Re: Adopting a plural
| From: | H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, October 5, 2004, 16:39 |
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On Mon, Oct 04, 2004 at 10:48:03PM -0600, Muke Tever wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 22:44:27 -0400, Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...>
> wrote:
> >So one of my conlangs did not historically mark number. Based on contact
> >with an "imperial" language, speakers have borrowed that language's plural
> >affix and sporadically apply it. Which is more likely...?
> >a) It means 2+, just like its source language
> >b) It means 2+ and that's emphatic (of some importance in the discourse)
> >c) It means "a great many"
>
> d) It means 2+, and is used on words that look like they come from the
> other language (virii; octopi)
<obligatory pedantic remark>
"Octopus" really came from Greek, not Latin, so the "proper" plural
would be "octopedes", not "octopi".
</obligatory pedantic remark>
My Greek prof tried that on somebody once, and he got some rather
strange looks. :-) But then again, he is known for things like
pronouncing "Darius" as [d@"raij@s] because that's how the Greek name
is accented.
T
--
Life is unfair. Ask too much from it, and it may decide you deserve nothing.
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