Unused Registers Was Re: OT: City Names

From: Huw Davies <H.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au>
Date: Sun Apr 18 02:31:49 1999

At 09:19 17/04/99 -0400, Merle K. Peirce wrote:

>If you want to follow tradition, a VAX would be neuter, because plurals
>in -n are old Anglo-Saxon neuter forms.

That's assuming that you think the plural of VAX is VAXen, I'm a VAXes
person myself. There's also an argument that the plural should be spelt
VAXs. As a modern acronym you can't really apply traditional rules for the
plural(eg, VAX becomes VAXen because OX becomes OXen), it's just a matter
of accepted usage. No wimping out here by using expressions like "VAX
computers" either.

I feel that this discussion is more on-topic that most of those that we've
had recently. One of the things I've learnt is that people from different
parts of the world use English very differently and sometimes leads to
misunderstandings. One I remember well was an Australian DECUS presentation
where the (female) Digital engineer was talking about DZ-11s (this wasn't
either Allison or Megan was it?). After pronouncing it correctly (as far as
English/Australian audience were concerned where Z is pronounced zed) she
finally admitted that this felt so pretentious that it would be zee from
now on! I'd been around quite a while before I realized that in America EZ
sounds like easy....

 Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
 Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Received on Sun Apr 18 1999 - 02:31:49 BST

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