On Nov 29, 2005, at 9:29 AM, Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote: >>> On 11/28/05, Jon_Lincicum at stream.com <Jon_Lincicum at stream.com> >>> wrote: >>> However, some animals on earth have their own name as a plural (i.e > Moose, >>> Fish, Orca) and since the house names are all based on animal names, >>> self-pluralizing makes as much sense as any other approach. >> >> Just for the record, I don't believe that's true of Orca. All the >> sources > I can find in the OED (including national geographic) refer to > "orcas" or > "orca whales". > > You may be right, I didn't bother to look that one up. > > Here are some more examples from our world: > > bison, deer, sheep, swine > > However, I don't think I've ever read many of the animal names on > Dragaera > with a "s" at the end. It's norska, darr, kethna, not norskas, darrs, > kethnas. > > Or how about Virt e'Terics talking to Vlad about the conscript > troops in > the other companies? I believe her quote was "They're Teckla". > > They. Meaning more than one. Followed by Teckla sans "s". > > I nearly think this nails down the plural form of Teckla at the very > least. > > Majikjon > > Unless, of course, the author mis-heard Tecklae...