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Plural of "lingua franca" | ||
Tags: Singular/Plural | Poll | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| sydneycarton Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5509 days ago 23 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 25 of 31 13 October 2010 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm just reading a book (Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod) and it contains a chapter on the subject of pluralisation of foreign words in the German language. Basically, it concludes that if you're using it in German, it should take a German plural ending.
I think the same rule should apply here. Give it an -s ending. It saves confusion and, frankly, pretentiousness. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5694 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 26 of 31 13 October 2010 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This is a great poll question, although I'm a little late getting to it!
I have several thoughts about this question. 1) My first reaction was "Who would ever refer to the plural of 'lingua franca'?" With a little thought, I realize that someone might, but my instinctive response was "It's a lingua franca, there's only supposed to be one!" 2) Once I realized the necessity of a plural, before I even clicked on this thread and read the options, I thought "Well, it would depend on what language I was speaking. If I were speaking Italian I would probably feel the urge to say 'lingue franche' but in English I'd have to go with 'lingua francas'." 3) Funnily enough, I believe if I were writing this word in the plural I WOULD put a dash in, just the way I do when I write "attorneys-general": "lingua-francas." It's awkward, sure, but at least it communicates your intention to the reader as clearly as possible, if perhaps leaving pedantic "accuracy" aside. My basic conclusion is, English has a lot less rules than other languages. I didn't realize this until I started studying other languages, and found that many of the things I would get away with saying "creatively" in English would be considered simply "inaccurate" in other languages. Think about this: the most famous writers in other languages (although this is a gross generalization, for which I apologize) were those who understood the rules of the language at a higher level than your average Joe, and followed them in an advanced manner, ending up producing beautifully-written literature. The arguably most famous writer of the English language was an upstart of a fellow who misspelled words, used them in entirely new ways, and even INVENTED a whole bunch of words that had never been used before! (http://piksels.com/words-invented-by-shakespeare/) And he ended up producing beautiful literature too. Who wouda thunk it? ;) That's why I feel free to make crazy, individual decisions about how to use the English language, while I generally bow to convention when speaking/writing any other tongue. (edited to remove a misspelling... although on second thought, why bother?) Edited by Jinx on 13 October 2010 at 10:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6043 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 27 of 31 14 October 2010 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you insist on using the original plural ending then you should also decline the noun. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 28 of 31 14 October 2010 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
English is your native language. I can assure you that as a non native speaker I have to follow many rules and bow to convention when speaking/writing English. Edited by tractor on 14 October 2010 at 11:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5694 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 29 of 31 15 October 2010 at 2:05am | IP Logged | |||||
Good point, tractor, of course you're right – a foreigner learning English has to deal with a lot of rules before getting to the point of being able to break those rules on purpose. However, I think part of what makes English such a "casual" language (especially from the point of view of those who lament its "decline"!) is that America, at least, is quite accustomed to people from all different countries coming here and speaking various types of English. So after a while, I (speaking for myself since that's all I can do) don't feel the urge to correct foreigner's mistakes very much. Ebonics is a valid way of speaking, Indian English is a valid way of speaking, etc. So when I hear someone speaking English in a new way, I usually don't make a big deal about it (unless I can't understand that person at all). I've even had the experience of thinking certain foreigners were natives who just had an accent from a different part of the country and spoke English slightly less idiomatically than me! ETA: Also, a remarkably large number of native English speakers, even those with a college education, still misspell many words and betray a serious lack of knowledge of their own language. With all this native-speaker ignorance to deal with, foreigners' mistakes don't always stand out to me 100% of the time. :) Edited by Jinx on 15 October 2010 at 2:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kounotori Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5345 days ago 136 posts - 264 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 30 of 31 16 October 2010 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Linguae francae" with teachers,
"Linguas franca" with colleagues, "Lingua francas" with friends, "Lingue franche" in bed. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 31 of 31 16 October 2010 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
"You speak a little English. I speak a little Dutch. Maybe few words of French (if push comes to shove). But in these lingue franche we couldn't say that much; the only one we're both fluent in is Love." 1 person has voted this message useful |
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