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

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> Philip Newton writes:
>> FWIW, the German plural is "Viren", with the standard plural ending
>> -en for many foreign words. (I wonder where it comes from; it surfaces
>> also e.g. in Greek words such as "Museen" or "Analysen" and in Latin
>> ones such as "Familien" and "-(i)täten".)
>
> What exactly are you wondering about?  Looks like the normal -(e)n
> plural, only the foreign nominative singular ending (if any) is
> removed before applying it.
Ah, as in "Raupe, Raupen; Sendung, Sendungen"?

I think what I'm wondering about it is how come that particular ending
became the stereotypical ending for foreign words.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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