Feminising the Latin "homunculus"?

Scott Kaelen

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Any Latin experts out there? Would (could) a feminine version of homunculus be femininculix? I know that homo becomes homun (I don't know why); does femina therefore become feminin? Also, if -culus pluralises to -culi, how does the feminine -ix suffix pluralise?
 

Rufus Coppertop

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Any Latin experts out there? Would (could) a feminine version of homunculus be femininculix?
Nope.

I know that homo becomes homun (I don't know why);
suffixes such as the diminutive suffix culus, M cula, F culum N often modify the previous vowel and frequently but not always assimilate or modify the preceding noun as well.

homo in the nominative becomes hominis for the genitive.

does femina therefore become feminin?
No. But homo can be feminine as well as masculine and can refer to a female human being as well as a male human being. It can also refer to humanity as a generality. It's theoretically possible to have homuncula as a feminine nominative singular form of homunculus.

Also, if -culus pluralises to -culi, how does the feminine -ix suffix pluralise?
ix isn't a feminine counterpart of the us ending. It's a feminine counterpart of the or ending.

ix pluralizes to ices for the nominative and accusative, icum for genitive and icibus for dative and ablative.

But, none of that is relevant to your main question because the ix ending is third declension feminine. As soon as you put the ulus, ula, ulum suffix on a noun, it automatically becomes first or second declension. In the case of feminine, definitely first declension.

Singular

Nom homuncula
Gen homunculae
Dat homunculae
Acc homunculam
Abl homuncula

Plural
homunculae
homuncularum
homunculis
homunculas
homunculis

just for fun, homo meanwhile, does this....

homo hominis homini hominem homine
homines hominum hominibus homines hominibus

You've gotta love the third declension!
 
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Scott Kaelen

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Rufus, I only just realised someone had replied to this post, so apologies for the late acknowledgement. Huge thanks for your informative and helpful (and complex!) answer. I do love me some Latin, but hell if I can wrap my head around its grammar rules. Heh, German's hard enough for me (and it is hard, just not as hard as Latin!)
 

mccardey

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Rufus, I only just realised someone had replied to this post, so apologies for the late acknowledgement. Huge thanks for your informative and helpful (and complex!) answer. I do love me some Latin, but hell if I can wrap my head around its grammar rules.

Oh, Rufus just does that... ;)
 

Rufus Coppertop

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Rufus, I only just realised someone had replied to this post, so apologies for the late acknowledgement. Huge thanks for your informative and helpful (and complex!) answer. I do love me some Latin, but hell if I can wrap my head around its grammar rules. Heh, German's hard enough for me (and it is hard, just not as hard as Latin!)
No worries.:)

Oh, Rufus just does that... ;)
Shall we dance?:e2dance:
 

Chase

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Originally Posted by Scott Kaelen: Any Latin experts out there? Would (could) a feminine version of homunculus be femininculix?


You lie, Ruff. You're my favorite :Hail: expert and teacher of Latin. :Lecture:

Oh, you meant the second part.:e2paperba Never mind and carry on. :D