Sub names are not Anglocentric Um ... what’s the plural?

IAN Graham (Letters, March 2) suggests that the names of the next three attack submarines to be commissioned by the Royal Navy, Anson, Agamemnon and Agincourt, are “Anglocentric”.

Does he know that Agamemnon was Greek?

The names are in fact those of Royal Navy battleships and, in 1905, the Agamemnon was the first battleship to be launched at the new Naval Contruction Yard of William Beardmore in Clydebank, so the name does have a Scottish connection.

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaus, whose wife, Helen, had the face “that launched a thousand ships”, the navy that sailed to Troy to avenge the fact that the said Helen had gone off with Paris, son of the King of Troy.

In view of this perhaps the next rowing boat required by the Royal Navy could be named “Peter Murrell”, as his wife has launched one ship which so far, for reasons that are still to be fully explained, has not sailed anywhere after three years. Peter Wylie,

Paisley.

Hares do destroy trees

IN response to Bernard Zonfrillo (Letters, March 3) giving a point of view on the diet of white or mountain hares that they don’t eat trees, I beg to differ. Personal experience gained during my youth in Sanquhar and the Forest of Ae tells me that white hares do eat trees. When young, conifers often protrude through snow cover, leaving the growing tip of the tree poking out of the snow at a perfect height for the hare to eat. This destroys the tree, making it unable to grow to proper maturity.

I confess I did shoot the hares at that time. However, I would not do so now. It must be at least 60 years ago and the trees saved will probably be cropped by now. Wallace Milligan,

Ayr.

MAY I end the puzzlement of Forbes Dunlop (Letters, March 3) regarding the use of plurals ending in “a” as singular? This is due to the absence of Latin from school curricula; anyone under 50 is unlikely to have had much exposure to the subject, and therefore has not learned that for singulars which end in “-um”, the plural ends in “-a”.

Those of us fortunate – and old – enough to have had an education in the classics now regularly have our teeth set on edge by such usages – I have even seen “alumni” used as a singular.

Hilary Shearer,

Cumbernauld.

FORBES M Dunlop is more puzzled than pedantic. I may be accused of both.

The frequent media use of stadia as the plural of stadium grates with me. The plural of the Latin word stadium is indeed stadia, but we speak English here, not Latin. We do not pronounce Paris as Paree. Singular words are often adopted from other languages, but the plurals are used as in English.

Such conundrums, surely not conundra, will persist.

David Miller,

Milngavie.