Re: [Finale] Punctuation and Word Extensions

[David H. Bailey]

I agree with all of the words Andrew is talking about except phenomena. 
 I never hear anybody speak of the plural of phenomenon.  I don't hear 
the singular that often either, but I do hear it far more frequently 
than the plural.  I bet that if either get dropped it'll be the plural, 
so we'll hear about phenomenon and phenomenons.

David H. Bailey



Andrew Stiller wrote:

Like all things in language, it's entirely a matter of convention at 
what point the regular plural becomes "correct" and the irregular, 
foreign-language derived plural is dropped.

- Darcy

So wave goodbye to phenomenon, bacterium, datum, criterion, medium (of  
communication), and doubtless others I can't think of right now. All of 
these were in common use 30 years ago, but are now disappearing rapidly, 
and I imagine they'll be gone completely in another generation. Note, 
BTW, that in all of  these cases it is the singular that is  dropped. 
Also, the replacement forms are still not regular, but invariant, like 
"sheep": phenomena, bacteria, data, criteria, media all used as both 
singular and plural. Whether, like "agenda," they then take the next 
step to form the regular plurals phenomenas, bacterias, datas, 
criterias, medias will be up to our grandchildren.

--
David H. Bailey
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