How many different kinds of whales are there? How many can you
name? How did they get their names? My name is David and I want your help with a book I'm putting
together, in which I will seek to propose new names for whales in
English, based on or inspired by other languages and from a better
understanding of these animals. This blog is here to provide information about
those whales for anyone who is interested in helping me but may not be familiar
with the peculiarities of the different species. I would invite you to do your own
research, of course, but I hope this will be a good starting point for you, and
if you would like to help, you can contact me through this blogger site or else
at davidshewry@hotmail.com
The reason I want to do this is because I feel
that some of the English names for whales are either too dull and unimaginative to do justice to the amazing creatures
that have been given them, or else the names are in some way rather
undignified. It seems to me that our understanding of and attitude towards the
natural world has changed considerably and so perhaps it's time for our
nomenclature to catch up. Countries are frequently renamed - why not whales?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHt6iO9eQ9ItphpL1XBPn-d6Inom697KwECT8TGBUdl1YhSk72Uc4aOp7AZ23YHMsxvYf1nwQOP8qW8BZp10PSoseYGER35b6G1rxBP6EXruJNFil84EZ55HAlQn7VaSA_Z1GWZ9kIBi0O/s200/Moby+Dick+2.jpg) |
Image of Herman Melville's Moby Dick |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdlamWXssGvbmse71VEQb-vwKO6GBVC2_nfmQMl_0aA2J4YtlYIxG1yyDtdUTSJPTUhFSQPMmg9onYz5OC5RqrbzJSTuq1sC4lG3DjAZohiVbOJf3zVNrI9IuhRXZKiNiyCw1ipnMdEyT/s200/Monstro.jpg) |
'Monstro' from Disney's Pinocchio |
Another thing I want to explore in the book is the way in which whales appear in popular culture. For many of us, our cultural frame
of reference for whales includes the biblical story of Jonah, the Greek legend of Ketos, Pinocchio and Moby Dick. These are all wonderful stories but, for the most part, whales are portrayed as monsters. I'm interested in hearing stories about whales that might take a different point of view. I’m
inviting people from all over to share information about whales: names,
stories, mythology, lore, poetry, drawings, illustrations and art of all kinds, in order to help inform my own
understanding of and attitude towards these amazing animals. In doing this I
hope also to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the world, and especially
smaller, less well-known languages.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe390B9tE7kXc5CaPTYx-uR5Nt8U08YgJ3ltYIFGI5jGNCxtx6Pt5JszS88JNtZRCpSk4XiotmQzcOA298Nyatyc7S8pZGtb-nWa5rHJ6hNxGmRGn92tlnlBpxCcJxlD7rcpHk8EPwPe7s/s200/Jonah.jpg) |
Jonah and the Whale Tobolsk - Russian 18th Century |
There are between 6000 and 7000 languages
in the world today, and as English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Bahasa, Mandarin and other major languages daily assert themselves more and more as linguae francae, there are many
groups who are looking to revitalise or otherwise maintain and perpetuate
smaller languages for posterity, which I think is an excellent thing. The world
needs a greater understanding and appreciation of its own linguistic and
cultural diversity.
A large amount of the
work of marine biology has been conducted and dominated by English-speaking
organisations, and English tends to be a dominant language in the global
scientific community, so the names for whales in other languages are often literal
translations of English (or sometimes French) names, so translating them back
into English gets us nowhere. How, then, do we go about this?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk81xXYgQJeIZBfXcmdiQph062OHWCjBxAnkUcILG27AmzdYmLGU1dcumukIFqtezQgj8_fyIBwEEDPEOWN7MXNmBF9FZ7qAdqDQslD6_bVCtTUhE1UdZR7eescOfm3adSBOqguUBbxIEp/s200/belugas+1.jpg) |
Beluga choir |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTT8tvEK9dkS56zCsl_We9QA6gsXBMQiJT6JplKGXXRcuEP-kZZla7S8GNRgBQNPi_N63TNtDu1X99b8MzS_osIRFGFX54ynjtaA11w877z1DIdJCwKoAmC6Pb_jIAducBrWKz236DSa0S/s200/whale+hunting+gear.jpg) |
Whale hunting equipment |
The common names given to animals
are generally of two types – descriptive names such as the beluga whale, which
comes from 'белый' (belyy), the Russian word for white, otherwise they are named after individual people,
such as is the case for the minke whale, named after a Norwegian whaler who spent his life killing these animals for profit. The former, I find,
are often insufficient, unimaginative and short-sighted: The beluga whale is
certainly white, and that does distinguish it from other whales, but this
animal is also singular in its extraordinary vocal repertoire and has even
been known to imitate human speech. As a result it is often known colloquially
as the ‘sea canary’ – much better! As for naming animals after people, apart
from, it seems to me, being a slightly arrogant thing to do in the first place, they have often
been named after men (for it is invariably men) who did the animals considerable harm, such as in the
case of the minke whale. So I’d like to invite any interested individuals or
groups to come up with new names, whether you’re a linguist, a marine
biologist, a language revivalist or, like me, you just have a passion for
language and for natural history. For those who are not familiar with the
animals I shall try to provide a few details, descriptions, images and links,
relating to the species I’m interested in renaming. Whatever names you come up
with, it would be interesting to know something about your process.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxO3T4FpXTfXODc0sdvyRjHSIOeJXLhtONuG7VwAkL2zuLGhgZcDnTLYEsBU7ryenLbtU9GcmmQjgsNhBhfcrt2AUJWX1fIlXTUBia3xW1Tq95oEKub7WtxcwkkWqyxT6F0LVgfOCS3gB/s200/ketos+vase.jpg) |
6th Century Greek vase depicting Heracles slaying Ketos (κῆτη) |
The word ‘whale’, from the Old English 'hvalr' - meaning 'wheel', is not a
technical term used to distinguish one group of animals from another. All
whales belong to the clade of marine mammals known collectively as cetacea, named after Ketos (Latin
Cetus), the sea monster from the Greek legend. Cetaceans are broadly grouped
into two categories or parvorders, which are: those with teeth (odontoceti) and those with baleen (mysticeti), both of which derive from a
now extinct group of animals known as archaeoceti,
and there are currently considered to be 89 living species. These are commonly
grouped into whales, dolphins and porpoises. However, as this is a work on
nomenclature as much as anything else, we shall limit ourselves to animals
which are commonly referred to in English as whales, including ‘killer whales’,
which are the largest of the dolphins. Perhaps other dolphins and porpoises will be
explored in separate future volumes.
There are broadly considered to be 8 families of whales, which include Kogiidae (the rorquals), Iniidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whales), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). I shall say a little about each of the species within these families, in turn. Let's start with the baleen whales (also known as Mysticeti - from the Greek meaning 'moustache whale'), and with that group of baleen whales known as the rorquals - humpbacks, fin whales, blue whales, sei whales, bryde's/eden's, omura's and minke whales.
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