Re: OT: What color is blond(e)? (was Re: anti-Sanskritism and more)

On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 01:58:14AM -0500, Roger Mills wrote:
> The pronunciation of the plurals has always amused and perplexed me.  In
> Latin class, we learned--
> alumni [a'lumni] and alumnae [a'lumnaj]
Which means you were taught the "restored Classical" pronunciation of
Latin - or possibly the Ecclesiastical, but I'm not sure how -ae is
pronounced in the latter.

> BUT-- those who use them say alumni [alumnaj] and alumnae [alumni]*.  Go
> figure!
Latin borrowings into English which were made prior to the Great Vowel
Shift underwent that shift right along with the native English words.
Which is how we arrived at the modern pronunciation of all those
bits of English legal, medical, etc. terminology which came directly from
Latin.

-Mark

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