Monthly Archives: November 2017

Chemistry: translating acid names


Translating this series of acid names is not as easy as it could seem at first glance. In effect, each acid name is composed of three consecutive ambiguous names:

  • ‘l’ is ambiguous between the masculine (u, the) or feminine (a, the) definite article
  • ‘acide’ is ambiguous betwwen acidu (acid, masculine singular noun), acitu (acid, masculine singular adjective) or acita (acid, feminine singular noun)
  • ‘daturique’, etc. are all ambiguous since that can be either masculine singular (daturicu, daturic) or feminine singular (daturica, daturic) adjectives.