On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 16:07 -0700, Scott Talbot wrote: > Just curious as to why we must use proper Latin grammar just because we > borrowed the word from them? It's not like anyone speaks the language > anymore. Do we also learn the grammar of every other language we borrow > words from. Judging by this list, few of us even know English grammar. True. "Viruses" (the supposed correct pluralization of "virus") is obviously also not from latin. I think the rationale behind not accepting "viri" is that using "-i" to pluralize is uncommon and reserved only for words which inherited it from Latin. Since the "standard" (if anything in English is standard) way of pluralizing is to add -s or -es to the end of the word, that is to be preferred. > > > But I guess the really important thing is that someone understands you. > > If they can correct you when you say "virii" then you probably got your > > message across. :) > > Possibly the smartest off topic sentence seen here today! > Heh heh thanks. Don't try using that argument on the French though! -- Aaron Gaudio <prothonotar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
