Sonitu suopte tintinant aures

Writers of Latin often treat non-Latin nouns ending in -o as Latin words by inflecting them as non-neuter members of the third declension: e.g., Sappho, Sapphonis, and Himilco, Himilconis. (Third-declension neuter nouns ending in -o do not exist in Latin.) I have noticed an interesting phenomenon among certain modern Latinists: they inflect the non-Latin words ending in -do and -go according to the inflection of cardo, cardinis, and margo, marginis, and imply that this -o/-in- inflection is the proper one for such words. There is, however, a problem with that idea. While some notable native Latin words ending in -do and -go do indeed follow the -o/-in- inflection (e.g., cardo, cupido, margo, vorago), it is not the case that the letter combinations -do and -go have their own “correct” and “natural” inflection. We have, after all, Latin words such as ligo and praedo, both of which follow the -o/-on- inflection. Nor should we think that the -o/-in- inflection is some kind of “default” inflection for non-Latin words.

In this essay I show the distinction between the -o/-on- nouns in Latin and the -o/-in- ones, list and explain the very few words which follow the unusual -o/-en- and -o/-rn- inflections, cite and discuss the few examples of non-native Latin words which follow the -o/-in- inflection, and then provide some suggestions on how to treat non-Latin words which end in -o in Latin.

(The original version of this essay is here.)

The traditional books on Latin grammar introduce the general “rule” that se and suus, the nominal and possessive types of reflexives in Latin, refer to the subject of a sentence or clause. Such a “rule” can seem helpful when we are working with short and simple sentences in Latin, but it is not correct.

In this essay I mention and explain a better rule for the use of se and suus, and then I give many examples which show how these words work.

This is a post about masterposts about resources and books for studying many languages. I made this since many people do not know about all the resources that have been posted.

