Grammer a Week 15: The Curious Case of "Pegasus" · 6:35pm Feb 23rd, 2016
This is Grammer a Week, the periodic blog program-thing where I soapbox about a grammar subject I find interesting. You might, too! This week's installment definitely errs more on the side of "interesting" than "useful" because I'm talking about the word "pegasus" today. What do you think the plural form of the word "pegasus" is? "Pegasuses"? "Pegasi"? That question is actually much harder to answer than you may think.
The online debate as to the plural of "pegasus" rages on, and it's really very confusing. So confusing that I don't entirely understand it. I'll try my best to be accurate here, but if you want the full story, you can try doing some research yourself. So, I'll start by discussing the two most common forms I see (in my perusal of stories): "pegasuses" and "pegasi." Which one is correct? In all honesty, both!
Some nouns in English end in "-us," and for these nouns, they frequently have a plural form that ends in "-i," especially if they derive from Latin, given that that's the traditional Latin pluralization form. So, "pegasi," right? Not quite. Because this noun isn't a foreign language word; it has been integrated into the English language, and is an English word. And to give an English word a traditional English pluralization ("-s" or "-es") isn't wrong either. So, "pegasuses."
But the story doesn't stop there. Because the word "pegasus" is not derived from Latin; it's very original construction comes from Pegasos, which is a Greek construction, seeing as the original Pegasos was Zeus' horse. The word "pegasus" is actually an English construction from when we were integrating Greek and Latin words into our language, and Greek words with an -os ending got a Latin-style -us ending instead. Hence the widely accepted Latin-style pluralization "pegasi." However, if we were to give the original form (Pegasos) a proper Greek pluralization, you would actually get pegasoi. Given that this form comes from the very original etymology of the word, you couldn't really say that this word was wrong, either.
Here's where things get really complicated. The word "pegasus" was not properly in either of Greek or Latin. There is no native word like "pegasus" in Latin, and "pegasus" in Greek was actually a proper noun. But by adapting pegasos to be a common Greek noun, you can do all sorts of weird things to it to come up with even more valid pluralizations. For instance, assuming pegasod- to be the root word is valid because its singular nominative form is still pegasos, consistent with what we see in Greek. But in this case, its pluralization becomes pegasodes, pronounced pe-GAH-suh-dees (or pegasudes if latinized/anglicized). Again, given that the word "pegasus" only existed as a proper noun in Greek and a "canon" pluralization didn't exist, there's nothing to say that these pluralizations are wrong. (Thanks to Troposphere for the explanation.)
All of this is a moot point, really, considering that there really was only one original pegasus: the one that Zeus had. Now we're trying to pluralize this word that was never really supposed to have one. The show-supported form seems to be "pegasi," though, so that's the form that I use. Although the Pinkie-supported form is "pegasusususes," so you could just as well use that.
Or you could circumvent the entire issue and just call them "pegasus ponies."
Here are the sources that I consulted in case you want to go down the rabbit hole yourself:
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Transcripts/Hearth%27s_Warming_Eve
http://pastebin.com/9as2ZGGb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk
http://www.telusplanet.net/~alfvaen/latin.html
http://mylanguages.org/greek_plural.php
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Ancient_Greek_third_declension
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please post them below. I'm always open to suggestions for future Grammer a Week posts.
Personally, I prefer "pegasuses", because the "rule" that a loanword into English must keep its original morphology forever and ever is, frankly speaking, stupid, and serves little purpose other than letting those in the know feel smugly superior.
However, I know positively that "pegasi" has appeared in the show and am unsure whether "pegasuses" has (other than for apparent comedic effect), so I'm generally going with that in fanfic out of respect for canon.
It's an interesting question whether it would actually have been pluralized as "pegasi" in Latin. As you mention, it was a proper noun back when Latin was a living language, and so wouldn't have appeared in plural -- but it would still have been declined for case, and if there's a mention of Pegasus in classical sources that put him in either genitive, dative, or ablative, then we can deduce from that form whether he's second declension (plural "pegasi") or fourth declension (plural "pegasus"). The fourth-declension one would be a bit awkward to import into English, though ...
