Re: YAEPT: uu/ii (< Quick Latin pronunciation question)

2008/5/28, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:
>
> On 2008-05-27 Ray Brown wrote:
> > NO, NO, that's false analogy and the neuter
> > plural -a is _NOT_ peculiar to the 3rd
> > declension. ALL _Latin_ neuter nouns, without
> > exception, form their nom., acc. & vocative
> > plurals in -a (the only apparent exceptions are
> > a few Greek borrowings). This applies, as the
> > two quotes below show, irrespective of whether
> > the noun is 2nd declension (e.g. oppidum ~
> > oppida), 3rd declension (opus ~ opera) or 4th
> > declension (cornu ~ cornua)
> > - the are no 1st or 5th declension neuters.
>
> Aren't there also a few 2nd declension neuters
> with nominative in -us and plural in -a? I can ATM
> only remember _locus_ which has **both** a neuter
> plural _loca_ and a masculine plural _loci_, with
> slightly different meanings.

Yes, but -- locus is a standard 2nd decl. masculine noun (acc. locum, voc.
loce) that just happens to have an alternative plural loca that construes as
neuter -- loca haec and so on. L&S: "plur. loci, single places; loca, places
connected with each other, a region".

Virus and other 2nd decl. neuters in -us (vulgus, others?) follow the neuter
nom=acc=voc rule, which makes them the only 2nd. decl. nouns with -us in the
accusative.

And by the way, vira /"vi:RA/ is the normal plural for (species of) virus in
Danish medical usage. _Pace_ Ray it's not pretentious, just conservative, as
the plural is now virusser in other contexts.

Lars

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