Names of places and highland attire

[McClef]

alumna - alumnae

Is it not Alumnus? I am an Alumnus of the University of St Andrews and they think it is.

This is like Attornies General and Surgeons General

That said, I totally agree that the best choice is to use the plural found in the native language, and I totally agree with the point you made with the Latin/Hebrew/Inuit. Unless of course the plural in the native-language is so unknown by English speakers that you're the only one using it, because in "proper" language a lot of times majority rules; if you're the only one using the Gaelic plural, then it will be hard for that to win out over the English plural.

To have Attorney Generals or Surgeon Generals would seem to indicated a senior military man practising law or surgical operations.

But yes, there is the problem where there are not many speakers of a language around that the word may be imported into English but then be made subject to English rules. All or most English speakers will know what an Eisteddfod is but they probably wont pronounce the singular correct (not remembering to pronounce the single f as a v) but will pluralise by adding an s instead if the correct au. And the Brits and the Americans can not always agree on words in the first place!

[gilmore]

An interesting double pluralization comes from brogue, the Gaelic for shoe. The plural in Gaelic is broguen or broguan, but somehow in the American South, especially rural areas, "brogans" has come to mean a pair of heavy work shoes/boots that come up to the ankle.

[James MacMillan]

Well, even though, the thread was hi-jacked, we still managed to get a good discussion going.

If we continue to keep an open mind, and a sense of humor (humour) we can learn things, even into old age.

The points taken with usage is also correct. Common usage changes our dictionaries every day.

You can look at kilt web-sites and see many spellings of the same things.

One black knife has finally been standardized into sgian dubh, but it wasn't that many years ago, that you would see many spellings of that term.

The plural is seen many places as both sgian dubhs and sgians dubh.

I, for one, would like to see sgèanan dubh adopted, but I will be happy with sgians dubh.

[TheKiltedWonder]

Well, even though, the thread was hi-jacked, we still managed to get a good discussion going.

Sorry, about the hijacking. The masked linguist rides again!

You can look at kilt web-sites and see many spellings of the same things.

I've wondered about those numerous spellings. The thread began with the proper place name/clothing spellings, but may of the non-standard spellings are quite prevelant. Argyle seems rather common. Does anyone know the reason for this variance? I mean, I know spellings weren't as standard years ago and there are still differences between British and American spellings. But is one spelling more British? More American? More Scottish?
I dunno, I have a good sense of humor and a lot to learn, so hopefully someone can help.

[McMurdo]

Snip
I dunno, I have a god sense of humor/Snip

A God sense of Humour can be a dangerous thing

[Chef]

You can look at kilt web-sites and see many spellings of the same things.

That's probably the Gold Bros. fault.

[TheKiltedWonder]

Is it not Alumnus? I am an Alumnus of the University of St Andrews and they think it is.

You're an alumnus because you're male. The Plural is alumni. An alumna is a female, with alumnae as the plural. Luckily alumni and alumnae sound the same (from what I remember of Latin) so as long as you use the plural and are speaking there's no need to worry about spelling/gender preference.

[gilmore]

You're an alumnus because you're male. The Plural is alumni. An alumna is a female, with alumnae as the plural. Luckily alumni and alumnae sound the same (from what I remember of Latin) so as long as you use the plural and are speaking there's no need to worry about spelling/gender preference.

In Latin alumni is pronounced ah-loom-nee, and alumnae is pronounce ah-loom-neye (rhymes with eye,) but they are usually mispronounced the same way in English, as are vertebrae (usually mispronounced as ver-te-bray instead of ver-te breye) and funghi (usually mispronounced fun-guy instead of fun-ghee.)

[Galician]

In Latin alumni is pronounced ah-loom-nee, and alumnae is pronounce ah-loom-neye (rhymes with eye,) but they are usually mispronounced the same way in English, as are vertebrae (usually mispronounced as ver-te-bray instead of ver-te breye) and funghi (usually mispronounced fun-guy instead of fun-ghee.)

I beg to differ about the pronunciation of "alumnae" and "vertebrae." They are pronounced that way because that is the way "-ae" was pronounced in medieval Latin. It was only in the 19th century when English academics compared ancient Latin inscriptions to their Greek transciptions and theorized that they showed that a different pronunciation had been used by the ancient Romans than survived into the Middle Ages.

The "later" pronunciation is still that used for church Latin in Roman circles.