distinguished alum

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Wed May 6 16:03:00 UTC 2009


On May 6, 2009, at 8:45 AM, Barbara Need wrote:

> On 5 May 2009, at 7:46 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> And I really doubt that the average non-classicist has any concept of
>> the the distinction in either meaning or pronunciation between -I and
>> -AE or the meaning of the nueuter plural, -A.
>
> Wilson,
>
> In my experience, non-classicists consistently use [aI] for alumni and
> [i] for alumnae.

and that's what AHD4 recommends, as i pointed out in the posting on my
blog (though not in the earlier draft here on ADS-L; my blog posting
is not just a re-publication of the ADS-L posting, but a revision and
expansion of it).

arnold

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