#5644 - 08/28/00 03:16 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/12/00
Posts: 3409
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#5646 - 08/28/00 04:45 PM
Re: Virus as a neuter gender
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old hand
Registered: 07/03/00
Posts: 1094
Loc: Cincinnati & Loveland, Ohio, U...
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My pet peeve is that it is impossible to find Latin being taught at the high school level. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
This, I believe, is more true with public schools. Cincinnati, with more than it's fair share of catholic schools, has a few that offer Latin. A good friend of mine took Latin. Unfortunately, the public school that I attend, though it is a very good one, does not offer Latin. I probably would have taken it were I given the choice, but due to the lack I went with German.
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#5647 - 08/28/00 06:09 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/12/00
Posts: 3409
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#5649 - 08/28/00 06:49 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/12/00
Posts: 3409
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#5651 - 08/28/00 11:16 PM
Re: ambulatory vowels
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 6511
Loc: lower upstate New York
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>>>the great vowel movement >> US Plans to Deploy Over 75,000 Vowels:
Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First recipients. OK, tsuwm, *squaring off* where'd you find that? It's hilarious (taking no faint pride, however, in my pun being original, pre-dating this shameless plagiarism by 20 years  )!
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#5652 - 08/29/00 01:07 AM
Re: Virus as a neuter gender
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old hand
Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 1010
Loc: Switzerland
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>virus is by Latin definition a masculine noun<
Hi Ted,
Since the teaching of Latin is not so widespread anymore, it might not be superfluous to recall that in spite of its relative regularity, even Latin has its fair share of exceptions to formal rules. Those are probably mostly taught in the third and following years (-: ... But I have scanned the Web in the meantime, and "virus" seems to be a somewhat contentious case, not concerning its gender, which is recognized throughout as neuter, but with respect to its declension. There are no instances of its plural in the old literature.
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#5653 - 08/29/00 07:48 AM
Re: Virus as a neuter gender
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 3467
Loc: Marion NC
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>But I have scanned the Web in the meantime, and "virus" seems to be a somewhat contentious case, not concerning its gender, which is recognized throughout as neuter, but with respect to its declension. There are no instances of its plural in the old literature.
ws:
My point is that virus (unless it is a very irregular noun) would take a masculine declension, even though it is considered to be neuter in gender. Nauta (sailor) and agricola (farmer) are feminine in declension but are considered masculine in gender. Their plurals are nautae and agricolae, not nauti and agricoli. I'm not familiar enough with Latin any more to be certain, but I do not remember any words with a singular -us ending in the nominate singular which became -a in the nominative plural.
Being neuter in gender, virus would take a neuter adjective. Virus malum (bad poison, which is a bit of a redundancy of course) would be viri mala in the plural. Bottom line: I believe that the plural of virus is going to be viri not vira (at least in classical Latin).
Now where IS that Bill Buckley fellow when we need him?
Ted
_________________________
TEd
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