this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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If there was more than one Illinois, would they be called Illinoises or Illinoi? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts
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Off the top of my head, I can't think of a word in English that ends with "is" while being singular, only plurals and uncountables come to mind, so I can't really follow the examples of other words. What makes it even weirder, I'm not sure how to pronounce Illinoises... Would it be as written, or as if an Illinois was pronounced by someone who has never encountered it before? Illinoi are also meh, since now plural looks as a singular and the other way round.

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[–] AbouBenAdhem 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The plural of “Quebecois” is spelled the same, but the last syllable is pronounced “kwaz”. So by analogy, the plural of Illinois would be pronounced “ill-in-waz”.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yes and for the same reason — they are both French words for groups of people.

Except two states called Illinois is different from two people from the Illini tribe and sometimes plural Quebecois is Quebeckers so I wouldn’t place any solid bets on sanity in naming when we get our 2nd Illinois

[–] rockSlayer 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You speak like a second Illinois is inevitable. Is there something you know? Hands off Michigan, but Iowa and Wisconsin are fair game

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I was thinking more like a split into North Illinois and South Illinois. I think we’d have to see South Illinois standing on its own before any mergers with Iowa or Indiana are on the table. Wisconsin or Michigan… I do not see that happening, no.

[–] bizzle 1 points 10 months ago

I live in northwestern Illinois, Iowa can keep their independence for their cheap gas but we really should annex Wisconsin for their geography alone.