Foreign Plurals in English (was: Middle English Plurals)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:

> Thank you Glen, for the demonstration. As you mention there are

many

> subtribes within Anglophonia that will cling on to amoebae,

ethnoi,

> seraphim etc etc, for the same reasons that order-preservers do
> similarly in other languages.

With these words it may also be a dangerous version of one-
upmanship. For example, the Greek plural of _ethnos_ is _ethnê!
Sometimes they're more euphonious - I can't persuade myself not to
apply, in speech, the pattern _oasis_ -> _oases_ to _diocese_! We
have already discussed the importation of foreign declension into
German and neighbouring languages.

Richard.