how to write the plural of latin and greek words in english

[Karstad-Schueler]

Sean Edwards wrote:

>  At the risk of dragging this one out, Is it logical to use plural
> grammer if the taxon just happens to have a plural Latin name, but not
> if it doesn't? They are all single concepts despite containing
> multiple component taxa (usually, apart from mono[typic] taxa).
>
> The government is (or maybe are?).

* Don't let the history of the word push you around unnecessartily. Use
plural number for a plural concept, and single number for a unitary
concept. I won't go so far as to insist that

"Elliptio are a polyphyletic assemblage of species"

while

"Elliptio is a monophyletic group"

but I will suggest:

"the government are 51% of the House"

and

"the government is a monolithic bureaucracy."

And I'll suggest that the real problem with "data is" isn't solely that
"datum" is the historical plural, but that with "data is" the
investigator hasn't got any degrees of freedom, and can't draw any
conclusions from the numbers.

fred schueler.
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