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John Crow wrote:
...and in Swedish it is Iller.
 
The right name for ferret in Swedish is a well discussed subject.
By tradition the name of the domesticated form of Mustela
Putorius are not particularly well known in Sweden. We have
though in our language the word Frett, which can be directly
translated from the english word Ferret. Though, as I said, this
name is not well known in Sweden, why people tend to use the name
of the wild species, ie iller (pole cat).
When our Swedish club, Svenska Tamillerf=F6reningen, was formed,
the name tam-iller was beginning to be used. The reason to that
was to make people understand that it was not a wild animal.
However, the word tam-iller just indicate that the animal is
tame and not domesticated, why according to my opinion the only
correct definition is Frett.
However, according to professors in genetics here in Sweden,
there are no differencies between the domesticated and the wild
form of Mustela putorius. Therefore they tend to go on the line
that the correct name is Iller. This must only be tha case in
Sweden and possibly other Nordic Countries (Finland, Norway and
Denmark), because in most European languages the term used for
the domesticated form is always something similar to ferret,
for example: Frettchen in German, Fret in Dutch, Furet in
French and Furao in Portugese.
 
I would love to get some comments on the scientific fact that
there should be no difference between the European Pole Cat and
the Ferret. The scientists I've heard from claims that a ferret
is neither an own species nor a subspecies of the pole cat.
 
I'd better stop now before my letter gets too long.
 
Greetings from Sweden
/Johan Lund (Secretary of World Ferret Union)
[Posted in FML issue 1064]