|
 |
Pedantic Pseudo Polyglot Plurals | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes  Speaks: Swedish* | Message 17 of 29 25 January 2010 at 11:23am | IP Logged | |||||
That will actually depend on who you ask. The Orthodox in Japan write the name as イイスス・ハリストス, whereas the Catholics and Protestants do say イエス・キリスト. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 18 of 29 25 January 2010 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, イエス is dominant enough to be the standard version of the name. Orthodox Christians must be a minority of a minority, if that—I didn't even know they existed here. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6783 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 19 of 29 25 January 2010 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
This is a fun topic, because I've always extracted a vain satisfaction from using plurals correctly and I continue to do so. :D
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 20 of 29 25 January 2010 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Some funny ones are:
hippopotamus plural: hippopotamuses, or hippomotami octopus plural: octopuses, octopi, or 'octopodes' From what I've read, 'octopodes' would be the correct etymological plural form, except it's always non-existant in English. 'optopi' which is etymologically incorrect, is widely used, though the most common form is 'octopusus'. (though if you use the word you're likely to be corrected by a pedant if one's around) medium/media datum/data criterion/criteria bacterion/bacteria -> None of the singular forms of these words are used much at all. I personally use the last two though. It's a pity irregular plurals aren't more widely used in English, I really like them :(. Let's all start using 'musea', 'fora', etc! (I already do often due to Dutch slipping into my Engish) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 21 of 29 25 January 2010 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Surely 'medium' is a very common word? By the way, 'media' seems to have become a singular word in Swedish, which confuses many people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 22 of 29 26 January 2010 at 11:25am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I'm curious, in which languages it is possible to use foreign plural forms. I guess, in an inflectional language, where endings matter a lot, using a different termination breaks the rules, and the word just makes no sense. Edited by Siberiano on 26 January 2010 at 11:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 23 of 29 26 January 2010 at 11:32am | IP Logged | |||||
'Criterion' is reasonably common as well. Even datum gets used when you want to specify a minimal quantity of data. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 24 of 29 26 January 2010 at 11:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, that is probably true. There are some interesting exceptions in Russian, though. Christ is Христос in the nominative, but the declination endings are added to the stem, so that genetive becomes Христа rather than *Христоса. The philosopher Lev Shestoff uses a lot of foreign words in his texts, without transcription, so he writes things like: если говорить о λόγος'е. Actually, I don't remember if he uses the word ending form of s or not. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
