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I noticed that the names of some Masechtot have an Aramaic plural ending - nun - such as "Gittin", while others have a Hebrew ending - mem - such as "Bikurim". Was there some pattern or logic in deciding which masechtot get which type of ending.

Note - Offhand, I think this differentiation applies only to masechtot that have a plural "masculine" ending. "Menachot" and "Avot" have feminine endings and are Hebrew endings. (I can't think of what the Aramaic female plural ending would be. If someone knows, please comment, and I will edit the question.)

"Sanhedrin" is of Greek origin, and I'm not sure why that has an Aramaic ending, unless the entire word is Greek.

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And why are some masechtos named in singular (like nazir, temurah) when most are in plural (yevamos, nedarim, gitin, kidushin)? Why is Seder 'Moed' in singular but all the other sedarim are in plural? –  Matt Jul 17 at 15:37
@Matt - Very good question. I intentionally didn't ask this, b/c I think Ramba"m explains the names of all the Masechtot, or at least most of them - explaining why some are plural and others aren't. While I was learning Daf Yomi, I know he explained why it's called P'sachim. Because the Masechta talks about both the regular Korban Pesach as well as Pesach Sheni. In many cases, the plural is obvious such as "Brachot" and "Menachot". –  DanF Jul 17 at 15:42
he does explain one or two, and the meiri does a few more, and tosfos once or twice... –  Matt Jul 17 at 15:57
Note that -in is also a Hebrew suffix (borrowed from the Aramaic). –  msh210 Jul 17 at 16:22
@msh210 Try the end of Daniyel –  Double AA Jul 28 at 18:03

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