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On August 11 2010 05:35 Crushgroove wrote:
I have NO IDEA what Blizzard is playing at, but here's the skinny:
In the campaign (no spoilers here): In a cutscene the character Hanson refers to "those nexus" which would indicate the plural is simply "nexus".
HOWEVER... in the same cutscene, in the very next line, Raynor refers to them as "nexi"... which actually makes more sense from a conformity perspective.
BUT... (Jesus blizz... come on...) In the text for the achievement "Carnage hall", it reads:
"Destroy four command centers, hatcheries, or NEXUSES in a single league game"...
Are you kidding me?
When speaking/writing about Starcraft, I try to speak English as well as I do elsewhere.. but they're making it hard.
I guess its like "mongeese/mongooses".. all are correct?
P.S. Casters, it is most definately "collossi", stop being dumb.
actually,
Noun
colossus (plural colossuses or colossi)
1. A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
2. Any creature or thing of gigantic size.
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Noun
nexus (plural nexuses or nexus or nexûs)
1. a form of connection
2. a connected group
3. the centre of something
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they're both actual words so why not use the established definitons :D
nexi is wrong, colossuses and colossi are both correct and nexûs is a newly added fancy way of saying it lol
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I would say blizzard found the same problem, and just toyed with the possible plurals, like a language easter-egg.
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On August 11 2010 06:57 JamJoy wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2010 06:48 Karliath wrote:On August 11 2010 06:43 JamJoy wrote:On August 11 2010 06:36 Karliath wrote:On August 11 2010 06:32 JamJoy wrote:On August 11 2010 06:14 Karliath wrote:On August 11 2010 06:10 ELA wrote:On August 11 2010 05:46 Liquid`Tyler wrote:On August 11 2010 05:42 TzTz wrote:
Well nexus is latin. I don't know whether it's -u declination or not. Depending on that the plural would be nexi or nexus. In the latter case the "u" would be pronounced longer than in the singular. But Maybe Protoss call it completely differently and Nexus is just the Terran term for it and thus free for us to mess around with... hahaha it's not Latin. It's English! It's actually a latin word that means connection or point of gathering. Not anymore it's not. It's an English word because we are speaking English. That's the point I'm trying to get across. Sure, there is a word called "nexus" in the Latin language, with the same meaning and pronunciation, but the word we are using now is English, regardless of what language it originated from. Edit: For example, "Los Angeles" is now an English proper noun, representing the city. It's origin might be Spanish, meaning "the angels," but it simply doesn't mean that anymore. Los Angeles still means "the angels" and the fact that we use it to represent a city doesn't change that. Just because we use a word in English does not mean that its connection to its' root language no longer applies. That's like saying because we use "quid pro quo" in English that it's no longer Latin. Mmm the Los Angeles example wasn't the best I guess, look at my bok choy one above. That said, "quid pro quo" IS Latin in English. Nexus, on the other hand, is not Latin in English. It is, well, English in English, and therefore it doesn't have to (not saying it doesn't) follow Latin grammar rules. It follows English grammar rules, which we all know have a lot of inconsistencies. Nexus might be a Latin word, but it is ALSO an English word originating from Latin, whereas "quid pro quo" will always be a Latin phrase used in English. I agree that nexus is a word that we used in English that we got from Latin. Therefore, it should follow correct English grammar. However, what you're continuing to fail to realize is that a huge portion of what we consider "correct" English grammar is correct because of Latin. This is what I'm arguing. I'm not trying to say that nexuses isn't or shouldn't be correct. It is correct, but not any more so than nexus is correct. They're both correct for different reasons. Sorry if I wasn't explaining myself adequately. This is correct, but only because the English language adopted/originated from these rules. The English language can change anything they want to though, in the sense that it doesn't have to conform with the Latin rules if it doesn't want to. Of course the rules can be changed. The point is that they (in the majority of the cases) don't when the root word is Latin. That's the point. Take it from someone who studied Latin for 4 years. When the word is directly copied from Latin the rules in English reflect it. That's the whole point I'm making. Nexus is a word copied directly from Latin, which is why the plural nexus remains in English. Neither nexus or nexuses is more correct.
Nexus is indeed correct, coming from Latin right?
How come nexuses is also correct (I'm not arguing that it's not), if there is already a plural form of the singular noun nexus? That's an example of a change there, as (I'm assuming) nexuses isn't acceptable in Latin.
My point is, why are we debating and not looking in the dictionary? There's no point saying "Nexus is Latin"..."well it originates from Greek"..."fourth denotation!" when the words are already English, and already in the English dictionary, right?
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On August 11 2010 06:50 57 Corvette wrote:
Lol, with me i dont have to worry about multiple nexus buildings, so i dont worry about the plural.
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On August 11 2010 06:58 sCuMBaG wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2010 06:53 Karliath wrote:On August 11 2010 06:49 MamiyaOtaru wrote:On August 11 2010 06:05 JamJoy wrote: taken from Latin, like the majority of the English language. You are correct, but "more than 80 percent of the thousand most common words in modern English come from Old English ... Old English is the language of the Germanic inhabitants of England ... (a) dialect of West Germanic" whose parent is referred to as Proto-Germanic http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/engol-0-X.html I am not JamJoy, but this follows my point too. JamJoy is correct in saying that a lot of English grammar is correct because it is also Latin grammar. That said, English comes from a variety of Languages, and so it does not have to follow Latin grammar. Therefore, correct Latin grammar does not always equal correct English grammar. Let's look at something more simple. Language X is an aggregation of languages A and B. In Language A, dog = asf and cat = oiph. In Language B, dog = awr and cat = koh. Just because dog = asf in Language X doesn't mean that cat also = oiph in Language X. doesn't make any sense.. in your logic, does language B derive from language A? i think you missed the point
Hmm no? Language X comes from Languages A and B. X being English, A being Latin, and B being whatever else I guess. Obviously nouns do not translate to plurality, but I think the point is clear. Just because Latin -> English one way for one word, doesn't mean that Latin -> English the same way for another word, simply because English isn't 100% derived from Latin, but is an accumulation of different languages.
