NZ Dictionary Centre newsletters
I have to say that the newsletters of the New Zealand Dictionary Centre put those of the OED to shame. The articles are longer and of greater depth. (They're in pdf format, but let me add a special...
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AHD4As a term meaning a body of persons sharing a culture, people is a singular noun, as in As a people the Pueblo were noteworthy for their peacefulness. Its plural is peoples: the many and varied...
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Thank you jgorman64 - I didn't know that. "Peoples" still strikes me as a somewhat superfluous word, as the "The People of West Africa" means more or less the same as "The peoples of West Africa". I...
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You only have to want to emphasize that the people of West Africa, to use your example, are not a single ethnic group, but a heterogeneous collection including many distinct tribes, languages, and...
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Point taken, Dr Techie. I can see the distinction that's made. I suppose, being a journalist, I tend to paint words in broad strokes, so to speak, but can see that here's a case where some subtler...
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It seems almost silly to say "The peoples of Sri Lanka are slowly rebuilding their lives after the tsunami" when you could say "people of Sri Lanka"Yeah, except you made up that example; it's not the...
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"The peoples of West Africa" doesn't mean the same thing as "the people of West Africa".
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"The peoples of West Africa" doesn't mean the same thing as "the people of West Africa", says OP Tipping. Well, yes it does. What is adding that "s" do, other take than up space?If you mean tribes,...
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And you are, after all, the Czar of the English Language.
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Sheesh.It's one thing to get upset about ugly new coinages or other recent changes in language that one considers detrimental. But this usage is over 600 years old! The OED2 has citations of "peoples"...
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OK - calm darn, calm darn, calm darn (as they say in Liverpool).Languagehat - no, I don't hold myself the Czar of the English Language, though I hold robust views on its usage. Most of these views can...
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My hatred of "peoples" is that it is imprecise, while pretending to be precise. At least "people" is imprecise and doesn't pretend otherwise. As I said in my last posting: say what you mean. If race,...
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I still don't like the word.And I don't like fish. But I don't pretend that fish is immoral or wrong or "imprecise."
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Words I hate:affordable instead of "cheap" as in QVCtruss (because it leads to under-collar over-heating)grammar (because nobody else but me believes in it so I end up sulking in a corner while the...
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Just as I was about to market an affordable grammar truss for ruptured infinitives.
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affordable instead of "cheap"Dunno bout in Rightpondia but here in Baja Leftpondia "cheap" has the connotation of poor quality. Might well be true in the world of QVC, but not good salesmanship.
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Dr. T, I think someone may have got there before you. Sorry. But a kind thought anyway and I'm sure, much appreciated.http://www.yankeepotroast.org/archives/2003/10/the_skin_projec.html
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Given your User ID (Morporksw19) I assume you are familiar with Discworld.If you wish to refer to the way that the various segments of that population get along (vampires, gnomes, zombies, igors,...
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