Mantis, Mantises, Mantes, or Manti?

Sduibek

Sduibek

Creator of Fallout Fixt
Moderator
Modder
In my mod I had "corrected" usage of Mantis as a plural to Manti, because it sounded right to me.

I happened to look it up yesterday and the preferred is apparently either Mantes and Mantises, both of which sound stupid to me.

So for the sake of 'Realism vs Gameplay', what should they plurally be called in-game? An example of this is if you go to the Kills tab. Should the title for the # of Mantis creatures you've killed say Mantis, Mantises, Mantes, or Manti?

I'm not really interested in which is Most Grammatically Correct In The Real World, I'm interested in which one people think is Most Correct For Fallout(s).
 
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I've never heard of it being anything other than Mantises. Besides, the correct way can sound silly and still be correct. Case in point: Cleverer.
 
Akratus said:
I've never heard of it being anything other than Mantises. Besides, the correct way can sound silly and still be correct. Case in point: Cleverer.
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All the mantises agree that your deduction is cleverer than mine? :D
 
I think you should keep the manti. Sounds better than the rest, and I'm pretty sure it's not *wrong*.
Question is how correct it is...
 
Sduibek said:
What's wrong with octopi?
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It is incorrect. Like saying "octope" or "octopø", the correct plural is "octopuses" (or even more correct "octopodes", but nobody wants to say that). Idunno who makes the rules, but hey, some words are written in a certain way, while not in another :D

wiki said:
Usage notes

The plural octopi is hypercorrect, coming from the mistaken notion that the -us in octopūs is a Latin second declension ending. The word is actually treated as a third declension noun in Latin. The plural octopodes follows the Ancient Greek plural, ὀκτώποδες (oktōpodes).

Sources differ on which plurals are acceptable: Fowler's Modern English Usage asserts that “the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses”, while Merriam-Webster and other dictionaries accept octopi as a plural form. The Oxford English Dictionary lists octopuses, octopi, and octopodes (the order reflecting decreasing frequency of use), stating that the last form is rare.
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Trends can "force" a wrong word to become right, by repeated usage.
 
That's unfortunate because "octopuses" sounds completely retarded.

The Lord spake: And so it came to be that the soceresses and incubuses brought their rhombuses. We of little faith made sure to use our oculuses to avoid being led to collide with cactuses, as we know they are she who hocuses us. Lo! Many nimbuses approach! Ye shall not fear the nucleuses of thier focuses.

As an aside, octo(puses)pi are quite extraordinary creatures. EDIT: Haha, I wonder if anyone anywhere eats Octopus Pie. Now there's an interesting linguistic creation.
 
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Sduibek said:
That's unfortunate because "octopuses" sounds completely retarded.

The Lord spake: And so it came to be that the soceresses and incubuses brought their rhombuses. We of little faith made sure to use our oculuses to avoid being led to collide with cactuses, as we know they are she who hocuses us. Lo! Many nimbuses approach! Ye shall not fear the nucleuses of thier focuses.

As an aside, octo(puses)pi are quite extraordinary creatures. EDIT: Haha, I wonder if anyone anywhere eats Octopus Pie. Now there's an interesting linguistic creation.
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You CAN say "Octopodes" tho, and this will create the same desired effect of people going "excuse me?" and you can go "Oh, yes! Yeees! Octopodes - it is the correct plural of octopus!" and they will go "my word, I learn something new every day!"
and "Mantes"
:D
 
zegh8578 said:
You CAN say "Octopodes" tho, and this will create the same desired effect of people going "excuse me?" and you can go "Oh, yes! Yeees! Octopodes - it is the correct plural of octopus!" and they will go "my word, I learn something new every day!"
and "Mantes"
:D
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I literally lol'd at this :)

Mantises, Manti or Mantes... one must make great and grave decisions when one is a modder. :seriousface:
 
Does anyone even know how to transcribe these words into IPA? Because you all are kind of being defeated by how English orthography doesn't represent sounds very well (let's just say the fact that every letter in English alphabet can be silent speaks for itself). Because, according to how English orthography works, "Mantis" and "Mantes" can be pronounced exactly same way.

Also vote for "mantis".
 
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@Ghoster-- I assumed (incorrectly?) that the pronounciation is/was:

Mantis == MAN-tiss
Mantes == Man-TEEZ
Mantises == MAN-tiss-eez
Manti == MAN-ty
 
Thanks. I don't enjoy looking up the proper symbols so I attempt to just spell it out phonetically :D I would say it's mostly effective, but not 100% obviously.

FWIW, Fallout was using Mantis as both the plural and singular -- so assumedly it would have been "Mantiss" (as in, The man takes a piss) for singular, "Manties" (as in, the Man ties his shoes) for plural. Not sure if that makes any sense linguistically but it seems that's what they were doing. Or maybe just they were being insane and using the singular pronunciation for both.
 
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