On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Mike..... wrote:
> Following up to Giovanni Drogo
>
>> But I always wondered why you say "nuclei" and not "nucleuses" !
>
> graffitto graffitti makes more sense, but lots dont use the singular.
Actually the words are "graffito" and "graffiti" with ONE T (we are
rather picky on doubles ... capelli and cappelli are not the same thing
:-)). I never understood why English tends to double the T's when
borrowing italian words (I've seen "regatta" instead of "regata" and
"banditti" instead of "banditi").
Actually the word in Italian is (probably ?) overloaded of meanings wrt
English. "Graffito" (from an improbable verb "graffire", much more
common "graffiare"), meaning "scratched", is a sort of art technical
term (like "bassorilievo" or "cloisonne'").
I first encountered the word in my primary school, one of the the
exercises we did was to cover a cardboard sheet with two layers of wax
of different colours, and then with a metal point scratch the top layer.
Next encounter (in the plural) was with "graffiti rupestri" (prehistoric
rock engravings ... something more on topic on r.t.e. ... does anybody
know the ones in Val Camonica [the english wikipedia is too sketchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Drawings_in_Valcamonica], in Alta in
Norway, or near Mt. Bego in France ?
Only recenty the word "graffiti" started to be applied to the wall
scrawls unfortunately so diffuse in our cities. I believe this occurred
after the movie "American graffiti". And despite technically they are
not "scratched" but painted.
Coming back to the issue of plurals and singulars, there may be some
analogies with what you say also in italian.
As I said, the rule is that a foreign word, unless italianised, is
invariable. Il film, i film. L'abat-jour, gli abat-jour. Il kimono, i
kimono (not "i kimoni" despite the o :-))
However there are at least two spanish words which are commonly
misused in italian, as they were assumed in italian in the plural.
One is the word "murales" (wall paintings). Despite the fact its
singular should be "mural", you can hear most italians saying "un
murales".
The other word is "peones". This has been assumed in italian with the
curious meaning of indicating members of parliament which are not
political leaders or somehow particularly visible. And here too you can
hear "un peones" instead of the correct "un peon".
--
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