A dead distinction, if there ever was one?

[Wilson Gray]

Doug, to be brutally frank, I neither noticed nor care whether the
actual little people said "dwarves" or "dwarfs." Except when referring
to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," I've always used "dwarves" in
both writing and speech and I don't intend to change, now. BTW, under
your own totally artificial distinction, shouldn't it be "Snow White
and the Seven _Dwarves_," given that those seven little people are
mythical creatures?

"You have to know when to hold 'em, you have to know when to fold
'em," to coin a phrase.

-Wilson

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 8:25 PM, Douglas Dee <AmateurLinguist at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Douglas Dee <AmateurLinguist at AOL.COM>
>
> Subject:      Re: A dead distinction, if there ever was one?
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  In a message dated 4/9/2008 9:12:54 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>
> hwgray at GMAIL.COM writes:
>
>  >Little people seen on TV, all of
>  >whom appear to be, by the above-mentioned definition, dwarves, say
>  >that they don't like to be known as "midgets," preferring to be
>  >referred to as "dwarves," given a choice restricted to those two terms
>  >only.
>
>  Did they actually say "dwarves"?  I've always been told that the plural for
>  referring to actual people is "dwarfs", "dwarves" being limited to mythical
>  creatures.
>
>  Doug
>
>
>
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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