[Snail]

Okay. At first I thought the plural of Sathanas was Sathani. However, I write that everywhere and Goober5000 comes and tells me that it is, in fact, Sathanes, with further support from Just Another Day (not that JAD is a reliable source, but I expect it should be reliable there). Then, just today, I go over to the FS:Halo board and blam Admiral Nelson comes down like a hawk says it is, in fact, Sathani. Goober5000 and Nelson are both reliable sources and now I am confused. If I was a computer right now you would be seeing the BSoD.

So, Sathani or Sathanes?

What's Latin for Sathanas?

S-Sathanus?

Goes like?

Annus?

Vocative plural of Annus is?

Eh, Anni?

Sathani.

[Steel Prophet]

To confuse you even more: I'd say Sathanas is a name and i think there is no real plural for any name. You also cannot really translate it.

[Jeff Vader]

Hehe, you said anus. But dunno. Just use Sathanases or Sathanaseses or something.

Or what Prophet said. Sathanas is really just a not so in-your-face way of saying Satan. So just circumvent it somehow, like with the rest of the ship classes.

[Admiral Nelson]

Sathanas is Greek, not Latin.  It is a first declension masculine noun.  Its plural in Greek is therefore Sathanai (not Sathani).  We do not generally carry Greek plurals into English.  Therefore the only plausible plural of Sathanas in English is Sathanases.

[Snail]

To confuse you even more: I'd say Sathanas is a name and i think there is no real plural for any name. You also cannot really translate it.

Well, I can always say... "Steel Prophets," can't I? And Black Wolves, Goobers or even Karajormas (Karajormae?).

Hehe, you said anus. But dunno. Just use Sathanases or Sathanaseses or something.

Or what Prophet said. Sathanas is really just a not so in-your-face way of saying Satan. So just circumvent it somehow, like with the rest of the ship classes.

Six straight years, me boy.

What did was replace Sathanases with "Sathanas juggernauts" and stuff like that. But I must know what the plural is. Because I HATE people who don't know the plurals of words. And I hate self-loathers too.

Sathanas is Greek, not Latin.  It is a first declension masculine noun.  Its plural in Greek is therefore Sathanai (not Sathani).  We do not generally carry Greek plurals into English.  Therefore the only plausible plural of Sathanas in English is Sathanases.

I know it's not Latin, if I said it was Latin *someone* I know would come here and hit me very hard with a baseball bat. If the ending is Sathanai, why did Goober and JAD suppose that it was Sathanes? Are there two declensions which end in -as? Or did they just get it plain wrong?

[Herra Tohtori]

A Sathanas Juggernaut - Many Sathanas Juggernauts.


As I was taught in high school English class - if you don't know how to say it, figure a way around it and be done with it.

[Snail]

I HATE YOU because you don't know the plural of some words are!

You cannot spend your life avoiding plurals!! One day you WILL NEED to know the plural of Sathanas, and when that day comes...

[Steel Prophet]

To confuse you even more: I'd say Sathanas is a name and i think there is no real plural for any name. You also cannot really translate it.

Well, I can always say... "Steel Prophets," can't I? And Black Wolves, Goobers or even Karajormas (Karajormae?).

Prophet isn't a name. Neither is Wolf. Sure you can always just put  "s" at the end of every word to get your plural but you wouldn't have asked if you wanted to make it that easy for yourself

[Jeff Vader]

But I must know what the plural is. Because I HATE people who don't know the plurals of words. And I hate self-loathers too.

And I hate people with strange obsessions. And who said I'm a self-loather? I loathe humanity in general, not just myself. And I already told you. Nelson already told you. Say Sathanases. Or what our good friend Herra Tohtori also suggested. Circumvent, man.

[Axem]

Well this is where I stole my Sathanes joke so I tend to think its Sathanes.

[TrashMan]

I HATE YOU because you don't know the plural of some words are!

You cannot spend your life avoiding plurals!! One day you WILL NEED to know the plural of Sathanas, and when that day comes...

...we won't have long to live. Since the only time one might need to shout that in the streets is is the shivies decide to throw a BBQ party in Sol.

[Herra Tohtori]

 

To me it is significantly more important to know what is the singular of Erinyes.

Technically you can't say "An Erinyes" since Erinyes means The Furies, in plural. And "A Fury" sonds silly and un-erinyes like, and direct translation of fury to modern Greek is "Mania", which is even less like Erinyes (and more than little humorous), slthough it actually is more tha ncorrect since the Erinyes have been historically referred to as "Maniae" (the Madnesses) as well as many other things.

If the plural of Sathanas is indeed Sathanes, then it would be logical to assume the singular of Erinyes would be Erinyas, but since the body of the word is different I suspect it won't really work this easily.

But if someone knows, please tell me. Some day I might need it desperately.

[Admiral Nelson]

Sathanas isn't a native Greek word, either -- it is the Greek representation of Hebrew Satan.  English has simply adopted Hebrew Sathan unchanged.  It is therefore a bit odd to even think about the word Sathanas in English.  Sathanas is merely how the demotic Greek bible represents the Hebrew word.

I do not know where the -es plural idea is coming from:

See ταμίᾱς example

New Testament Greek PDF

[Steel Prophet]

To me it is significantly more important to know what is the singular of Erinyes.

In german that's quite easy 

[Admiral Nelson]

The singular is Ἐρινύς (Erinus, or in English Erinys).

[Herra Tohtori]

Thanks!

[Ghostavo]

I'd say you don't use plural forms of a ship's class name. A method which seems to be repeatedly used during the campaign.

[Goober5000]

Oh frak.  I've been upstaged by Admiral Nelson.  Even worse, I'm guilty of perpetuating an urban legend.

I too relied on Sesquipedalian's linguistic authority for the plural of Sathanas.  Unless Sesq was talking about an ancient form of Greek, or something, it appears that he was incorrect.

EDIT: Here we go.  Sesq was right after all, but he was talking about modern Greek.  The -as to -ai pluralization only occurs in ancient Greek.

So both Sathanes and Sathanai are correct, depending on what era you're from.

[Admiral Nelson]

Sathanas appears to be a strange noun.  It takes its genitive in a, of all things.  Obviously, the word never appears in the plural in the bible (or anywhere else, for that matter).  My dictionaries don't have biblical Greek in them, either.  I'd have to find a primer of Biblical Greek which discusses proper names to provide a definitive answer.  Nobody should really use anything but Sathanases in English no matter what the Greek plural.

Edit - in *Modern* Greek nouns ending in -as have the plural in -es.  It isn't clear to me if that can be found in Koine.

[Steel Prophet]

And it's still a name. Whats the Plural of  John? Jeff? Daniel? Victor? Jason? Michael? Smantha? Judith? Kate? Jennifer? What-ever...

You see what i mean