Sylviinae 8

The distribution of the Sylviinae in East Asia can be seen at Tzung-Su Ding's Distribution of Sylviinae in East Asia.

1. Paradoxornis ricketti has been identified by some as a separate species (Yunnan parrotbill) but I have not yet seen a common name for it.

2. The Chinese names follow the scientific classification fairly rigidly, as shown below.

3. If proof is needed of the artificiality of the Mainland names, the 'wren babblers' are a perfect example. In creating the common names, ornithologists make full use of the potentialities of the written language (Chinese characters).

The Chinese word for 'wren' is 鹪鹩 jiāoliáo, an age-old word that is written with two characters. Although consisting of two syllables and written in two characters, 鹪鹩 jiāoliáo is a single word -- the character 鹪 jiāo is never used alone or in any other character combination, and 鹩 liáo is used in the names of the mynahs but nowhere else. It is only the writing system that splits 鹪鹩 jiāo liáo into two parts.

Judging from the Taiwanese name for Pnoepyga pusilla, 鱗胸鷦鷯 lín-xiōng jiāoliáo ('scaly-breasted wren'), it seems fairly likely that the 'wren babblers' were originally treated as a kind of wren, at least in their naming. Since naturalists usually feel uncomfortable with misleading bird names, Mainland naturalists have understandably decided to tidy things up. They add 鹛 méi 'babbler' to the names of the 'wren babblers' in order to make it clear that they are, in fact, babblers and not wrens. What is ingenious is the way that the two characters in 鹪鹩 jiāoliáo are used to create new names. The first character, 鹪 jiāo, is combined with 鹛 méi 'babbler' to make a composite name for wren babblers in the genera Napothera and Pnoepyga. The second character, 鹩 liáo, is combined with 鹛 méi to make another composite name for the genera Rimator, Spelaeornis, and Sphenocichla. Although highly artificial, this is a neat and economical way of creating new names.

4. Several of the Taiwanese names for the babblers incorporate the word 畫眉 huà-méi, the name of the Garrulax canorus (Melodious laughing thrush). The natural tendency at the outset seems to have been to identify these birds with the well-known cage bird.

5. Japanese:

Normally, the unmodified name of any species is the common or garden variety found in Japan, e.g., ズズメ suzume 'sparrow' in its unmodified form refers to the kind of sparrow normally seen in Japan, the Passer montanus (Eurasian tree sparrow). It's interesting in the case of the babblers that some unmodified forms apply to Taiwanese species. チメドリ chime-dori is Alcippe brunnea, マルハシ maru-hashi is Pomatorhinus erythrogenys, and シマドリ shima dori is Actinodura morrisoniana. This is a legacy of Taiwan's occupation by Japan in the first half of 20th century, when Japanese ornithologists were active in Taiwan. Since Taiwan belonged to Japan, Taiwanese species were taken as the local Japanese representative of each genus.

6. Vietnamese:

The Vietnamese names can be summarised as follows. They are nowhere near as highly regularised as the Chinese names.

Like the Taiwanese common names, many of the Vietnamese names make reference to the laughing thrushes (Garrulacinae). The name Họa mi is cognate with Chinese huà-méi.