Q: 'die', 'dice'

[Robert Orr]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I remember die and dice from my youth in Britain.

People still remembered the correct usage, but among children, "dice" had
become a noun morphologically equivalent to "sheep", "deer" (one dice, two
dice)

It was nearly always used with the definite article, though.

"Shake the dice". etc.

Robert Orr

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
To: HISTLING at VM.SC.EDU <HISTLING at VM.SC.EDU>
Date: Monday, April 02, 2001 8:52 PM
Subject: Q: 'die', 'dice'


>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Nothing hangs on this: I'm just curious.  Is my native English becoming
>obsolete in yet another respect?
>
>Traditionally, a spotted cube used in playing certain games is called a
>'die', with the uniquely irregular plural 'dice'.  This is still, I think,
>the position in American English.  In British English, however, the
>singular 'die' has almost wholly disappeared, and the singular form is now
>'dice'.
>
>American board games invariably instruct the player to 'throw a die', while
>British games equally invariably instruct the player to 'throw a dice'.
>Most Britons do not even know that 'die' is another word for one of these
>cubes, and most of them are flummoxed when I say something like "throw a
>die", which they find utterly mysterious.  And most Britons do not
>understand the origin of the expression 'the die is cast'.  British
>dictionaries now enter the word under 'dice', and merely cite 'die' as a
>less usual singular form.  Some years ago, I was playing Scrabble with a
>very well-educated British woman, and she played DI, assuming that this
>must be the spelling of the mysterious word she had often heard me use.
>
>However, in the last few years, I've begun to hear 'throw a dice'
>occasionally from Americans -- something which I'm pretty sure I never
>heard when I was growing up in the States.  So, I'm wondering.  Is the
>British usage now becoming established in the States?  Can anybody tell me
>anything about this?  And, while I'm here, what about Canada, Australia,
>the Caribbean, anywhere?  Are we users of 'die' a dying breed?  (Sorry.)
>
>
>Larry Trask
>COGS
>University of Sussex
>Brighton BN1 9QH
>UK
>
>larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
>
>Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
>Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)
>