Re: Announcement: Andreas's Conlanging Pages

John Cowan wrote:
>Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > >In general, it may look uneducated not to use a foreign plural, but
> > >it can be downright bewildering to use one where a native plural is
> > >normal, e.g. "Her arms swung like pendula" (recte "pendulums").
> >
> > I know, but trouble is, I don't always know what fo[r]mation is normal.
>
>By "normal", I mean -s (or -es after s, z, sh, x), the regular plural
>ending.  Much better to say "erratums" than "hoodla".  :-)
I interpreted "where a native plural is normal" as refering to words which
are normally pluralized according to the native pattern. I'd seen both
_suffixes_ and _suffices_, and for no conscious reason formed the belief
that the later pl was the "correct" one. Analogy with appendices and indices
certainly played a part.

BTW, I know what "errata" meant long before I stumbled across my first
"erratum". If I'm going to mispluralize that one, it's sure to be as
"erratas".

                                                           Andreas

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