Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE:

And Rosta scripsit:

> It's a well-known American/Non-American difference. Is it totally
> out in your dialect, or merely more marked?
Totally out, unless you want to say it's marked as Commonwealth.  :-)

> Can you say "The buffalo are scarce today", "These buffalo were
> tracked down yesterday"? How about "antelope"? "Wildebeeste"?
I can handle those, yes, as in the famous sentence

        BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO

and its extended form (which I have more trouble with)

        BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO
          BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO

Any longer than that and it becomes incomprehensible.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_