• IndigoGolem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    “dwarves” and “elves” are consistent with things like “wolves” instead of “wolfs”, “lives” instead of “lifes”.

    Fun fact: this never got applied to dwarf stars, which are still “dwarfs”.

    • kindnesskills@literature.cafeEnglish
      101·
      2 days ago

      “Dwarfs” is just short for “Dwarf S(tars)”. The plural is on star, not dwarf, and hidden in the shortened version.

      (Source: my ass, pleasedon’tquotemeonthis)

      • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Nah, I think for titles,. it’s an exception.

        The Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, are not the Maple Leaves.

      • Skua@kbin.earth
        1·
        2 days ago

        To be fair to him, he acknowledges that dwarfs would be the accepted version and justifies it by saying that if we talked about dwarfs or dwarves more often in regular English, we might have had a nonstandard plural for them as we do with many other common subjects. Elves also pre-dates him significantly, though I don’t doubt that he was a significant factor in it becoming the standard version. It seems there are even some examples of singular elve

  • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    Explanation: ‘Dwarfs’ as the plural of ‘dwarf’, and ‘elfs’ as plural of ‘elves’ used to be standard. JRR Tolkien, a foundational writer of fantasy in the mid-20th century AD, when writing his (eventually immensely popular and influential) books, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, he used ‘dwarves’ and ‘elves’, even making special note of it so the reader didn’t think he just made a mistake. Considering Tolkien was an English professor who specialized in linguistic history, who was gonna try and tell him that they were a bigger authority than him on how antiquated words should be inflected?

    This usage is now standard in English, replacing ‘dwarfs’ and ‘elfs’ almost entirely.