singular of chipsy

[Alina Israeli]

I don't understand what Russian soul or Anglo-Saxon soul has to do  
with it.


But the model of borrowing has long been established: -s, which is a  
plural marker in English, become part of the Russian root, and there  
are many examples:

keks, f'juchers, kornfleks and others, but more commonly in pluralia  
tantum: baksy, dzhinsy, even slaksy, bicepsy, klipsy, butsy,

Ked/kedy is an exception, should have been kedsy.

AI

On Feb 24, 2009, at 4:56 AM, John Dunn wrote:

> 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.
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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