Talk:Montes Apenninus

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[edit] Article name

What is the correct name for this article and its subject? I have no problem with the good Latin plural word "Montes", but previous editors have not been unanimous about the second word, which looks like (and should be) an adjective.

Title currently "Montes Apenninus"; but article starts "Montes Appenines are a rugged mountain range on the northern part of the Moon's near side. They named for the Apennine Mountains in Italy."

The said Italian mountains are the subject of a WP article that starts "The Apennine Mountains (Italian: Appennini) stretch 1000 km ...".

Granted that Italians seem to double consonants from the original Latin, it all suggests to me that this page should use a plural (second-declension?) adjective and therefore be "Montes Apennini".

Some support for a second-declension adjective from Hyperdictionary apparently citing the 1913 Webster:

\Ap"en*nine\, a. [L. Apenninus, fr. Celtic pen, or ben, peak, mountain.]

Of, pertaining to, or designating, the Apennines, a chain of mountains extending through Italy.

In favour of the current article name "Apenninus":

• Lunar Republic Society (though Latin scholars might wonder whether its mind is too much on the future to care about Latin plurals)
• Lunar and Planetary Institute (with an apparent scholarship that is not so easily dismissed)

If we agree on "Apenninus" despite its being a singular adjective to describe a plural, someone can fix the article.

(Don't bother looking at the Latin Wikipedia yet - its new substub on the subject is what got me here.)

Robin Patterson 00:10, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)