RE: I'm late, I'm late...

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 07:47 AM 9/25/98 -0500, Toby wrote:
>

>Mercifully brief Latin lesson follows:
>
>In ICZN pig Latin you're probably right.  However "draculae" is good Latin. 
> The -a -ae ending is not actually a feminine ending for nouns (it *is* for 
>adjectives).  It is a first declension ending.  Most first declension nouns 
>are feminine, but a few are not (e.g., "agricola" = farmer).  "Dracula," 
>because of its -a ending, is correctly treated as one of these exceptions. 
> The genitive (i.e. possessive) singular is thus "draculae".

And, for all I know, "Dracula" may still be a first declension noun (or its
descendant) in Romanian.

>Finally, there's fourth declension which is quite rare in Latin.  The only 
>time you're likely to run into it is "cornus" = horn.

And "manus" = hand.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661