Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a word in English that ends with “is” while being singular, only plurals and uncountables come to mind, so I can’t really follow the examples of other words. What makes it even weirder, I’m not sure how to pronounce Illinoises… Would it be as written, or as if an Illinois was pronounced by someone who has never encountered it before? Illinoi are also meh, since now plural looks as a singular and the other way round.

  • @[email protected]
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    276 months ago

    The plural of “Quebecois” is spelled the same, but the last syllable is pronounced “kwaz”. So by analogy, the plural of Illinois would be pronounced “ill-in-waz”.

    • @CandleTiger
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      6 months ago

      Yes and for the same reason — they are both French words for groups of people.

      Except two states called Illinois is different from two people from the Illini tribe and sometimes plural Quebecois is Quebeckers so I wouldn’t place any solid bets on sanity in naming when we get our 2nd Illinois

      • @[email protected]
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        86 months ago

        You speak like a second Illinois is inevitable. Is there something you know? Hands off Michigan, but Iowa and Wisconsin are fair game

        • Bizzle
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          16 months ago

          I live in northwestern Illinois, Iowa can keep their independence for their cheap gas but we really should annex Wisconsin for their geography alone.

        • @CandleTiger
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          16 months ago

          I was thinking more like a split into North Illinois and South Illinois. I think we’d have to see South Illinois standing on its own before any mergers with Iowa or Indiana are on the table. Wisconsin or Michigan… I do not see that happening, no.

  • Phil K
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    116 months ago

    Basis becomes Bases Crisis becomes Crises Oasis Oases Echolalia Echolalies Etc Generally the vowel becomes an e

    Illinois Illinoes

  • guyrocket
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    6 months ago

    It did not start out as an English word. It came from the Miami-Illinos language to Algonquin and/or Ojibwe to French then to English. So applying English language rules to a non-English word will be difficult.

    But as AbouBenAdhem suggests ITT, treating it like the French word “Quebecquois” makes a lot of sense.

    Info about the etymology:
    https://www.etymonline.com/word/Illinois
    https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/illinois/articles/this-is-how-illinois-got-its-name
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois
    https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Illinois

  • @[email protected]
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    66 months ago

    I think over the course of years it would eventually end up becoming Illinoises, no matter if the word came from a different language. Words tend to get assimilated like that. It sounds weird now cause, well, there are no two Illinois so practically no one ever used it in plural. I’d pronounce it literally as „noises“ as in noise. But I‘m no linguistic expert, heck I‘m not even a native English speaker. It‘s just my belief.