What animals are plural and singular?
December 3, 2014 8:07 PM Subscribe
What are some animals that have the same name plural as singular?
Examples I can think of: Elk, Deer, Caribou. Are there any others? What is this called? Why does this phenomenon exist? Is it just for North American species?
Best answer: Nouns with identical singular and plural:
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:23 PM on December 3, 2014 [12 favorites]
As a general rule, game or other animals are often referred to in the singular for the plural in a sporting context: "He shot six brace of pheasant", "Carruthers bagged a dozen tiger last year", whereas in another context such as zoology or tourism the regular plural would be used. Eric Partridge refers to these sporting terms as "snob plurals" and conjectures that they may have developed by analogy with the common English irregular plural animal words "deer", "sheep" and "trout".[references 7] Similarly, nearly all kinds of fish have no separate plural form (though there are exceptions—such as rays, sharks or lampreys).Non-animal ones include aircraft, cannon, the blues, stone as a unit of weight, and counsel as in court; as well as some names of peoples like "Chinese" and "Quebecois" and most Native American tribes ("Cherokee" and "Navajo").
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:23 PM on December 3, 2014 [12 favorites]
yeast. boar. ostrich. salmon... and lots o' fish. Heartrendingly...whale.
posted by metasav at 8:27 PM on December 3, 2014
posted by metasav at 8:27 PM on December 3, 2014
What's the plural of platypus? Not platypi. Platypuses sounds wrong. One platypus, five platypus?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:28 PM on December 3, 2014
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:28 PM on December 3, 2014
Response by poster: Eyebrows McGee, that is exactly the thing I wanted to know!
posted by oceanjesse at 8:28 PM on December 3, 2014
posted by oceanjesse at 8:28 PM on December 3, 2014
What's the plural of platypus?
Platypuses is correct.
If you want to be particular, you can say platypodes. Platypi is completely wrong (smooshing a Latin ending on to a Greek word). Basically same rules as octopuses.
posted by pompomtom at 8:47 PM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
Platypuses is correct.
If you want to be particular, you can say platypodes. Platypi is completely wrong (smooshing a Latin ending on to a Greek word). Basically same rules as octopuses.
posted by pompomtom at 8:47 PM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
Some Canadians use the plural form bear. Most say bears.
posted by klanawa at 9:21 PM on December 3, 2014
posted by klanawa at 9:21 PM on December 3, 2014
It's probably worth noting that moose and caribou are borrowed from Native American languages which don't do pluralization the way European languages do (it's marked on the verb).
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:04 AM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:04 AM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: My question is not limited to English. Just species.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:23 AM on December 4, 2014
posted by oceanjesse at 5:23 AM on December 4, 2014
> Platypi is completely wrong (smooshing a Latin ending on to a Greek word).
No, it is not wrong, because English is neither Latin nor Greek. If a substantial number of English-speakers say "platypi," than it is a correct English plural. I just checked my Merriam-Webster Collegiate, and it's listed as an alternate to "platypuses," so yes, it's correct (not because The Dictionary Says So, but because the dictionary is clearly reflecting common usage). A parallel case is "octopi," which is perfectly good English for the same reason.
> My question is not limited to English.
It should be; what use is it going to be to you to be told that in some random Bantu or Caucasian language, a particular species doesn't take the usual plural affix?
posted by languagehat at 7:32 AM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
No, it is not wrong, because English is neither Latin nor Greek. If a substantial number of English-speakers say "platypi," than it is a correct English plural. I just checked my Merriam-Webster Collegiate, and it's listed as an alternate to "platypuses," so yes, it's correct (not because The Dictionary Says So, but because the dictionary is clearly reflecting common usage). A parallel case is "octopi," which is perfectly good English for the same reason.
> My question is not limited to English.
It should be; what use is it going to be to you to be told that in some random Bantu or Caucasian language, a particular species doesn't take the usual plural affix?
posted by languagehat at 7:32 AM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Well, it may or may not interest you that the Dutch language doesn't do this. We pluralise ALL the animals: sheep, swine, and even all of the fish.
If a name is from a different language, we'll just make a plural form by sticking either -s or -en onto it.
Een koedoe, twee koedoes; een lemuur, twee lemuren.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:04 AM on December 4, 2014
If a name is from a different language, we'll just make a plural form by sticking either -s or -en onto it.
Een koedoe, twee koedoes; een lemuur, twee lemuren.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:04 AM on December 4, 2014
In the fashion world I believe there is such a thing as a trouser.
posted by glasseyes at 2:18 PM on December 4, 2014
posted by glasseyes at 2:18 PM on December 4, 2014
In New Zealand English, most animals that have names borrowed from Maori do not take plural -s. This is a modern change (since about the 1990s sometime) and followed a general trend in NZ to not add -s to Maori-origin words. I think some people think of it as disrespectful to do so, as Maori obviously doesn't form plurals that way.
This means that plenty of NZ animals (mainly birds) that don't have any alternative names (i.e. so we would have to consider them to be English words) also have bare plurals.
E.gs:
BIRDS
kiwi
moa
kereru
tui
OTHER
kunekune (a type of pig)
tuatara (a type of reptile)
weta (a type of insect)
Probably lots more I'm forgetting. Amusingly, I have heard NZers apply the same rule to animals with "exotic-sounding" names, that are not actually of Maori origin. E.g. "gecko".
You will definitely find all these things pluralised with s sometimes still, especially by older people, but I'd say the majority of the time even in casual speech they are not. And on official signs at zoos and so on, they are not.
posted by lollusc at 4:17 PM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
This means that plenty of NZ animals (mainly birds) that don't have any alternative names (i.e. so we would have to consider them to be English words) also have bare plurals.
E.gs:
BIRDS
kiwi
moa
kereru
tui
OTHER
kunekune (a type of pig)
tuatara (a type of reptile)
weta (a type of insect)
Probably lots more I'm forgetting. Amusingly, I have heard NZers apply the same rule to animals with "exotic-sounding" names, that are not actually of Maori origin. E.g. "gecko".
You will definitely find all these things pluralised with s sometimes still, especially by older people, but I'd say the majority of the time even in casual speech they are not. And on official signs at zoos and so on, they are not.
posted by lollusc at 4:17 PM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by Melismata at 8:07 PM on December 3, 2014 [1 favorite]