Unused Registers Was Re: OT: City Names

At 09:19 17/04/99 -0400, Merle K. Peirce wrote: That's assuming that you think the plural of VAX is VAXen, I'm a VAXes person myself. There's also an argument that the plural should be spelt VAXs. As a modern acronym you can't really apply traditional rules for the plural(eg, VAX becomes VAXen because OX becomes OXen), it's just a matter of accepted usage. No wimping out here by using expressions like "VAX computers" either. I feel that this discussion is more on-topic that most of those that we've had recently. One of the things I've learnt is that people from different parts of the world use English very differently and sometimes leads to misunderstandings. One I remember well was an Australian DECUS presentation where the (female) Digital engineer was talking about DZ-11s (this wasn't either Allison or Megan was it?). After pronouncing it correctly (as far as English/Australian audience were concerned where Z is pronounced zed) she finally admitted that this felt so pretentious that it would be zee from now on! I'd been around quite a while before I realized that in America EZ sounds like easy.... Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479 1999 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"