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

[Contini-Morava, Ellen L. (elc9j)]

Well, alumni/ae has already turned into “alums”.  Why not “emerits”?  (too much like “demerits”?)

Ellen
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(Please note:
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Ellen Contini-Morava
Professor
Department of Anthropology
and Program in Linguistics
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400120
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4120
USA
Phone:  +1 (434) 924-6825
Fax:      +1 (434) 924-1350



On Oct 27, 2016, at 5:35 PM, Harriet Ottenheimer <mahafan at ksu.edu<mailto:mahafan at ksu.edu>> wrote:

And also it's a phrase, "emeriti and emeritae".
--Harriet


Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device


-------- Original message --------
From: Richard Senghas <richard.senghas at sonoma.edu<mailto:richard.senghas at sonoma.edu>>
Date:10/27/2016 5:13 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG<mailto: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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