Is it octopuses or octopi? What about mongooses? Are they mongeese?
Sure, you can use plural –s, but do you know your way around the unusual plurals of English?
Have no fear — linguist Daniel Midgley takes you through the ins and outs on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Show notes
Cambridge is leaving apostrophes out of new street names
http://www.ndtv.com/article/offbeat/apostrophes-now-britain-at-war-over-missing-punctuation-499805
Grammar pedants are pissed
http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/02/cambridge-irresponsible-for-dropping-apostrophes-from-new-road-signs-4287467/
Sometimes the apostrophe can convey information about history, as in “Queens’ College”
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Apostrophe-catastrophe-as-Cambridge-City-Council-bans-punctuation-from-new-street-names-20140117060000.htm
Plural -s comes from Old English
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-s&allowed_in_frame=0
More about Old English nouns
https://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/inflnoun.html
But -n forms were popular too, and some have persisted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plurals#Plurals_in_-.28e.29n
The plural for ‘man’ underwent i-mutation.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=man
What’s i-mutation?
http://www.etymonline.com/imutate.php
And how about those -us forms?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_form_of_words_ending_in_-us
Not everything that ends in -us pluralises as -i.
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxplural.html
There are second declension masculine nouns that end in -us
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Latin_second_declension#Masculine
but there are also third declension neuter nouns, also ending in -us.
http://latin-dictionary.net/grammar/nouns/declensions/third-declension
Cactus is cacti though.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cactus
Octopus isn’t Latin really.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=octopus
Octopuses is the most popular.
Toyota wants the plural of Prius to be Prii. They had a vote.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/21/toyota-decrees-the-plural-of-prius-is-prii-your-latin-teach/
Here’s a big ol’ list of plural forms
http://www.writers.com/tips_spelling.html
Here’s another.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/39_plural_forms_that_might_confuse_writers_10648.aspx#
‘Selfie’ is semantically mutating
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/selfies-there-are-groupies-ussies-shelfies-and-even-sealfies–but-selfobsessed-portraiture-isnt-just-a-modern-phenomenon-9234004.html
