'Texes' as plural of 'text (message)'

[Darla Wells]

Is that like the way one hears "breastes" in place of "breasts"?
Darla

2012/2/1 Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 'Texes' as plural of 'text (message)'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 12:52 PM, Damien Hall wrote:
> >
> > We've been hearing for a while about the cluster simplification at the
> end of the
> > word 'text', which has resulted in the following common pronunciations:
> >
> > - [tEks] for 'text'
> >
> > - [tEkst] for 'texted' (presumably from the verb [tEks] + the past-tense
> ending [-t],
> > with expected devoicing following a voiceless consonant, but of course
> therefore
> > homonymous with the non-cluster-reduced word 'text')
> >
> > However, this morning I heard the new-to-me form [tEksIz] for the plural
> noun 'texts'.
> > Again, this is the regular outcome of noun [tEks] + plural [-Iz].
>  Surely this has
> > been around for a bit (logically, it might have been);  have others
> heard it?  The
> > speaker was white, 30-something, looking fairly preppy, BrE.  Apologies
> if this is
> > research that's already been done.
>
> I await George Strait's remake of his country hit as "All My Exes Send
> Me Texes."
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible
warning. -Catherine Aird

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