eggcorn alert: "alma motto"

[Doug Harris]

LH, I presume the one to which you intend to head
on the weekend is a _bon motto_.
;)
dh

-----------------
Laurence Horn
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:43 PM
Subject: eggcorn alert: "alma motto"

The reporter for an ESPN story on the Virginia Tech massacre (about
to have its first anniversary) was interviewing a football player who
first was relieved that his sister, who had a class in the building
where the shootings took place, was OK, but was then horrified to
learn that the shooter was someone who had attended his own "alma
motto".  (This was the reporter speaking, not the football player.)
And sure enough she's not alone: there are 42 google hits, many of
which (after you eliminate the self-conscious puns) seem to involve
simple eggcornish reanalyses, e.g.

My alma motto is the University of Michigan so I have a special love
for the "blue and gold.

It's the home of my Alma Motto's sister Battalion, the 2nd Ranger Bn.

I THINK IT IS A DISGRACE THAT MY ALMA MOTTO CAN STAND BY AND LET THE
PRESS TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT THEY SHOULD DO FOR COACH PETE.

I am absoutely certain that if a seminary like Dallas Seminary or my
Alma Motto, Talbot School of Theology were to give these men and
women a basic bible ...

Jake - We'll head up to the old alma motto this weekend!

LH

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