Plural form of the word spokesperson

Jim   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 04:53 GMT
"... it's simply a reality: 'spokespersons' is the term in use these days."

Let's check this "reality" with a web search.

684,000 for spokespeople
650,000 for spokespersons

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=spokespeople&btnG=Search&meta=

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=spokespersons&btnG=Search&meta=

Looks like both terms are in use (with a slight preference for "spokespeople").
Lazar   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 04:57 GMT
I get different Google results:

606,000 spokespersons
547,000 spokespeople

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=spokespersons
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=spokespeople

So perhaps the preference is for "spokespersons".
rich7   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 07:10 GMT
Funny thing, but my readings are:

622000 spokespersons
540000spokespeople
muster   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 08:21 GMT
how about this i googled the words

1,006,523 representative
886,224 representor

you must have the wrong search engine..
JJM   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 08:24 GMT
"Representor"?

Yikes! Sounds like something from that old Japanese "Transformers" animated show.
muster   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 08:26 GMT
yeh yeh am gobotron, you must be prime?
'representor', is not that special?
greg   Thursday, May 12, 2005, 10:26 GMT
<Spokespeople> : 618.000 (+ 8,4 %)
<Spokespersons> : 570.000 (- 7,8 %).
Jim   Friday, May 13, 2005, 00:10 GMT
Hmmm ... though whichever way the preference goes it seems only to be slight and, who knows, many of these hits may be using the formal/official/legal distinction that Travis had mentioned.

I get 10,300 hits for websites with both.

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=spokespersons+spokespeople&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Jim   Friday, May 13, 2005, 00:15 GMT
Here's an interesting aside. I searched for "spokespersons" at

http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/

and turned up a blank. Whereas when I searched for "spokespeople" it directed me to ... guess what ... "spokesman".
Kirk   Friday, May 13, 2005, 00:29 GMT
"Spokespeople" sounds more natural to me, as "persons" in general sounds odd. I always have "people" for the plural of "person," so in analogy any compound word with "-person" I would prefer "-people."

But, yeah, "spokesperson" does sound slightly odd to begin with. "Spokesman" or "spokeswoman" sounds better.