Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Mon, 23 Mar 92 15:13 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA21858; Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:45:32 EST Received: from pucc.Princeton.EDU by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA02991; Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:12:40 -0500 Message-Id: <9203231912.AA02991@relay1.UU.NET> Received: from PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU by pucc.Princeton.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 4303; Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:12:01 EST Received: by PUCC (Mailer R2.08 ptf012) id 5862; Mon, 23 Mar 92 14:11:47 EST Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 11:14:10 EST Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Subject: Re: What is Shoebox? X-To: Lojban List To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann In-Reply-To: <9203201523.AA24593@relay1.UU.NET>; from "Mark E. Shoulson" at Mar 20, 92 10:21 am Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Mon Mar 23 15:14:07 1992 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN la mark. clsn. cusku di'e > It has neat ways of storing lexicons and corpuses (corpi?), "Corpora" is correct. I can't resist quoting a bit of Quine here: >Agenda< [a Latin plural, "things to be done" - jc] is treated as an ordinary count noun: 'There is a short agenda'. I am now on the lookout for the crowning irony: a learned re-Latinization of >agendas< as >agendae<.... Though >agendae< is still in merciful abeyance at last reports, other pseudo-Latin plurals assail us.... We have all heard >octopi<, and I am braced for duck-billed >platypi<. Read ... >octopodes< and >platypodes<, or, excusably, >octopoda< and >platypoda<. We hear >rhinoceri< and perhaps >rhinoceroi<, but both are wrong; the Greek lexicon rewards us with >rhinocerotes< [four syllables! - jc] and impels us to go out of our way to refer to the grim beast in the plural whenever occasion can be contrived. >Quora< and >ignorami< I have yet to encounter.... [They] are already Latin plurals in irrelevant ways.... >Cauci<, >doldra<, and >hoodla< I have likewise been spared.... -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban