[Ads-l] plural of "emoji"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Jan 10 20:18:46 UTC 2020


Right, and although “emoticon” is obviously a Greek neuter and thus ≥2 of them are emotica, “emoji" can only (in the Graeco-Roman world) be a Latin or Italian plural, with the singular “emojus" or “emojo” respectively, as per Geoff.  

> On Jan 10, 2020, at 1:30 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Yes ita est
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Jan 10, 2020, at 1:29 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Wait, if the singular is emojum, wouldn't the plural be emoja??
>> 
>> On Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 1:24 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>> You’re sure the singular isn’t ‘emojus’. Or perhaps ‘emojo’ (an
>>> electronic version of mojo, perhaps…)
>>> 
>>> Well, actually emoji is the plural, it's the singular everybody's got
>>> wrong, s/b "emojum" ;->
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 9:06 PM Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> You’re sure the singular isn’t ‘emojus’. Or perhaps ‘emojo’ (an
>>> electronic
>>>> version of mojo, perhaps…)
>>>> 
>>>> Geoff
>>>> 
>>>> Geoffrey S. Nathan
>>>> WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
>>>> Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
>>>> http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
>>>> geoffnathan at wayne.edu
>>>> 
>>>> From: Laurence Horn<mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2020 9:57 PM
>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Subject: Re: plural of "emoji"
>>>> 
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>> Subject:      Re: plural of "emoji"
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 
>>>>> On Jan 9, 2020, at 9:34 PM, James Landau =
>>>> <00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
>>>>> =20
>>>>> In today's "WuMo" cartoon, there is a tombstone with the epitaph =
>>>> "Always answered a text and never used too many emoji". The cartoon =
>>>> seems to imply that "emoji" is either its own plural,
>>>> 
>>>> Well, if =E2=80=9Cpanini" can be its own singular (R.I.Panino), no =
>>>> reason why =E2=80=9Cemoji" can=E2=80=99t be its own plural. =20
>>>> 
>>>>> like "sheep", or that it is a mass noun.
>>>> 
>>>> The former seems more likely, since =E2=80=9Can emoji=E2=80=9D is alive =
>>>> and well; there=E2=80=99s even a sheep emoji (and no mass emoji). =20
>>>> 
>>>> LH
>>>> 
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> a
>>> 
>>> Andy Bach,
>>> afbach at gmail.com
>>> 608 658-1890 cell
>>> 608 261-5738 wk
>>> 
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
>> 
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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