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Day: December 15, 2015

Why do some Latin borrowings of Greek words ending in -ων end in -o (like Apollo), while others end in -on (like Orion)?

By: | Post date: 2015-12-15 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

-o, -onis is the native Latin declension. –on, -onis is not native Latin, so it is a morphological import from Greek. So if it drops the -n, the word or name has been felt to be common or salient enough to be nativised as Latin. If it does not drop the -n, it is felt […]