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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Why the vax, but not the Unix??
Message-ID: <504@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Jun-85 13:50:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.504
Posted: Tue Jun 11 13:50:12 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 06:01:32 EDT
References: <27400001@gypsy.UUCP> <546@hou2b.UUCP> <561@umd5.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 27
Summary: 

In article <561@umd5.UUCP> zben@umd5.UUCP (Ben Cranston) writes:
>Why "the VAX" and not "the UNIX"?  There is a problem of collectivization
>and physical presence here.
>
	Finally, an explanation I can buy!

>Note also that to collectively refer to the many VAX computers out there
>a lot of people use the coined term "VAXEN", probably a derivative of
>"vixen" or something.  There is probably some language that has contributed
>to English that uses a suffix "en" to denote a ploural, and subconscious
>memory supplies the usage.  In any case, we say "on vaxen" rather than 
>"on THE vaxen".
>
	A small historical note here. The basis for this is words like
ox/oxen and child/children. This is an old remnant, but it is original
to Germanic languages and thus to English. That is in Old English(as
well as modern German) there were(are) several classes of nouns with
different pluralizations, one of which is the '-en' ending. In English
the plural has been progressively regularized to a single form('-s'),
with a *few* exceptions like ox and child, which are now considered
"irregular" plurals.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

{trwrb|allegra|cbosgd|hplabs|ihnp4|aero!uscvax!akgua}!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen
or {ttdica|quad1|bellcore|scgvaxd}!psivax!friesen