Home » Episodes » Magnolia Mouth, Zero Plurals, and Cluster Simplification (minicast)

Magnolia Mouth, Zero Plurals, and Cluster Simplification (minicast)

An Alabama high-school teacher observes that one of his fellow teachers tends to write words that should be plural as singular, such as “I graded all 50 test” instead of “I graded all 50 tests.” The reason for this locution has to do with some interesting features of Southern English.

More:

Cluster simplification with the words “test” and “desk.”

Zero plurals from a historical perspective.

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