The Hydrobatinae (storm petrels) are a subfamily of the Procellariiidae. Other subfamilies are the Procellariinae (fulmars and shearwaters) and the Diomedeinae (albatrosses). The Hydrobatinae are known in some classifications as the Oceanitidae. |
1. General names
Chinese: The word for 'petrel' is 海燕 hǎi-yàn meaning 'sea swallow'. The storm petrels are all known as 'fork-tailed sea swallows' in Chinese. |
Japanese: The 'petrel' is ウミツバメ umi-tsubame, also meaning 'sea swallow' and written with the same characters as Chinese (海燕). The alternative reading カイエン kai-en, which is an on -reading of the same characters, also exists. The forms ウミツバクラ umi-tsubakura and ウミツバクロ umi-tsubakuro, using regional variants of ツバメ tsubame 'swallow', also exist. The petrels have numerous regional names around Japan. |
Vietnamese: Storm-petrels have not been recorded in Vietnam. |
2. Species names
ABOUT THIS TABLE (Hover cursor to see) 
3. Notes
Oceanites oceanicus and Oceanodroma matsudairae have possibly been sighted in the South China Sea. |
Chinese and Japanese: In some languages, both the terns and the petrels are known as 'sea swallows' (e.g., German 'Seeschwalbe' = tern). The fact that both Chinese and Japanese use 海燕 'sea swallow' for the petrels suggests the possibility that one language may have influenced the other. Linguistically, there are grounds for suspecting that 海燕 ('sea swallow') may have entered Chinese from Japanese:
For these reasons, it is reasonable to suspect that 海燕 hǎi-yàn is an import from Japanese to Chinese, although it is not possible to state definitively that this is the case. |
Vietnamese: Although Vietnam is not supposed to have storm petrels, Bui Phong's Vietnamese-English dictionary lists Báo bão ('storm-announcer') as a word meaning 'storm petrel'. An English-Vietnamese dictionary also lists Chim hải âu petrên ('petren albatross bird') as a translation of 'petrel'. |
