Naming South African frogs and reptiles in nine Indigenous languages

Scientific taxonomy, as a standardised means of communicating about wildlife, might have limited use or relevance for wildlife conservation stakeholders with minimal understanding of scientific names. Indigenous language names can improve species-specific communication with non-expert conservation stakeholders due to their familiarity. Indigenous names for wildlife are, however, not specific to all scientifically described species and are seldom documented for wider use. To have a folk-formal taxonomy that is familiar to non-expert stakeholders in herptile (amphibians and reptiles) conservation and useable by experts, we conducted the first comprehensive analysis of nine South African Indigenous cultures’ naming and classification of herptiles based on Indigenous language names recorded from an online questionnaire and existing literature. Etic and emic analyses of the collected names revealed the underlying guidelines of folk taxonomy and its comparability to scientific taxonomy respectively. Furthermore, taxonomic correspondence analysis provided an understanding of the correspondence between scientific species and Indigenous language delineation of herptile diversity. Multiple scientific species are generally grouped together into a single folk taxon based on observed similarities and only a few Indigenous language names are specific to scientific species. The underlying guidelines of folk taxonomy and their comparability and correspondence to scientific taxonomy were the basis for extending the generalised Indigenous names of herptiles into a comprehensive list of names for South Africa’s 543 scientifically described herptile species (136 frog and 407 reptile species) in the nine official South African Indigenous languages.

作为标准化的野生动物交流范式，科学分类学对于缺乏科学命名认知的野生动物保护利益相关方而言，其应用价值与相关性往往较为有限。由于本土语言名称更具认知熟悉度，其可有效提升与非专家型保护利益相关方针对特定物种的沟通效率。但野生动物的本土名称并非对应所有已科学描述的物种，且极少被系统性记录以推广使用。
为构建一套既被两爬（herptile，两栖动物与爬行动物）保护领域的非专家利益相关方熟知、又可供专家使用的民间-官方分类体系，本研究基于在线问卷与现有文献记录的本土语言名称，首次对南非9个原住民文化的两爬命名与分类方式开展了全面分析。对收集到的名称开展的客位(etic)与主位(emic)分析，分别揭示了民间分类学的内在原则，及其与科学分类学的可比性。此外，分类学对应分析帮助我们明晰了科学物种与本土语言对两爬多样性划分之间的对应关系。
基于观测到的形态相似性，多个科学物种通常会被归为同一个民间分类单元，且仅有少量本土语言名称能精准对应单一科学物种。本研究以民间分类学的内在原则，及其与科学分类学的可比性和对应关系为基础，将南非9种官方原住民语言中通用的两爬本土名称，拓展为覆盖南非543种已科学描述的两爬物种（含136种蛙类与407种爬行类）的完整名称列表。