Dylan wrote, >Some languages are not "latinizable" and a scientific epithet based on >a local name in such a language may appear in its original form as a >specific or generic epipthet, e.g. Dypsis bejofo, Caryota no, >Kaempferia galanga or Alpinia zerumbet. Epithets such as this are considered (and often are in fact, being the native-language names of the plants) nouns rather than adjectives. We also see Latin and Greek nouns occasionally used as epithets, and this is usually why a species name does not exhibit gender agreement with the genus name. And yes, I know English spelling is not phonemic (though it once was), but unlike Germans, we do not usually produce consonant clusters such as "schtsch" when transliterating a single alphabetic character from Russian. English-speaking linguists are, however, capable of even worse deeds when devising practical orthographies, as anyone who has ever read Siberian Yupik (Eskimo) can attest. Jane McGary