The plural of "moose" is ...

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:06 AM -0400 8/21/10, Ronald Butters wrote:
>Check the scholarship on this. I wasn't predicting what JL would
>say. I was reporting on what many people say. Plurals of nouns of
>measure are especially prone to this ("Your change is six cent," as
>I was told yesterday). But it also extends to animals and other
>things, e.g.,
>
>"At one stop I saw two duck flying in the distance and shouted
>'Black Duck'. Alas, they were a bit far away and disappearing fast.
>Tramping through the grass felt like walking miles through terrain
>that didn't want to be walked through." [Texas]
><http://www.pinkmoose.ic24.net/texas/anahuac.htm>
>Saw two duck flying west over the sea. At 8 A.M. barometer 29.53,
>thermometer 82, wind southeast 2, clouds 6. Went up to Dr. S.F.
>Jones funeral but did not go to the grave as the sun was very hot.
>Read Harper's. <www.keywestmaritime.org/journal/v19-4_2009summer.pdf>
>
>Today we went to the brook from 9-10 AM. It was a nice day. We saw a
>duck in the brook on the north of Parade St. Later we saw two duck
>flying overhead. Later still a duck landed in the brook. We found a
>toy truck, an ice cap cup, and plastics bags along the edge of the
>brook. There was a bottle in the water.
><http://yjhsea.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

This feature (singular of count nouns after measure expressions) is
partly regional (not just colloquial), or at least is so cited in
treatments of Appalachian and Southern English.  Possibly AAVE too,
can't recall.

LH

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