Dear Jim,

thanks for the information. I am keen to learn more about collective
nouns in Pali, I have not come across many of them yet. Hopefully, we
would have the chance to go through the Saddaniiti together some time
in the future.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Jim Anderson wrote:

I don't know enough about the old Pali grammarians' treatment of
grammatical number to be of much help. But it is certainly a subject
worthy of interest and study. Grammatical number is treated in suttas
663-671 of the Suttamaalaa (Smith's ed. pp. 735-7) which is the third
part of the Saddaniiti. These suttas are explained in the accompanying
glosses and examples are given.

I think "samudaaya" is a reference to collective nouns, and "jaati"
seems to relate to class or genus. Suttas 669-671 deal with exceptions
to the general rule -- a plural where one would expect a singular.