Another one bites the dust?

[sagehen]

>Well, you'd think that, if a random graduate of an academic backwater
>- as it was once described by a UC Berkeley alumna with whom I
>foolishly tried to commiserate after she whined, as so many bleepheads
>do, "Well, that's not the way they do it where I come from!" - like UC
>Davis can learn the distinctions, you'd think that any random Harvard
>grad could also learn them, motivated by nothing more than idle
>curiosity.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 9/6/07, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Another one bites the dust?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>         I think the avoidance of the masc./fem./plural issue is quite
>> conscious.  I recall that at my own alma mater there was a certain
>> amount of chagrin that the respective Latin and English pronunciations
>> of alumni and alumnae are homophones, as are their respective English
>> and Latin pronunciations.  It sounds confusing even to describe the
>> problem.
>>
>>
>> John Baker
 ~~~~~~~~~~
OTOH, we could devise another snarl by using "Alumna Assoc." which  would
be the plural of a neuter "alumnum" (to avoid the invidious  masc/fem
distinctions) -- or if we want the neuter plural genitive, we're back with
"Alumnorum."  Both of these forms would be fertile ground for lots of
argument!
AM

~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>

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