Disputatio:Finnus
Adjective?[+/-]
Isn't this a "substantive"? What is the neuter form used for? PeeKoo 10:20, 30 Augusti 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not sure about "substantive". Maybe neuter for a Finnish Caterpillar ;) ? There is neuter at Romanus. --Harrissimo 20:56, 31 Augusti 2007 (UTC)
- The definition in the article ("inhabitants of Finland") is certainly for a substantive. It is also certainly wrong, not least because it is a definition, not of Finnus—which would certainly be something like vir nationis Finnorum—but of Finni, which is a proper noun, the name of the Finnish people, and may well deserve its own entry, now that I think about it (dictionaries like Lewis & Short use the plural as the headword for names of peoples). It's possible that Finnus is also used as an adjective, though I'm pretty sure Finnicus is more commonly so used; Romanus may not be a good analogy, as it is explicitly an adjective (Roma + -anus) while Finnus just looks like a foreign stem Finn- shoved into the second declension, not necessarily in an adjectival manner. —Mucius Tever 22:00, 31 Augusti 2007 (UTC)
- It was just my presumption of the singular forms of Finni. If I wanted to say "I am a Finn" it would be "Sum Finn -us, -a, -um", right? I think Finni is the best redirect and "substantive" should be mentioned (eventhough I don't recognise many of these technical words such as this). Finnicus is "Finnish" (The Finnish language, A Finnish city). --Harrissimo 10:39, 1 Septembris 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, you would have Finnus sum, Finna est, etc. The problem with the article is that its definition is not in the singular. Also, since Finns are all (as far as I know) people, and thus likely to have masculine or feminine gender, there will probably not be a neuter (the Finnish caterpillar, it would, as in the English, likely be described as Finnicum "Finnish", rather than *Finnum "a Finn").
- "Substantive" is what in modern English is called a "noun". It used to be that "noun" was less specific and could refer to adjectives as well (English, too, used to call them "noun substantive" and "noun adjective"; apparently they also used "verb adjective", which we now call a participle); I'm not certain Latin 'nomen' would have gone through the same semantic narrowing. —Mucius Tever 13:53, 1 Septembris 2007 (UTC)
- It was just my presumption of the singular forms of Finni. If I wanted to say "I am a Finn" it would be "Sum Finn -us, -a, -um", right? I think Finni is the best redirect and "substantive" should be mentioned (eventhough I don't recognise many of these technical words such as this). Finnicus is "Finnish" (The Finnish language, A Finnish city). --Harrissimo 10:39, 1 Septembris 2007 (UTC)
- The definition in the article ("inhabitants of Finland") is certainly for a substantive. It is also certainly wrong, not least because it is a definition, not of Finnus—which would certainly be something like vir nationis Finnorum—but of Finni, which is a proper noun, the name of the Finnish people, and may well deserve its own entry, now that I think about it (dictionaries like Lewis & Short use the plural as the headword for names of peoples). It's possible that Finnus is also used as an adjective, though I'm pretty sure Finnicus is more commonly so used; Romanus may not be a good analogy, as it is explicitly an adjective (Roma + -anus) while Finnus just looks like a foreign stem Finn- shoved into the second declension, not necessarily in an adjectival manner. —Mucius Tever 22:00, 31 Augusti 2007 (UTC)