[Note from moderator: this may be a good note on which to close this thread.] On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Vaughan Pratt wrote:
Michael Barr wrote:
Another affectation is using "topoi" as the plural of topos. If you insist on that, you should use the genetive of "of topos" and the accusative when it is the direct object--not to mention the vocative when addressing a topos.
What a great idea. You may have started a movement here.
Topos: omicron declension (second)
. Singular (one) Dual (two) Plural (many) Nom topos topo topoi Gen topou topoin topon Dat topoi topoin topois Acc topon topo topous Voc tope topo topoi
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_grammar )
Be careful when addressing two topo after dinner---if you hail them as topoi they may think you've had one too many. On a related note, anyone know whether topos is masculine or feminine? Ignorance there could get you off to a bad start with two topoin.
Now, now, if we're really embracing the ancient grammar to this extent, then we should drop the prepositions that english uses to accomodate the same semantic space that once was handled by cases. Thus, I would rewrite the above as "Ignorance there could get you off to a bad start topoin." And of course, once we enter this course, what's more natural than letting old english, and even old norse guide our cases throughout? -- Mikael Vejdemo Johansson | To see the world in a grain of sand mik@math.su.se | And heaven in a wild flower | To hold infinity in the palm of your hand | And eternity for an hour