Non standard plurals, that is, plurals that do not follow the pattern of adding either 'es' (tomatoes, potatoes) or simply 's' (boys, girls), often follow a similar pattern. Words such as woman (plural - women) or man (men) come originally from Anglo-Saxon words.
Although English culture combines a rich social/cultural tradition from Celtic/Roman/Anglo-Saxon/Norman-French/ and Viking-Norse, it is an interesting fact almost the only words in English, that originate from the Celtic languages of pre-Roman Britain are river names such as The Thames or The Avon. It is believed that, in the 7th century when the Anglo-Saxon invaders pushed into Britain after the departure of the occupying Roman armies, the remaining Celtics were pushed into Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Northern Britain. Their disparate languages, therefore, did not make a considerable impact on the English language. In fact, Latin words probably came to England during the medieval period when Latin was the universal language of the church, rather than the earlier Roman occupation. Thus, English as a whole, is a mish-mash of languages beginning with the Anglo Saxon invasions and ending with the influence of the church.
So, where do non standard English plurals come from? Like our first example (man/woman), non standard plurals are linguistic survivors from Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon and even on occasion Norse.
The non standard English plurals below tend to cause difficulties because of their obscure linguistic origins. These origins mean that these words do not follow the standard s and es pattern and makes them tricky to use.
Some of these Words and their Plurals
chateau chateaux (French)
The chateau was famous for its wine.
The chateaux were famous for their wines.
phenomenon phenomena
A phenomenon called a quantum singularity was formed.
The phenomena were called black holes.
medium media
The medium is the message.
The media reported that they were shocked by the discoveries in Somalia.
criterion criteria
The only criterion was that the candidate had to be a woman.
The criteria stated that the candidate had to be a female and single.
datum data (Latin)
A datum, recorded by Gildas, recorded that a battle was won Badon Hill in 665 AD.
The historical data in the Doomesday Book were gathered over more than a hundred years.
Give these non standard plurals some thought. You will find they are frequently found in postgraduate assignments, essays and dissertations. A comprehensive Oxford Dictionary is the only way to ensure that you have used the correct plurals in your assignments.
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ReplyDeleteis it right to use the plural of stadaium as stadiums? I know it is stadia. Has this changed in recent times? Thank You Nana Yaa
The Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed., 2003 instructs that the plural of stadium is either "stadiums" or "stadia" in present correct usage. If there is a problem with this, you should refer the user back to this source(See p 1719).
ReplyDeleteAs an additional comment to the above question, I thought that I should mention that the example given by anonymous illustrates how language evolves. Actually, 'stadion' is Greek and that is where the latin word came from in the first place. Stadium occurs as 'stade' in French, another latin based language. Although at one time stadia would have been considered the correct singular of stadium, present day usage has correctly seen that stadiums is used in modern English & considering that the root is, in fact derived from Greek, it makes no sense to use the stadia. This usage come to us via late Middle English who took from Latin who had in their turn borrowed it from Greek.
ReplyDeleteKB
In my geographical location we are caught between American English and British English, e.g, favour and favor. Would it be wrong if the American spelling is used in an essay?
ReplyDeleteMH
Should the above example not say "... a battle was won [at or on] Baden Hill..."
ReplyDeleteAlso I have frequent problems with the use of 'an' where it is expected that the leading 'h' of a word will be dropped. An example is the frequent use by broadcast media of the term "An historic". Could you offer some guidance on the correct structure in this case?