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Re: Adopting a plural

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 5, 2004, 16:53
Quoting "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>:

> 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>
Given that _virii_ apparently is meant to be a pl of _virus_ (which in Latin pluralizes as _vira_), I suspect Jeffrey supposedly wrote wrong forms, suggesting he intends to use that in the conlang too. Anyway, I thought it should be _octopodes_? Andreas

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John Cowan <jcowan@...>