Resources for Many Languages: thelanguagecommunity

General

Language Pile

Free Online Language Courses 

Huge Language-Learning Collection

Language and Linguistics Resources 

Language Families/Groups

Resources for West African Languages

South Asian Languages Resources

Classics Resource Masterpost  

Online Latin & Greek Resources

Celtic Languages Resource List

Celtic Family Language Resources

Germanic Languages Resource List

Dutch, Afrikaans, West Frisian, Limburgish

Scandinavian Language Masterpost

North Germanic Language Resources

Resources for Finno-Ugric languages

Finnish, Estonian, Saami, Voro  

Alien Languages of Star Trek 

Afrikaans

Learn Afrikaans Masterpost  

Afrikaans Masterpost

Ainu

Ainu Resources

Albanian

Albanian Language Masterpost

Amharic

Amharic Resources

Amharic Movies & Shows

Arabic

Arabic Learning Resources  

Arabic Language Masterpost

Arabic Language Apps

Moroccan Masterpost  

Free Arabic Resources

Armenian

Armenian Language Masterpost 

ASL

American Sign Language Masterlist

ASL Masterpost

Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani Resources 

Belarusian

Belarusian Resources

Belarusian Resources

Basque

Ultimate Basque Resource List

Euskera Free Resources

Learn Basque

Bengali

Bengali Language Resources

Bulgarian

Bulgarian Resources

Catalan

Catalan Resources

Recursos per aprendre català

Resources to Learn Catalan  

Cantonese

Cantonese Language Resources

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Resource Masterpost  

Chinese Learning Resources I  

Chinese Language Resources II

Chinese Pinyin Masterpost  

Intermediate Chinese Resources 

Ultimate Mandarin Resource List

Cornish

Cornish Language Masterpost

Crimean Tatar

Crimean Tatar Resources

Croatian

Croatian Resources

Czech

Czech Resources for Beginners

Czech Resources

Danish

Ultimate Danish Resource List

Dutch

Great Resources for Dutch 

Dutch Resources

Dutch Resources Masterpost

English

English Online Courses  

English Language Masterpost

Estonian

Intermediate Estonian Resources

Faroese

Faroese Resources

Finnish

Masterlist of Finnish Resources

Finnish Language Resources  

Finnish Resources: Beginner 

Finnish Learning Resources

Finnish Language Resources

French

Ultimate French Resource List

French Resources Masterpost  

French Masterpost  

French Review

Galician

Galician Resources

Free Galician Masterpost

Georgian

Georgian Language Masterpost

German

German Learning Tools  

German Resources  

German Resources  

German Resources  

German Masterpost

Gothic

Gothic Language Masterpost

Greek

Greek Masterpost 

Ancient Greek Masterpost  

Ancient Greek Resources

Greenlandic

Greenlandic Resources  

Guarani

Guarani Masterpost

Hawaiian

Learn Hawaiian  

Hebrew

Hebrew Language Masterpost

Hebrew Masterpost

Hindi

Hindi Language Masterpost

Hindi Audio & Video

Hungarian

Hungarian Masterpost

Hungarian Learning Resources

Hungarian Resources  

Icelandic

Icelandic for Everyone  

Icelandic Resources 

Icelandic Masterpost

Indonesian

Indonesian Resources

Italian

How to Learn Italian 

Italian Resources  

Italian Masterpost  

Italian Resource Masterlist  

Italian Culture Masterpost  

Irish

Irish Resources

Irish Masterpost

Japanese

Free Japanese Resources  

Japanese Resources  

Studying Japanese  

Japanese Resource Masterpost  

Japanese Language Learning Resources

Kannada

Kannada Resources  

Kazakh

Kazakh Masterpost  

Khmer

Khmer Language Masterpost

Kikongo

Free Kikongo Resources  

Korean

Korean Textbook Masterpost 

Korean Resources 

Korean Resource Masterpost  

Korean Language Masterpost 

Ultimate Korean Masterpost 

Kyrgyz

Kyrgyz Resources

Latin

Learning Latin

Latin Resource List

Masterpost of Latin Video Resources  

Latin Resources 

Lithuanian

Lithuanian Resource List

Malay

Malay Resources  

Maltese

Maltese Resources  

Mongolian

Mongolian Resources

Nahuatl

Nahuatl Language Masterpost  

Nepali

Nepali Masterpost

Norwegian

Norwegian Masterpost

Norwegian Resources  

Norwegian Sources

Norwegian Masteprost

Norwegian Masterposts

Occitan

Occitan Resources

Old Church Slavonic

Resources

Pashto

Pashto Masterpost

Persian

Persian Language Masterpost

Where to Start Learning

Polish

Polish Self-Study Masterpost  

Polish Resources

Polish Resource List

Portuguese 

Portuguese Resources  

Portuguese Starter Pack

Portuguese Resources

Punjabi

Punjabi Masterpost

Punjabi Resources

Romanian

Romanian Resources  

Romanian Learning Resources

Useful Romanian Resources 

Romanian Masterpost   

Romanian Resources

Russian

Russian Learning Tools  

Russian Textbooks   

Some More Resources  

Russian Masterpost 

Northern Sami

Northern Sami Resources

Northern Sami Masterpost

Scottish Gaelic

Learn Scottish Gaelic Masterpost

Scottish Gaelic Masterlist

Serbian

Serbian Masterpost  

Language Resources  

Sinhala

Sinhala Resources

Slovak

Slovak Resources

Slovak Masterpost

Slovene

Slovene Resources 

Somali

Somali Language Masterpost

Spanish

Spanish Resources: Oxford  

Spanish Resources  

Learning Spanish 

Spanish Resources Masterpost  

Swahili

Swahili Resources

Swedish

Swedish Resources 

Swedish Resource List

Swedish Resources  

Tagalog

Tagalog Masterpost

Tagalog Resources

Tamil

Tamil Masterpost

Tatar

Tatar Resources

Thai

Thai resources + books

Tibetan 

Tibetan Resources 

Turkish

Turkish Resources

Turkish Masterpost

Turkish Resource List

Ukrainian

Ukrainian Language Masterpost 

Ukrainian Resources

Urdu

Urdu Masterpost

Uzbek

Uzbek Resources

Uzbek Mastepost

Vietnamese

Vietnamese Resources

Xhosa

Xhosa Resources

Yiddish

Yiddish Language Masterpost

Yoruba

Yoruba Resources

Zulu

Zulu Resources

— Macrobius, Saturnalia II.3.3

The same manuscript also has the head and paw of a lion

& a horse that may take home the prize for most unsettling copy yet

Crow

Hawk

Nightingale

Raven

Quail

Partridge

Hoopoe

Phoenix

It can be tricky at first, but hopefully this illustrates some of the key differences.

Coot

Dove

Turtledove

Caladrius (a legendary bird that perches by the beds of invalids and predicts recovery through intense eye contact)

Vulture

Parrot

& Swan