Len Mullenger:

>One of my reviewers always writes concertoes as the plural of concerto.  I
>had assumed this was an error of his spellchecker and convert to concertos.
>Now I find he really means it.  He does not like concerti which he claims
>to be the plural of concert.  He quotes several sources that concertoes is
>correct including Fowlers Usage but I note the New Oxford Companion to
>Music drops the e....Any one any ideas on this? Is it perhaps an American
>usage?

Webster's unabridged dictionary, 2nd & 3rd editions, as well as the
Random House Dictionary give "concertos" and "concerti" as the plural.
The Oxford English Dictionary says flatly that "Concerto" is Italian.
_Dizionario Inglese Italiano Italiano Inglese_ (Torino: Societa Editrice
Internazionale, 1981; based in part on Oxford University Press' _Advanced
Learner's Dictionary of Current English_) gives "concertos" or "concerti"
as the plural of "concerto" in the English-Italian section, with the
meaning as "composizione musicale," which I assume is readily
understandable.  The Italian-English section gives three meanings for
"concerto": (1) concert; recital; performance.  (2) concerto--as
composizione musicale).  (3) orchestra, ensemble.  (4) concerted action.
So "concerti" are sometimes what your reviewer says, but only in Italian,
surely not in English.

As an American, I had never seen the spelling _concertoes_ in my whole
life, until now; but a former American Vice President came to grief putting
an "e" on another word ending in "o." My spell checker does have it, I now
note, but I wouldn't accept it, if I were an editor.

Jim Tobin