Another one bites the dust?

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:02 PM -0500 9/6/07, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>I agree. The examples are best taken from conversation without being
>elicited.  Btw, I'm pretty sure I've also heard "an alumni."
>

It would be hard not to.  There are in (sort of) fact 1,040,000 raw
google hits for "an alumni", which is 40,000 more than are claimed
for "an alumnus".  Whence, perhaps, the popularity of "an alum".

>  > ----------
>>  From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold M. Zwicky
>         <snip>
>
>>  a nice topic for further study, but i have to warn you that just
>>asking people what form they use in particular contexts is probably
>>not the way to go.
>>
>>  arnold
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org