On 2024-03-26, Sn!pe wrote:

> Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the plural "labia" is well-known, however.
>
> Is that the genitive?

badoompah

"In Latin, she would be called Babia Majora."

--
Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;----they are the life,
the soul of reading! (Tristram Shandy)

Phil Carmody wrote:

> HVS <office@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk> writes:
>> FWIW, a plural that I consciously switched to in the last couple of
>> decades is "memorandums". Although I liked "memoranda", I felt that
>> the word is sufficiently naturalised that it was time to use the
>> plural formed as one usually does for English words.

> I would say that the -a ending is sufficiently naturalised, and that one
> usually pluralises -um words -a. Even the sheep and the oxen are smart
> enough to see that the simple rule you think exists doesn't.

Harvey's "usually" doesn't sound to me like a simple rule refuted by
"sheep" and "oxen".

And who is the "one" who usually pluralizes -um words (from Latin or
Latinized Greek) -a?
Not the people who publish British books.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=football+stadiums%2C+football+stadia&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

(I added "football" to get rid of the Greek unit of measure. I was
surprised at how much difference it made.)

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=forums%2Cfora&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

(but "auditoria" was ahead for a long time recently)

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=forums%2Cfora&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=chrysanthemums%2Cchrysanthema&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=antirrhinums%2Cantirrhina%2Csnapdragons&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

For one on the other side,

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=memorandums%2Cmemoranda&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

--
Jerry Friedman

jerryfriedman wrote:

> https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=forums%2Cfora&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

Try with "fora *" (alone) to see how many false hits you get.

Hint: fora long time ...

--
Bertel, Denmark