At 10:06 AM -0700 3/25/11, Mark D Lew wrote:
Alumnus and syllabus mean in English roughly the same as what they meant in Latin.
As do the feminine "alumna" and the plural "alumni," which are still universally used and understood. Syllabi is commonly used in the academy, although it ALMOST seems pretentious.
And then there are those pesky words that seem to be in the middle of their transition: data (always plural) and datum (singular); and even worse, media (always plural) and medium (singular).
For some borrowed and assimilated words singers have to make choices (unless a composer has made it perfectly clear): ro-DEH-oh (Spanish) or RO-dee-oh (ignorant American!).
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[email protected]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
