Comment on Does ActivityPub need URL schema(s)?

• Excrubulent@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yup, you can do this for any loanword with unusual pluralisation. You can either use the plural form from the source language or from English.

  Octopi can also be octopusses for instance, but some people will tell you that’s wrong. Ultimately really, if your language is accepted and nobody is confused, it’s valid. The rules really aren’t as concrete as many people seem to believe.

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  • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve heard you can say “octopodes” as well

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    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I would say try it, and you’ll find without a lot of context cues, most people won’t understand you. Language is fundamentally about communication, so the measure is not whether it conforms to some rote form but whether it is effective at conveying an idea. I would say based on that, octopedes is wrong.

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  • Carighan@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Octopus is greek, no? So shouldn’t it, if anything, be Octopedes?

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    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s a theory based on the origin of the word, but nobody says that and if you tried to use it to communicate that idea, most people wouldn’t understand what you were talking about. So under a descriptive model of language, no, it isn’t octopedes. It’s only right if it works, and you can’t dictate language rules based on some preconceived idea of what is “correct”. Language is negotiated, not mandated.

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  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For Octopus… Octopi is just plain incorrect, it assumes an incorrect loanword origin, even if it is the most common pluralization used.

    Octopus does not come from Latin which would result in octopi. It comes from Greek, so the correct plural should be octopodes.

    The English standard pluralization would still be Octopuses though, and most comprehensible all around without having to explain the whole thing to a new person. In the end it’s all about being understood over anything else.

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  • Assman@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    merriam-webster.com/…/the-many-plurals-of-octopus…

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• thesporkeffect@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I would have guessed “schemæ”

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