English plural question, jewelry in Hindi, and looking for book recs

[shanrina]

1) Background: I just started a job as a K-12 tutor, and some of the kids I teach are unaware of some of the basics of grammar so I've been going over some of it. I came across something in a grammar/writing book that surprised me: the plural of buffalo. I'm a native speaker (American English), and I've always heard and said "buffalo" for more than

Comments

[cheyinka]

Native speaker of American English - raised in Montana, to be even more specific. I would use "buffalo" as the plural when speaking or writing, and I think that's all I've even ever heard, e.g. in reference to the animals in Yellowstone Park (even though those are actually bison).

I tried saying "water buffaloes" to see if it sounded better that way, and, nope, it still sounds like it should be "one water buffalo, ten water buffalo".

[shanrina]

Thanks!

[splintercat]

I'd say "buffalo" for the plural. "The Order of the Water Buffaloes" is the name of the men's club/fraternity that Fred Flintstone was in in The Flintstones cartoon, so that use sounds fine to me.

[shanrina]

Heh. I don't remember the Order of the Water Buffaloes, lol. Thanks!

[marnanel]

Southern England here. I would say "buffalos" (or maybe "buffaloes"). This is perhaps because we don't get many where I come from.

[shanrina]

Thanks!

[lacunaz]

1) I've never heard or used anything other than "buffalo" as a plural before (Canadian, Southern Ontario). I always assumed that it was sort of like "sheep", in that it's both singular and plural.

3) I can't help with any specifics, but maybe try out some more search engines? Google Scholar, JSTOR, E-Journals...

[shanrina]

Yeah, I always assumed it was like "sheep" too.

Thanks for the other links! I hadn't heard of them (this is my first semester back in school after a few years and the idea of getting legitimate scholarly works on the Internet is still in "DOES NOT COMPUTE" mode).

[fencer_x]

Excepting perhaps the Flintstone's reference from splintercat above, it's always "buffalo" for this native English speaker from Louisiana, USA.

"Oh give me a home~ where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play~"

:)

[shanrina]

Yeah, that song was the first thing I thought of when I saw that the worksheet the kid was doing included the word "buffalo." Thanks!