Re: Irritat(or)idae

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.ATTGIS.COM>]

From: Stang1996@aol.com
 > 
 > Shouldn't the family name be Irritatidae; or have the new rules that say that
 > you don't abbreviate the type genus' name when making a family's name already
 > come into effect?
 > 
The rules never did exactly specify "abbreviation".   What they
specify (now) is to use the Latin *stem* form and add the suffix
'-idae' to that.  If the genus name is coined, or from some language
other than Latin of Greek, then it is treated as invariant.

Now, if _Irritator_ is a Latin word (which is not clear) then it is
an r-stem, so the stem is just "irritator".  Thus, either way, the
family name is correct as it stands.


Note:
A stem is derived from a genus name by removing the case suffix from
the genitive singular.  To see how this works one can use "pus" = "foot"
as an example.

A partial declension is;

Nom. pus
Acc. podem
Gen. podes

Thus the stem is "pod-", as in "Ornithipodia".
[Greek 'pes' works about the same, coming out as 'ped-'].

A partial declension for "saurus" is:

Nom. saurus
Acc. saurum
Gen. saur-     (Ack, I forget the correct Gen. ending for this declension)

which gives us the stem "saur-".

Now, for an r-stem, we have:

Nom. pater
Acc. patrem
Gen. pateres    (I think, or maybe paterae or something like that).

which gives a stem of "pater-", which is identical to the nominative.

swf@elsegundoca.attgis.com              sarima@netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.