A white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) has name "beluga" in English. It is wrong name for me as for Russian because in my language "beluga" is a name of fish - European sturgeon (Huso huso). But sometimes white whale is named "belukha" (the most correct transcription), "beluha" or "beluka". Are these names also "official" or just a personal opinions of scientists, as Wikipedia claims?
common names have no real "official" standing, they depend on personal and standard usage. In English beluga is the standard name for the whale, and also the beluga sturgeon. (Usually the whale is just called beluga, and the fish is called beluga sturgeon). My understanding is that the name derives from the Russian word for "white"? The thing with English is that it is basically a made-up language formed from a whole lot of other languages added into the original "English". And when words get added in (like belukha) they are corrupted to fit whatever rules currently apply at the time.
I mean "official" as for use in biology books and science articles. That's right. I don't think that it is "corrupted" word. In fact many people confuse these names in Russian, and these names could be a synonyms in former times.
I don't know if this is the case here too, but sometines it is also a translation problem, specially when another language does use other letters then latin (say cyrillic). In Germany, the term "Beluga" is used in the food industry mostly for caviar, while in zoos and biology books it stands for the whale. The beluga sturgeon is normally called "Hausen" in german speaking countries, although "Belugastör" exist as well. PS: I just figured out that the term "Beluga" in german could sometimes also stand for a Airbus type, a town in Alaska, a russian submarine class and - of course - a wodka brand.
In Czech, we use "běluha" for whale, "vyza" for Huso-sturgeon and "beluga" for the imported caviar. Word "běluha" whale came probably from Russian language in 18th century (or maybe even from old common slavic origin?). The meaning as "she-white" is still understandable. "Vyza" sturgeon used to be a native fish here, in rives Dunaj/Danube and Morava, till the Portile-de-Fier dam has been built and caused the end to its migration. "Beluga" caviar is impoted in cans, with the word beluga printed on them and used as a brand name, it is used with the original Russian pronounciation of this word.
Grammatically and historically @callorhinus and @Jana are correct. It is the wider international community that has misinterpreted the word beluga to describe for both species. Beluga for sturgeon (it is also used that way to describe the various types of caviar ... even internationally) and beluha / beluhka for the whale would be more appropriate. Perhaps we can consider a late correction for both. It is of course as wrong as f.i. white rhino is / was to describe the square-lipped rhino vis a vis the original description South African Nederduits (a language having developed from the original Dutch immigrants and now very distinct from Dutch in the Netherlands). As we all know quite well both the white and black rhino are a distinct greyish toned and can most obviously be recognised by the type of browse / graze mouth.
This is why it is so much easier and less confusing, when people of different nationalities and cultures are discussing a species, to use the scientific name
"Oh, why look at that delightful little Delphinapterus leucas frolicking gaily through the sea" Herm, just doesn't quite have the same ring to it... Edit : I recalled once that I was talking with my dad, and he was under the impression that Beluga (whales) layed eggs. That was a fun conversation.
True Latin is a lingua franca for scientists. However, it is a duty on our scientific minds to understand go beyond the randomly obvious and find the deeper origins of the naming and meaning species and character were they occur naturally. I could do various other examples in naming of towns, places ... et cetera. F.i. the name Borneo goes back to the word buah niah ... hence it was named according to what the honorouble explorer thought he had heard ... when he landed on the northern shores of one of eastern Indonesia's biggest islands. How far from the truth / true name of the island of ... Kalimantan. Same with f.i. New Zealand (Aotearoa) or Australia ...
To complicate things further, I've heard 'beluga' used to commonly refer to Risso's dolphins in the Egyptian Red Sea. EDIT: I think this is the first online reference. I had always assumed it was quite a common name.
In Italian Beluga is used for both the whale (Beluga) and the Sturgeon (Storione Beluga or Storione Ladano)
The rationale for this thread is that we may learn from our past mistakes and as in the original language beluga is meant for the sturgeon species - and is widely used for the type of caviar from the species also - and beluha/beluhka is used to describe the whale … we might perhaps wish to change our Anglo Saxon vernacular (rightly so the Latin genus + species remain the lingua franca) to correctly identify the species.
Interesting about Borneo, I hadn't heard that before. While New Zealand would have had a 'native' name, Australia would not due to the variety of Aboriginal names that probably described the local area ie. it was too large to have had an individual name.
In spanish we use "beluga" for both; (mostly for caviar) more than for "white" sturgeon, and for the white" whale".
regarding Borneo, the name is derived from the same root as Brunei. Kalimantan is derived from Sanskrit (apparently meaning something like "the place of burning temperatures") and is hardly the "true" name. If you wanted a "true" name of the island you'd have to choose one from one of the local languages. I don't know what NZ or Australia have to do with anything in this thread. New Zealand of course is named after Zeeland; Aotearoa means "land of the long white cloud" but Maori have only been in NZ for less than 1000 years so either name is as valid as the other; Australia derives from Latin australis "southern". None of these have any relevance at all to beluga vs belukha?
