On 12/7/05, Davdi Silverrock <davdisil at gmail.com> wrote: > On 12/7/05, Bryan Newell <bryann at bryann.net> wrote: > > > At this rate, the matter should be settled before the Cycle > > > changes, I nearly think. > > > > I used the book search to do a quick search for various forms of plurals. And as I've said before, I find that Amazon search inside sometimes is more useful. Among other things, searching on plurals also hits the singular as well. > > However, I note that for some of your hits, the most recently > published is actually kinda old. I would suggest that either Steve > hadn't settled on a standard yet, or they are just "typos". > > > > > Orcas > > - Teckla Chapter 8 - But the big merchants -- the Orcas and the Tsalmoth and > > the Jhegaala > > - Teckla Chapter 12 - I thought about Orcas who will knife anyone for twenty > > Imperials > > Good catches, but I'm pretty sure there are counter-examples. > The obvious place to search was /Orca/ (or rather, /The Book of Athyra/, which contains /Orca/) - and sure enough, there were *many* counter-examples, and as a bonus, I found some usages of Chreotha as a plural, as well. pg 222: "It might also mean that the Orca weren't as sophisticated as the Jhereg." pg 272: "Three men, one woman, all of them Orca ..." pg 352: "This area was developed about three hundred years ago by Sorenet and Family, Shipwrights, and pretty much everyone who lived around here worked for them. Some Orca, some Chreotha, mostly Teckla just in from your favorite village a generation ago." pg 363-364: "... I made my way into the small, smoke-filled little inn, in amongst a large crowd of mostly Teckla, with a couple of Orca and Chreotha surrounded by the entourage the minor nobility invariably attracts in such places ..." pg 379: "I looked at how everyone was positioned, then I pointed to the two Orca, one at a time, with my blade" pg 400: "Only Dragons kill like that, and Dzur, I suppose." "You're right," I said. "Dragons and Dzur. And also Orca, if there's a profit in it." pg 416: "And now, Ensign, can you figure out why it was not only Stony whose death was made permanent but also three of those Orca who are Vonnith's private guards?"