Regardless of the Greek derivation, the English word is "commas." See also, "stadiums" (not "stadia"), "forums" (not "fora"), "one agenda, two agendas" (not "one agendum, two agenda"), etc -- notwithstanding the odd individual who thinks himself clever for using the obsolete irregular form.
I agree with you on all of these, though I wouldn't have been surprised if there were some other specialized definition of "comma" (something mathematical, perhaps) in which the archaic plural persists -- rather like there can be "geniuses" or "genii" depending on which sort of "genius" is being pluralized.
[And, of course, "cellos" and "concertos," etc.]
I typically use the more anglicized plurals for words like this -- including "librettos", where I am very much in the minority among my opera-community colleagues -- but I think it goes too far to call the fancier plurals incorrect.
Clearly there are words in which the foreign-derived plural has become well-establiished in English (eg, "theses"). There are many more words where it most certainly has not. And finally there are several words where both forms enjoy some usage. For these in the middle, one must make a choice. My observation is that inclining too much toward the fancier plurals is often associated with pretentiousness. Since I'm a devoted anti-snob, I lean in the other direction. But one should save one's preaching for real offenses. If a choir director prefers to say "soprani", I'll say he's being ridiculous. If someone prefers "concerti", that's just a different preference.
Context is relevant, I think. "Celli" doesn't sound nearly so unusual in the classical world as it probably does in the non-nonpop world.
Like all things in language, it's entirely a matter of convention at what point the regular plural becomes "correct" and the irregular, foreign-language derived plural is dropped. But in this case, English language convention is pretty firmly in favor of "commas" as the plural of "comma." "Commata" is just ridiculous.
None of the -mata forms has much support left except in narrow technical terms (eg, "stigmata" referring to a miraculous manifestation of Christ's wounds). I had never heard "commata" before at all.
I was assuming that Mario learned English as a second language, so I wondered if some outdated source was inadvertently teaching archaic plural forms which are no longer idiomatic.
mdl
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