Jim, In Poland, Walujew would be pronounced "va LOO yevf", and his Frittilaria there, if spelled phonetically and with the correct grammatical case endings if Polish were the scientific language, would be Frytylaria walujwyi (the y is a short i). Similarly for Turczaninow (TOOR chan NEEN ovf). Bonawentura Magrys (and the s has a dot over it and is pronounced like sh) ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:42:55 -0500 From: "J.E. Shields" <jshields104@comcast.net> Subject: [pbs] Botanical Latin To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20081211092251.01cf6d70@mail.comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed I always enjoy these discussion of Botanical Latin. Has anyone noticed that some botanists transliterate the (English) "V" sound from Russian as "w" in names? Other times as "v" of course. Some examples: Corydalis turczaninowii Corydalis kusnetzovii Fritillaria walujewii (What nationality was Mr. Walujew? How is that pronounced in Anglophone countries? In Germany? In Slavic countries?)