an otherwise breaking word. phenyl => fenil, but phyla => ephila; and ophiocomina => ophiokomina
- None of this need detain us; blanket ph => f is fine.
- pt
- ept; non initial pt remains unchanged. Pterocera => epterocera.
- I see no reason for this in Lojban.
- pn
- n; non-initial pn remains unchanged. pneumonia => neumonia.
- I see no reason for this either.
- q
- k. antiquitas => antikuitas.
- qu
- in Spanish source words quV => kV; but in a Linnaean, quV => kuV. braquiopodo => brakiopodo; but Madoqua => madokua
- Spanish was JCB's preferred source language.
- rh
- r; rhC => rC; non-initial rhV unchanged. rhodopsin => rodopsin
- sc
- sk. sclerosis => sklerosis.
- th
- when not followed by a stressed V, th => t; when followed by V', h is retained. Also, if the th-containing word is related to one in which h preceded V', keep the h. Thus ethylene ethileni [et-hee-LEH-nee] is related to ethyl ethili [et-HEE-lee] and so keeps its h.
- Lojban can just reduce it to t in all cases.
- y
- i. Amphyosemian => amfiosemian
- yn
- un whenever the n is the last C in the word. butenyne => butenune, but dynamo => dinamo
- I have no idea where this is coming from.
- x
- x- => z unless matched in the symbol of an element word, when unchanged; when non-initial, => ks. xenyl => zenil, but Atilax => atilaks; xenon unchanged.
- w
- u unless matched in the symbol of an element word, e.g., lawrencium
- Untenable in Lojban
- j
- Not rewritten; it is retained and pronounced as Loglan [zh].