The Italian government wants to change the name of the international unit of electrical potential from “volt” to “volta,” to pay tribute to Italian electricity pioneer Alessandro Volta two centuries after his death.
Volta, who is credited with inventing the electric battery and discovering methane, had the “volt” named after him — but in Anglicized form.
Now, the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to re-nationalize it by restoring the errant “a”.
Italian here. Plural would still be Volta, because it already is in a sense.
Now, for the actual words “volta” meaning vault, arch, and “volta” meaning “time” (as in “that time we did that”), then the plural is “volte”.
Ancient Romans gobbled a lot of classical greek; the masculine -a nouns are usually greek origin (sistema, tema, problema), but they are the exception.
Volta is a proper name, though, so there wouldn’t be any rules.
Yeah let’s rename everything with the name of the one who discovered it!
I bet that’ll be fun.
Would the plural be “volte”?
*Voltae
Hmm, I think Volti assuming Volta is masculine: https://connex-ita.com/plural-in-italian/
Voltae looks more like Latin. Romani ite domum!
Italian here. Plural would still be Volta, because it already is in a sense. Now, for the actual words “volta” meaning vault, arch, and “volta” meaning “time” (as in “that time we did that”), then the plural is “volte”.
Now write it out a hundred times!
I do not know Italian, but I’d be surprised if a word ending on “a” were masculine. Usually, “a” indicates feminine, making the plural “e”
Ancient Romans gobbled a lot of classical greek; the masculine -a nouns are usually greek origin (sistema, tema, problema), but they are the exception.
Volta is a proper name, though, so there wouldn’t be any rules.
It would be neutrum in German. (the forbidden sex)
Voltae would be Latin, in Italian, Volte is the correct plural.
In German it would be Voltae.
And now let the Italian and the German far right fight over it.