singular of chipsy

[John Dunn]

Out of curiosity I looked this up in all the various dictionaries I could lay my hands on, and those that include the word are in unanimous agreement that чипсы [chipsy] is a plurale tantum. 

That being the case we owe a debt of gratitude to Kristen Harkness's waiter, not least because without his robust defence of the supposedly non-existent singular form we would now be contemplating once again the contrast between the Russians with their широкая душа [shirokaia dusha] and the Anglo-Saxons, whose generosity is dispensed in such carefully measured doses that they are actually capable of offering someone a single potato crisp.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kristen Harkness <kmhst16 at PITT.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:22:47 -0500
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] singular of chipsy

A group of us actually asked this of our poor waiter in a Moscow bar a  
couple of years ago.  His answer: "Chips, konechno."

Kristen


Kristen Harkness
PhD Candidate
University of Pittsburgh
History of Art and Architecture
104 Frick Fine Arts Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
kmhst16 at pitt.edu

John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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