addenda/s ...alumni

[David Bowie]

From:    Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
:somebody wrote:

:: I vote for 3), simple reanalysis:  the majority of English speakers,
:: including those who have graduated from college, are under the
:: impression that "alumni" is a singular, and has effectively (if, to
:: some of us, regrettably) regrettably.  I certainly hear "X is an
:: alumni of" as a singular all the time on sports talk radio, in
:: contexts excluding any compound source ("alumni association").
:: Perhaps expansion of "alum" is involved, but I tend to think it's
:: more like the way "criteria" has become a singular, when neither (1)
:: nor (2) are motivations.

: I concur. Going back to my undergraduate days (1981-85), the word
: "alumni" was the preferred singular form (for both sexes). "Alumnus"
: was rare, being confined mainly to official school publications.
: "Almuna" and "alumnae" were nowhere to be heard or seen. I would bet
: the majority of my fellow students knew that "alumni" was plural and
: male in Latin, but that did not affect the English usage of any but
: a few pedants.

I've heard it stated, by someone in the administration of an alumni
association, that 'alumni' is used because it's (in some sense)
gender-neutral--that is, 'alumnni' is used for a mixed group of men and
women (whereas 'alumnus' can only be masculine and 'alumna' and 'alumnae'
can only be feminine).

Without getting into whether this is actually an accurate description of
Latin (i have no idea--two years of high school Latin really doesn't help
here) or the original reason for using that form, this analysis seems an
interesting and possibly--probably, IMO--post hoc result of someone using
their education to try to make sense of language.

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.