Topical puzzle of the week

[rhu]

So of course the word-puzzle world is abuzz about the fact that Pres. Obama (VCVCV) nominated Elena Kagan (VCVCV CVCVC) to the Supreme Court. That got me wondering how many previous presidents and justices had family names that alternated vowels and consonants.

I found four presidents (including Pres. Obama) and five justices (Kagan has not yet been confirmed, so she's not on my list), using a realistic assessment of 'y': when it acts like a vowel, I count it as a vowel; when it acts like a consonant, I count it as a consonant; when it acts like the second half of a diphthong, I count it as a vowel --- so the following don't count: Pres. Hayes and Justices John Jay, Roger Taney, and William Day.

And of course the HCHS alumae list is abuzz with the same news. How many previous presidents and justices are HCHS alumnae? OK, that's a bit easier. :-)

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

What's the alumnae list? Am I on it? How do I get on it?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

That was a joke, son.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Ah. OK. I ask because there are two HCHS mailing lists I'm on, and both are quiet.

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can qualify for an alumnae mailing list without serious surgery, to which gnomi might object :-)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

As Andrew might be about ready to mention, the key point here is that Hunter was an all-girls school until 1974. The Alumnae Association had to change its name, and it deliberately became the Alumnae/i Association. We are proud to reverse the usual sexist language inherent in English when referring to a generic Hunter graduate as an alumna.

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be "... the usual sexist language inherent in Latin"?

I'm not sure how others perceive the sexism in the way Latin and Hebrew use a male plural for mixed groups, but I tend to perceive it as anti-male. There is a word for a female-only group, but there's no word for a male-only group. There are times when it would be useful to have that.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I believe alumna, alumnus, etc. have become English words as well as Latin ones.

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

In a sense, yes, they are used in English, but they still use Latin grammatical rules. If they were completely English words, we'd be saying "one alumnus, two alumnuses".

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

But English has many ways to pluralize, not just adding an "s" or "es" at the end. For example, we don't say "mouses" but "mice," even though the plural of "house" is not "hice."

In English, the standard plural for one male graduate plus as many female graduates as you wish to include is "alumni."

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

English imported the rules from Latin without changing them. Hypothetically, if the Latin word were the neuter form "alumnum" (sounds like a yummy noise made by Homer Simpson), plural "alumna", and used for both male and female, don't you think it would have been the same in English? Further, I suspect that any evolution of the usage of the words in English has been eliminated by pedants who insist that it follow correct Latin usage (all the more so because of the word's academic context).