magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) (05/28/90)
padgett%tccslr.dnet@UVS1.orl.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: >The nice thing about a small group of people is that we can decide our >own conventions. Personally, I prefer virii for several reasons: [ silly stuff deleted ] Come on, this is *stupid*! You have a perfectly regular, English plural form ("viruses") which even a foreigner like I can get right at the first attempt. Then some misguided people, who have learned that some words take a Latin plural (like "nucleus - nuclei"), incorrectly assume that *all* words of Latin origin *must* have plural forms ending in an "i". Then some guy gets it even wronger and inserts an extra "i" (changing the pronounciation to viree-i in the process). Then you come along and say that you actually *prefer* the incorrect plural, even though you know it's incorrect! Where will this end? What if I were to suggest that 'Just in this newsgroup, where we are free to make any definitions we like, we should use the plural "computeri" instead of "computers", 'cause I like the sound better'? Do we really *have* to make things more complicated than they already are? English is sufficiently difficult to learn *without* having to memorize a lot of ridiculous homemade plurals like "virii"! We really ought to do our best to make communication easier, not more difficult. Also, even if you personally will use the form "virii" only inside this "small group of people" (comp.virus), a lot of the readers of this group will assume (quite naturally) that "virii" is the correct form - 'after all, lots of highly educated people seem to be using it, don't they?' Then they will go to their doctor and talk about 'flu virii' or whatever and get laughed at (possibly). Finally, you ought to remember that if you use the form "virii" when talking to someone outside this group, you risk getting one of the following two unpleasant responses: 1) If the person you're speaking to doesn't know Latin, he/she will just think that you're a snob who uses Latin plurals to show off - "Ha ha - I know Latin plurals and you don't" 2) If you're speaking to someone who knows Latin, he/she will think 'What an idiot - trying to make an impression by using a Latin form without knowing that it's incorrect' And I suppose that's not really the impression you want to make, is it? Showing off superior knowledge by using fancy foreign phrases is not very nice. If you have to do it, be sure to do it correctly. Otherwise, people may think you're not only a snob, but a half-educated snob as well. [Sure, I know I'm going to get flamed for this. It'll be kind of interesting... ] By the way, where does the "mock-Swedish" come into the picture? Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_ Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q University of Lund, Sweden | >----< Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se | / \===== g Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q [Ed. Heavy sigh... This topic does come up from time to time (as many of you are (painfully) aware), and it *always* leads to much heated discussion. My feelings are thus: what does it matter? Does anyone *not* know that you mean "the plural of virus" when you say "viruses" *or* "virii"?! I say use whatever you feel the most comfortable with, and end this perpetual debate on the correctness of the plural. This isn't, after all, GRAMMER-L or LATIN-L. So, unless I hear strong objections (well-founded ones at that...), I'm going to forward all subsequent discussions on this matter to /dev/null. Thankii, :-) A frustrated moderator.]