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I rarely hear that anymore. I almost always hear "alumni" in all cases. I've tried saying to the librarians of my alma mater that I'm an alumnus and they repeat

I rarely hear that anymore. I almost always hear "alumni" in all cases. I've tried saying to the librarians of my alma mater that I'm an alumnus and they repeat back to me, "oh, you're an alumni, sure, let me get you alumni access to our system." Maybe it's common somewhere else to make those distinctions, but they're not common at McGill.

xcbxx 8y ago
It sounds immensely uneducated though. But the distinction between plural and singular seems to be abolished in other useless taxpayer-funded fields, too...
wenc 8y ago
Unfortunately, common or not, the usage of "alumni" in that context is incorrect. It may be a bit pedantic to insist on correctness in Latin, but all other schools use the term correctly and it doesn't reflect well on a well-regarded school to use the term incorrectly.
- SahAssar 8y ago
  Isn't language defined by common use over time?
  - wenc 8y ago
    Yes it is by processes of consensus arising from appeals to stylistic license, shared community language, memes, etc. But not every grammatical error falls into these categories. Think of it this way - let's say you make a grammatical mistake that most people consider a mistake. You shouldn't hide behind the "language evolves" catch-all card... you should to recognize it as a mistake and try to use the correct form. "Alumni" is plural.
    - psychometry 8y ago
      Your first sentence almost led you to a realization that you're wrong, but you just barely missed the boat judging from your last sentence.
      - wenc 8y ago
        Not at all. You have misread me. That language evolves is a common used argument (and there is a place for it) but often used as a catch-all argument to justify errors.
        SahAssar 8y ago
        But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. You yourself acknowledged that by starting your comment with "Unfortunately, common or not".
        wenc 8y ago
        > But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. I dispute that. Googling doesn't turn up many examples of official usage of alumni in the singular. I also disagree with your second claim, which is a projection. When I said "common or not", I meant that frequency in itself does not automatically make something correct, and I gave reasons why in a follow-up comment. I didn't claim that usage was common. I'm not trying to be difficult, but alumni really is plural. Using alumni as singular is not correct.

xcbxx 8y ago

It sounds immensely uneducated though. But the distinction between plural and singular seems to be abolished in other useless taxpayer-funded fields, too...

wenc 8y ago

Unfortunately, common or not, the usage of "alumni" in that context is incorrect. It may be a bit pedantic to insist on correctness in Latin, but all other schools use the term correctly and it doesn't reflect well on a well-regarded school to use the term incorrectly.

SahAssar 8y ago
Isn't language defined by common use over time?
- wenc 8y ago
  Yes it is by processes of consensus arising from appeals to stylistic license, shared community language, memes, etc. But not every grammatical error falls into these categories. Think of it this way - let's say you make a grammatical mistake that most people consider a mistake. You shouldn't hide behind the "language evolves" catch-all card... you should to recognize it as a mistake and try to use the correct form. "Alumni" is plural.
  - psychometry 8y ago
    Your first sentence almost led you to a realization that you're wrong, but you just barely missed the boat judging from your last sentence.
    - wenc 8y ago
      Not at all. You have misread me. That language evolves is a common used argument (and there is a place for it) but often used as a catch-all argument to justify errors.
      - SahAssar 8y ago
        But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. You yourself acknowledged that by starting your comment with "Unfortunately, common or not".
        wenc 8y ago
        > But in this case alumni is in common use in that way and has been for some time. I dispute that. Googling doesn't turn up many examples of official usage of alumni in the singular. I also disagree with your second claim, which is a projection. When I said "common or not", I meant that frequency in itself does not automatically make something correct, and I gave reasons why in a follow-up comment. I didn't claim that usage was common. I'm not trying to be difficult, but alumni really is plural. Using alumni as singular is not correct.