V's Gender Debate IV [Official]

[FeAnPi]

Well, as regards the -us termination matter, let me say a thing or two.

I study Latin, Greek and Sanskrit at the university, so I know something about the subject.

The nouns in -us are the latin heirs of the Proto-Indo-European thematic stems in -o.
If we compare Greek, Latin and Sanskrit we found that there are indeed some feminine nouns in -o/u, as a residue of the PIE original subdivision between animated and unanimated nouns.

However, I did not find yet, in 7 years of study, a feminine name in -o/u, while there are some masculine names in -a.
The reason is that the -o/u thematic vowel was recognized as characteristic of masculine nouns. If I am not wrong, there are in sanskrit some feminine -a names (heirs of the PIE -o stems), but they are ancient names, not the names of common people: as a matter of fact, the -o/u thematic vowel was no more productive for feminine names.

It could be an athematic stem? I do not think so... the athematic declension was not very productive, and not for feminine names anyway.

So, the very name of Vaarsavius is a sufficent proof of the originally meant sex of the character.