<VERY OFF TOPIC>
My Latin is even poorer than my English and my Unicode. But I think that all
Latin neuters have the plural in "-a" (provided they have one). This
feature, together with the fact that nominative=accustative, should be what
defines a "neuter" as such.
A nominative with an irregular ending like "-us" is probably in the 3rd
declension (uirus, -is), so it could be:
sing. plur.
nom. uirus uira
voc. uirus uira
acc. uirus uira
gen. uiris uirum
dat. uiri uiribus
abl. uire uiribus
Of course, this does not answer what the *English* plural should be: you
English speakers should decide...
</VERY OFF TOPIC>
_ Marco
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Everson [SMTP:everson@egt.ie]
> Sent: 1999 December 29, Wednesday 16.40
> To: Unicode List
> Subject: Re: Latin
>
> Ar 07:07 -0800 1999-12-29, scríobh John Cowan:
>
> >"Scenarii" was probably an attempt to construct a Latinate plural,
> >similar to the use of "viri" or (worse) "virii" as plural of "virus".
> >In Latin, "virus" (meaning "poison") was a mass-noun with no usual
> >plural form; the proper English plural is "viruses".
>
> I'm not sure about yr. Latin, John. Vírus is a neuter noun with its
> genitive in -í; it is a bit unusual for neuters to end in -us all right,
> but its plural would normally be vírí, unless víra which would < vírum....
>
> Michael Everson ** Everson Gunn Teoranta ** http://www.egt.ie
> 15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire/Ireland
> Vox +353 1 478 2597 ** Fax +353 1 478 2597 ** Mob +353 86 807 9169
> 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:57 EDT