What JamJoy said, that words spelled the same in Latin and English typically follow the same Latin rules could be true though.
Edit: My overall point, however, as several of us have already brought up, is why we aren't just looking in the dictionary. It's an English word, with it's plurals all defined. Why are people trying to figure out or prove the plurality of nexus through Latin when it's already established plain as day in the English language?
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the plural is nexi. it comes from latin and the casus1 of the-us declination is -i.
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On August 11 2010 07:07 Mob wrote:
the plural is nexi. it comes from latin and the casus1 of the-us declination is -i.
You have no idea what you're talking about. Thank you for not reading the other 5 pages of posts which may have helped with that problem.
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On August 11 2010 07:07 Mob wrote:
the plural is nexi. it comes from latin and the casus1 of the-us declination is -i.
Wouldn't you agree that looking at an English dictionary, seeing whatever plurals it lists, would be the best approach to solving the problem? Why are you even bringing up Latin like everyone else. If it is already defined in English, as shown in the English dictionary, frankly who cares how it went from nexus to nexi (which I'm not even convinced it does) in Latin?
Now, if you're trying to argue that the plurals nexus and nexuses should not be as they are already defined, that's a different story. But you'd have to first accept that they are currently what they are.
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wow really 6 pages on this.
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Nexus is indeed correct, coming from Latin right?
How come nexuses is also correct (I'm not arguing that it's not), if there is already a plural form of the singular noun nexus? That's an example of a change there, as (I'm assuming) nexuses isn't acceptable in Latin.
My point is, why are we debating and not looking in the dictionary? There's no point saying "Nexus is Latin"..."well it originates from Greek"..."fourth denotation!" when the words are already English, and already in the English dictionary, right?
Nexus is correct because of Latin, yes.
Nexuses (edited for typo) is correct because of how we make something plural in English. For instance bus, buses. We add an -es to make a noun ending in -s plural.
That is a change from Latin yes, and I'm not denying it. That's very common with the words that are copied directly from Latin. The Latin plural is still considered valid, as is the English-ised (for a lack of a better word) version. Think Colossus. The plural can be colossi or colossuses. One is the Latin version and one is the English version and they're both considered equally valid.
You're right, we really don't need to argue about it. I think I was originally trying to clarify for people who were saying things like nexi, but to be honest it really doesn't matter. It certainly isn't bad to have knowledge spread around either though imo.
edit 2:
Forgot to add in regards to the need for multiple plural forms. Not that long ago (i.e. a few hundred years ago lol) the only correct form would have been the Latin version. So the multiple versions is really just a "relaxing" of the language you could say. We see this still in modern times as things that were considered slang become adopted and widely accepted. Even included in the dictionary in some cases.
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As long as you understand what they're talking about it doesn't matter.
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On August 11 2010 07:20 Fenrir-Vice wrote:
Colloxi imho
no
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Two things should be obvious from this.
1 English is a clusterfuck of spelling abnormalities and is well overdue for a spelling reform all other major languages have had one in the last 20 years or so (except maybe spanish).
2 Latin is a dead language and has screwed with English spelling more than it deserves to already.
Oh and a lot of people cant seem to accept you can spell a word correctly more than one way it seems to bring the frustrated English teacher with a red marker pen poised out in a lot of people.
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Kentor
United States5784 Posts
Blizzard is saying they're all correct and you can use which ever form you want. I thought that was pretty obvious when I heard that dialogue. There is nothing wrong with nexuses or colossuses. In fact, this would make everything in English sound more consistent and it's what I use for the sake of consistency.
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17024 Posts
On August 11 2010 07:07 Mob wrote:
the plural is nexi. it comes from latin and the casus1 of the-us declination is -i.
Read the entire thread before blindly giving your (incorrect) opinion.
Nexus is fourth declension. So, in the nominative case, it would be pluralized nexus.
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On August 11 2010 05:44 city42 wrote:
The plural of nexus is nexus, if you follow the strict Latin spelling. It is a fourth declension noun, so the nominative singular is "nexus" and the nominative plural is also "nexus." I believe "nexuses" is also correct in English, but "nexi" is absolutely wrong and would only be appropriate if it were a second declension Latin noun.
This is it:
"Nexus" if you want to sound pretentious and educated.
"Nexuses" if you want to use the most common form in English.
"Nexi" if you want to sound pretentious and ignorant.
edit: wow, didn't notice that there were 6 pages on this already or I might not have jumped on the pile
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"The plural of nexus in Latin is nexus, so the embarrassing attempts by wanna-be Internet intellectuals at sounding erudite by pulling "nexii" out of their asses is laughable. Nexuses, if anything. Or nexus. But not nexi, nor nexii."
I love language: seperates the idiots from ordinary people.
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On August 11 2010 08:07 Cranberries wrote:
"The plural of nexus in Latin is nexus, so the embarrassing attempts by wanna-be Internet intellectuals at sounding erudite by pulling "nexii" out of their asses is laughable. Nexuses, if anything. Or nexus. But not nexi, nor nexii."
I love language: seperates the idiots from ordinary people.
Yes, it is an understandable mistake. Most people see a Latin word that ends in -us and assume the plural is -i since this tends to be true fairly often with words we use. The most annoying for me is when someone calls them self an alumni...it just bugs the hell out of me.
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Solution: Ask Day9 to come up with a plural form. Use whatever he comes up with.
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EPT
