[Linganth] Nonsexist forms of emeritus in singular and plural?

[Harriet Ottenheimer]

I hear "emeriti/emertae" in the speech of university presidents who are addressing such gtoups at reunions.
Sounds awkward but it's probably what will become the accepted standard in English.
--Harriet Ottenheimer


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-------- Original message --------
From: Richard Senghas <richard.senghas at sonoma.edu>
Date:10/27/2016 5:13 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Cc:
Subject: [Linganth] Nonsexist forms of emeritus in singular and plural?

Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later when one of our university policies that referenced emeritus faculty was being invoked:  How have institutions resolved the linguistic conundrum of drawing on a latinate form without replicating the habitual association with masculine syntax as default

Emeriti as a Latin plural could be seen as a form of erasure.  Would the orthographically awkward form emeriti/emeritae (or emeritae/emeriti, for that matter) be the best compromise (for now)?  [And what about word order?; think attorneys general.  Do we maintain the "traditional" head-initial compound, or switch to the more regular (in English) head-final version?  But I digress....]

It's right up there with they/them/their being acceptable (or not) as singular pronouns.  Pragmatics (however linguistically "improper") has long been a force affecting, even effecting syntactic change, hasn't it?

-RJS
===========================
Richard J. Senghas, Ph.D.
Immediate Past Chair of the Faculty & Academic Senate
Professor, Anthropology
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Richard.Senghas[at]sonoma.edu<http://sonoma.edu>
707-664-3920 (fax)

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