Tom Wolfe takes on linguistics

Re:Tom Wolfe takes on linguistics by dnautics on Monday July 25, 2016 @07:24PM (#12162315)

> "Chomsky et alii"

Brilliant. I suspect wolfe specifically extends the usually abbreviated latin word alii because alii in Hawaiian means "royalty".

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Re:Tom Wolfe takes on linguistics by delazeur on Monday July 25, 2016 @07:42PM (#12162377)

The Latin word is actually alia. It could be a pun from Wolfe, but it could also be a typo.

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Re:Tom Wolfe takes on linguistics by carbocation on Monday July 25, 2016 @07:58PM (#12162430)

I have no background in Latin, but I think that alia is neutral plural and alii is masculine plural. In this case et alii makes more sense.

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Re:Tom Wolfe takes on linguistics by delazeur on Monday July 25, 2016 @08:05PM (#12162457)

You're right [1]. Interesting, I've always seen et alia before, but it looks like et alii is more often correct.

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