Re: ,Language' in language name?

Muke Tever wrote:
>From: "David Starner" <starner@...>
> > On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 08:21:56AM -0500, Muke Tever wrote:
> > > But as a productive *noun*forming suffix I think -ese pretty clearly
>does
>mean
> > > "language" or "manner of speech".   Say "X-ese is a ____"...
> >
> > It's also a term for ethnicity, though - Japanese, Chinese, Genoese,
> > Siamese.
>
>I said that--but that's as an adjective, though, not a noun.
>
>I've seen written things like "A Japanese is..." but that's not idiomatic
>at all
>for me--I'd have to say "A Japanese person is...".   Even when it is used
>that
>way, it's still just an adjective used absolutely, as it doesn't take
>plural
>marking ("Seven Japanese are.." not "Seven Japaneses are"--although it used
>to
>be, once), though you might conceivably say things like "all these little
>Japaneses" when talking about dialects or whatever.
>
>(Well, I should say I might still use -ese forms nominally in a collective
>construction like "The Japanese don't..." but I think I would still
>consider
>that an adjective.)
In school I was thought that nouns in -ese have a zero plural marking, so
"one Japanese", "two Japanese" is correct. Native speakers don't feel this?

                                               Andreas

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