Urban wrote:
 
>But in Sweden it's not so easy. In fact, my suggestion that we
>call them "frett" (like in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands)
>made it an inflamed question, as some say it's only correct to
>call albinos that. Others are to be termed "tam-iller" (domestic
>polecat). (The board of one of our national organisations may
>resign as a result of this controversy, the competing
>organisation has ridiculed us a lot for even discussing the
>question.)
 
Ah politics... ;-)
 
It seems a bit ludicrous to suggest that the offspring of a tam-iller
that just happens to be albino is a different species.  Or, particularly
vice-versa.  Would a sable offspring of a frett be called a tam-iller?
Make up your minds! ;-)
 
[What do they say about "tam-iller" applied to albinos?]
 
>The argument that "ferret" means "weasel" in the USA has been
>used against the use of "frett", also that "frett" means "ermine"
>in some parts of Sweden.
 
Ferret doesn't mean "weasel" in the USA (or Canada).  Sure, "ferret-faced"
is sometimes used perjoratively just like "he's a weasel".  So what?
Same person could just as easily said "he's a skunk", and I don't
think there's much doubt about whether a weasel is the same thing as a
skunk ;-)
 
>I think I can handle that, but now
>someone has called in a scientific authority who claims that it's
>a serious mistake to use American literature in this context, as
>the ferrets of North America aren't the same animals as the
>Swedish ones.
 
I'm sure that this is a confusion over wild species of ferret, not
domestic ones - of *course* Black Footed Ferrets aren't the same
as polecats.  So what?  The ferrets over here are *not* related to BFFs.
 
>What I want to know now is: Is there any reason not to believe
>they are the same? I imagine ferrets were brought across the
>Atlantic so relatively recently they can't have diverged very
>much.
 
There's no black and white unfortunately.  When someone says "same",
what do they mean?  Same species?  Same race?  I'm sure that there
are some differences that can be detected between those bred here
for the last 300 years and those bred there.  By the same token, there
are measureable differences between people descendant of many generations
in this country compared to their co-lateral relatives in Europe.  Are
they significant? Depends on how anal-retentive the observer is.
 
This is probably a lost cause Urban.  You can't fight natural language.
(except in some french speaking places ;-)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0866]