Species names for Middle-earth

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Middle-earth has quite a lot of separate more-or-less sentient species wandering about. Tolkien calls them "races", which reflects the vocabulary of his era, and which sadly has both (a) been copied mindlessly by writers of fantasy and (b) led to a lot of cross-contamination of discussion by internal US politics of no relevance to the rest of the world. I call them species, because that is what I think that they are. And therefore they require proper species names. Here are my suggestions, for your amusement. clodia_metelli has graciously given comments and assistance with correct grammatical forms. All errors are mine.

I propose the following:

Hominids:

Dwarves - Homo auleii, from their maker, the Vala Aule. This form is the common one in scientific nomenclature, which has at most a tenuous relationship to correct Latin grammar (when a species can legitimately be named Han solo you know that you are on shaky linguistic ground).
Elves - Homo stellatus
Hobbits - Homo hobbitus
Numenoreans - Homo sapiens numenorensis X - I regard them as essentially a sub-species of regular Homo sapiens, what with the extended lifespan, psychic powers etc.
Orcs - Homo orcusX - includes uruk-hai
Goblins - Homo orcus subterraneusX

- for Numenoreans, orcs and goblins, the 'X' is stolen from botanical nomenclature and indicates that they are artificial or hybridised species/sub-species. I draw the line at calling them cultivars, though basically that's what they are. I don't want to give the impression that you could order them from seed catalogues.

Non-hominids:

Trolls - Lapis horribilis
Ents - Pastor nemoris
Dragons (winged) - Draco rapax
Dragons (wingless): Draco ambulans
Wargs - Canis atrox
The Watcher in the Water: Multibrachium vigilans
Sentient eagles: Aquila titanica
Sentient Mirkwood spiders: Aranea largiloqua
Fell-beasts - Ala saurontis

The famous sentient willows of the Withywindle valley would of course be Salix sapiens. This form can be used for any other variety of sapient tree.

I am not counting Balrogs or Wizards, because they are embodied Maiar. Also there were only five of each and there is no indication that any of them ever reproduced.

Elves and Men I count as separate species that can on very rare occasions interbreed successfully (i.e. with fertile hybrids). While Tolkien did say in his letters that they are the same species, their main point of difference (the immortality, which separates Elves not only from Men but from every other living thing) arises from a non-biological cause, the difference in their spirits, which is a function of the dualistic nature of Tolkien's universe.