Re: [tied] Plural of nouns

> There is no morpheme for "feminine" in Latin, although the ending -a on
> words which show a form in -us is most likely to indicate a female (but
> there are exceptions!!)

what are the exceptions ? nouns like agricola are not derived from a
corresponding form in -us are they ?

> PIE (at least at its later stages) was indeed like this, with no clear
> morpheme to mark feminines. The ending -h2e might originally have indicated
> collectives, and was associated with adjective forms in -h2e whdcih later
> develop into what we call "feminine".

What are the current ideas on exactly how/why this -h2e form came to be
used as the adjectival ending in PIE -os adjectives iff the natural
gender (only where applicable) of the thing the adjective describes.
Note: I am not saying there has to be a good idea on this, maybe it
just so happened. Just curious

mvh

Harald