Talk:pluralism

Question about the word "pluralism" and the spelling of pluricentric, as in pluricentric language.

If pluralism refers to "a social system based on mutual respect for each other's cultures among various groups that make up a society, wherein subordinate groups do not have to forsake their lifestyle and traditions but, rather, can express their culture and participate in the larger society free of prejudice," then why do we refer to the many legitimate varieties of a language as pluricentric languages instead of pluracentric languages? Would it be more appropriate to spell it with an "a" as in pluracentric language?


 * It's too late to change! "plur-" and "pluri-" were the combining forms of plus/plures in Latin. -alis was an adjective-forming suffix. Pluricentric is the way I would expect a linguist to coin a term, in line with Latin practice, which is standard in International Scientific Vocabulary as well. DCDuring TALK 23:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)