Another one bites the dust?

[James Smith]

Now you're really confusing me!  I always thought
"alumnae" was pronounced - uh-'luhm-nahy - (ə
'l^m naI).


--- "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:

>         It's harder than you're letting on.  If I
> say, "Here is where we
> will have the dinner for the uh LUM nye," do I mean
> the Harvard alumni
> (anglicized pronunciation) or the Radcliffe alumnae
> (Latin
> pronunciation)?  Similarly, if I say, "The
> after-dinner program for the
> uh LUM nee will be in the other room," do I mean the
> Radcliffe alumnae
> (anglicized pronunciation) or the Harvard alumni
> (Latin pronunciation)?
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 10:03 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Another one bites the dust?
>
> 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
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of Beverly Flanigan
> > Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 1:12 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Another one bites the dust?
> >
> > The growing favorite seems to be "alum," with the
> plural "alums."
> > This avoids the masc./fem./plural issue, though
> probably not
> consciously.
>
>
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> http://www.americandialect.org
>


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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