The Animal Names Project
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Goals of the project

The main goal of the Animal Names Project is to enrich the Jarrda vocabulary by examining lists of animal names and coming up with Jarrda translations for them. In addition to the animal names themselves, Jarrda equivalents for terms related to anatomy, behavior, and geography may be needed. For instance, in order to name a group of birds called "diving ducks", it's very useful to have a word for "dive"! This process will uncover a number of words that may have been overlooked in the initial Jarrda vocabulary. Reclassification of existing words may also be desirable.

Other goals of the project include becoming more familiar with a wide range of animals, and coming up with alternative names that might be easier to remember or use as an aid to identification. Translating every name of every species is not a goal of the project, although eventually, most of the more common and well-known animals will probably end up with specific names.

I will begin with birds and mammals, the groups I'm most familiar with. For bird names, I intend to go through the Monroe & Sibley checklist, beginning with Ostrich and proceeding until I get to Bobolink. I'm not too happy with their tendency to combine and split families and orders based on genetic distance, which makes comparison with other classifications more difficult than it needs to be, but the checklist is a convenient and widely available one. I don't intend to come up with 9,700 specific names (at least not yet), but I'd like to have at least enough words to name them all with the vocabulary I have. For instance, I don't need a word for "dickcissel" if I can say "yellow-breasted grosbeak", since words for "yellow", "breast", and "grosbeak" are more useful in naming other birds. Watch this page for updates as they become available.

Names of birds

Category I: JakaRza jakarza (ratites)

There are so few birds in this category that I might as well name them all:

Category II: Jacevik jacevik (tinamous)

Representative species:

Category III: Jafanda jafanda (pheasants and relatives)

Major subcategories: There are three general groups in the family Phasianidae, but the exact subdivision of the family is uncertain. Jarrda names are guided by the general appearance of the bird compared to typical members of each group.

Representative species:

Category IV: Jagak jagak (ducks, geese, and screamers)

Major subcategories: Representative species:

Category V: JaliRGad jalirghad (buttonquails or hemipodes)

Representative species:

Category VI: JakEt jakeat (woodpeckers and relatives)

Major subcategories: The subdivision of the woodpecker family is mainly for convenience in naming, and doesn't necessarily indicate relationship. Other spotted woodpeckers not related to Campethera (such as the flickers) are also called "kurr", and other large crested woodpeckers not related to Campephilus are also called "koap". The diminutive "keatid" is used for all small woodpeckers, not just the piculets.

Representative species:

Category VII: Jagarbu jagarrbu (jacamars and puffbirds)

Representative species:

Category VIII: Jaxim jakhim (rollers, kingfishers and relatives)

Major subcategories: Representative species:

Category IX: JatigtiR jatigtir (colies or mousebirds)

All six species:

Category X: Jawug jawug (cuckoos)

Representative species:

Category XI: Jagir jagirr (parrots)

Major categories: Representative species:

Category XII: JazEd jazead (swifts)

Representative species:

Category XIII: JasultiR jasultir (hummingbirds)

Representative species:

Category XIV: Jagwaj jagway (turacos)

Representative species:

Category XV: Janumo janumo (owls)

Representative species:

Category XVI: JawWra jaweurra (nightjars)

Representative species:

Category XVII: Jagur jagurr (pigeons and doves)

Representative species: To be continued...

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