Similarly, a classical Greek mention of Pegasos in a non-nominative case would reveal whether "pegasudes" is an option. Wiktionary claims to know a singular declension for the name that implies the plural has to be "pegasoi".
Linguistics nonwithstanding, now I do kinda want "pegasudes" to be the term for young pegasus stallions.
Dear me, you really got yourself... pegasoused!
It's an interesting breakdown in that it defies my general intuition but I think the conclusion is valid. It's easy to forget we've derived this entire concept from what is nominally a proper name.
I would, however, forward a concurring phonotactic argument in favour of "pegasi". That is, "pegasuses" is simply more difficult to articulate. And because of the sibilant cluster, I believe it's also more likely to be misunderstood (especially in interference conditions that cause formant loss).
There's also a further concurring precedent of "pegasi" in the second volume of Gygax and Arneson's original Dungeons & Dragons set, Monsters & Treasure (pg. 17).
I was told once by someone (might have been Present Perfect, but I can't remember) that one option you didn't mention -- "pegasai" -- was not unknown during the early days of the fandom, and indeed I've come across it in one or two old fics. I think that may have sprung from a misreading of "Pegasos" as "Pegusas", but that's pure speculation.
In practice, I use "pegasi". As you mention, it's show-supported, and for the most part* canon usage trumps everything else -- remember that there was a time when many fans resolutely refused to refer to the likes of Celestia as "alicorns", although that resistance has almost gone since the word started being used canonically.
* I'm reminded that licensed texts (eg the G. M. Berrow chapter books) generally capitalise "Pegasus", but the fandom doesn't show much sign of following (secondary) canon usage in that case!
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. . . Yep, you definitely know a lot more about Greek and Latin than I do. Would you mind explaining how pegasudes could be a legitimate pluralization of "pegasus," then? I honestly couldn't figure out how that could would about (besides the octopus-octopodes parallel that may or may not be relevant), and looking at declensions and Greek letters while having not ever learned a whit of it kind of makes my head spin.
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But then they're words like "texts" that have sibilant clusters too, along with a velar stop somewhere at the beginning. Those seem even more troublesome, to the point that I can barely pronounce them at the best of times. Plus, "texts" doesn't have any alternate pluralizations to argue about!
And concerning "pegasuses," formant loss notwithstanding, I'd be more worried about the audience you lose when they start arguing that you're not pluralizing "pegasus" right.
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It was actually mentioned in that Pastebin source that I linked. I only didn't include it because I couldn't find a rational link as to why it could be pluralized like that (though that could also be attributed to my horrible understanding of Greek and Latin grammar).
I find myself acting as a descriptivist linguist (gosh, is that what I am now?) most of the time. Whatever is said most often by the fandom and gets the least arguments about it use is most correct. Hence why I still consider this... ellipsis correct even though I have no idea why it would be.
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It's perhaps more a matter of having good bluff and speed research skills than actually being knowledgeable.
I wondered about "pegasudes" too, and what I found after a bit of searching - but I don't remember where - is that it would be the case if the actual stem of the name were "Pegasod-". In that case "pegasodes" would arise just by adding the regular (third declension) "-es" ending; it's not clear to me where a vowel change to -u- would come from. However, the the nominative singular ending in third declension is "-s", which would produce *Pegasods. Ancient Greek can't have -ds at the end of a word, so the d disappears, leaving "Pegasos" as the singular nominative.
In order for this to be the case, the -d- would be retained in other singular cases, such as for example accusative *Pegasoda.
Greek morphology is hairy and I may have misunderstood something.
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Hey, English has a million words; they can't all be winners. But here, we have the rare opportunity to make a choice! The arbitrary nature of language means we're allowed to pass judgement, go with our gut, stack the deck, stuff the ballot box, poison the well... Goodness, this metaphor has certainly gone off the rails!
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Heh, point taken.
You mind if I adapt that explanation to include in the blog post proper? Whether your explanation is wrong or right, it's a lot better than "I don't really know, but here's a word."
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Sure, go ahead. (I found the source I was alluding to, by the way: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Ancient_Greek_third_declension under "stop consonants".)