Brellchild wrote:I doubt very much even Meji would be so self-centered to think she could steal an entire warship.
Um, it sure looks to me like she thinks she could steal (borrow, commandeer) an entire warship without much trouble. Seems like she's trying just that! She sure didn't fly up to the warship and shout "Hey look at me I'm fucking flying, and you can't call for backup!" because she intended to stow away. And I don't think she's planning on being crew, either.
Forrest wrote:
Ensignera (I just realized we've been using the wrong pluralization for them all this time, since the Sanguine language they're named in is faux Latin)
That would be true if Ensigerum was ever used in the plural - it's being used in the singular to describe a singular collective entity (the Ensigerum Order) and as a possessive with regards to the monks (Ensigerum monks - monks belonging to the Ensigerum Order)
So even when we call a group of them "the Ensigerum," we're actually referring to a group of persons 'possessed' by a singular entity by using the entity as shorthand. Still not plural. Although technically you could argue the opposite and have it be totally right, given how amorphous the English language is - I like this set of rules because it means we don't have to alter the already hard-to-remember spelling of Ensigerum
Oh hey, I've finally crawled out of my law school work and into the real world! Yay! (We'll see how long it lasts)
Tiamat wrote:
That would be true if Ensigerum was ever used in the plural - it's being used in the singular to describe a singular collective entity (the Ensigerum Order) and as a possessive with regards to the monks (Ensigerum monks - monks belonging to the Ensigerum Order)
Yes, but how about "three Ensiger[__] walk into a bar and the bartender says..."? How do you fill in that blank? Of course you could say "Ensigerum monks", but that's kinda cheating. We've heard an elf ask Sara if she was "an Ensigerum", so it's obviously a count noun, and should properly take the suffix -a for its plural form then (one Ensigerum, many Ensigera).
What bugs me more though is the missing damn 'n' in there. The word obviously derives from "ensign" but the velar nasal in there has evidently shifted to a velar plosive...
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of All Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Tiamat wrote:
That would be true if Ensigerum was ever used in the plural - it's being used in the singular to describe a singular collective entity (the Ensigerum Order) and as a possessive with regards to the monks (Ensigerum monks - monks belonging to the Ensigerum Order)
Yes, but how about "three Ensiger[__] walk into a bar and the bartender says..."? How do you fill in that blank? Of course you could say "Ensigerum monks", but that's kinda cheating. We've heard an elf ask Sara if she was "an Ensigerum", so it's obviously a count noun, and should properly take the suffix -a for its plural form then (one Ensigerum, many Ensigera).
What bugs me more though is the missing damn 'n' in there. The word obviously derives from "ensign" but the velar nasal in there has evidently shifted to a velar plosive...
I still think it goes to the shorthand use - when you say "three Ensigerum walk into a bar" you actually mean Ensigerum monks - you just don't want to type/say all of it. Same for asking if someone is an Ensigerum - you're asking if they are a monk belonging to the Ensigerum Order, in shorthand. But yeah, the grammar is mutable because English hates us.
There's not much I can say about the missing 'n' though.
In this case, I think it is high-elven that hates us. Or this comic should have a lot more puns (in the sense of jokes centered on the homophones of a particular language rather than sexual innuendos involving euphemisms, which are fairly cross-cultural for some reason). 'Ensign' is from the root signum, meaning a seal, sign or insignia. But It is probably correct to note that there should be a word which translates as a singular of "Ensigerum". That doesn't mean there is...I've noticed elves can be incredibly lazy when it comes to dealing with 'mortals'.
ChunLing wrote:In this case, I think it is high-elven that hates us.
Sanguine. They're blood elves, not high elves.
(Still beats the pants off of the angry disenfranchised minority elves currently running Elven society).
It is probably correct to note that there should be a word which translates as a singular of "Ensigerum".
Ensigerum is a singular (-um suffixes go on singular nouns). The problem is that the singular object it refers to is an organization, not the individuals which compose that organization. We need a plural for those guys; though on the subject of my last point, I agree that my proposal sounds odd: "there are many Ensigera in the Ensigerum" isn't quite right...
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of All Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
