While posting a comment on ungulates, I was reminded of another difference between Nth. America and Zild. Here in NZ, I was taught that the plural of roof is "rooves", and that the plural of hoof is "hooves". My preference for the "ves" plural was further stregthened by fondness for Tolkien's works, with his insistence on using "dwarves" rather than "dwarfs." There is also the matter of pronunciation. Here we pronounce both "roof" and "hoof" with the same vowel sound as that in "whom", while norteamericanos appear to use the vowel sound found in "crook". Even someone I normally consider mellifluous, like Peter Jennings, sounds less than euphonious to my shell likes when talking about "hoofs"

There is some of the same difference in pronunciations here,
Max. I had two friends from northern Ohio, and one said
the "crook" sound for roof, which sounded odd to me and the other friend. I don't think I've ever seen or heard rooves, though.

Max: Here we pronounce both "roof" and "hoof" with the same vowel sound as that in "whom", while norteamericanos appear to use the vowel sound found in "crook".

Jackie: I don't think I've ever seen or heard rooves, though.

These are regionalisms. Like Jackie, I pronounce "roof" 'like' "whom"but "hoof" 'like' "crook." Unlike Jackie, my plurals are "rooves," like you, and "hoofs" like crook. I have seen "roofs" spelled "rooves" and even used it, until someone corrected me. I have never heard it pronounced with an "f".

Even someone I normally consider mellifluous, like Peter Jennings, sounds less than euphonious to my shell likes when talking about "hoofs"

This only shows that, like most real New Yorkers, Peter Jennings comes from somewhere else.

Dear Max: I do not pronounce "roof" the same as "hoof". For me the first has a longer "oo" sound than the second. "hoof" and "crook" are the same. I have never heard or seen,nor does my dictionary give "rooves".
My dictionary gives both "dwarfs" and "dwarves", but I don't remember hearing the second pronunciation.
But with "wharf" the plural I am used to is "wharves.

Well, Max, I guess in mid-Michigan I sit in the transitional center. I've heard and used both oo sounds for both hoof and roof, and for plurals, I've heard and used hooves and rooves, but only seen in print hoofs and roofs.

The roofs/rooves question may date back to Old English. The OE f was voiced when it came between two vowels. If the plural ended in an es then rooves would be correct; if it did something else (ICLIU) and the s plural was coined later in, say, Middle English times, roofs may well be proper.

I have also heard beeves as the plural of beef referring to beef cattle on the hoof. This usage obviously cannot predate Middle English so it would be by analogy to earlier forms.

worlds in "oo"
Do you have, in Zild, different pronunciations for hoof, roof, cooper, and some others, as we have here? One is to make the "oo" the same as in "tooth"; the other makes it like the "u" in "put". The short sound is more used by old people and may be dying out, although a friend of mine in high school, whose name was Cooper, used to get highly incensed if anyone pronounced it like Gary Cooper, because he and his family used the other pronunciation (his name was A.B. Cooper IV, so that tells you something).

worlds in "oo"
Do you have, in Zild, different pronunciations for hoof, roof, cooper, and some others, as we have here? One is to make the "oo" the same as in "tooth"; the other makes it like the "u" in "put". The short sound is more used by old people and may be dying out, although a friend of mine in high school, whose name was Cooper, used to get highly incensed if anyone pronounced it like Gary Cooper, because he and his family used the other pronunciation (his name was A.B. Cooper IV, so that tells you something).

Nope, we have the 'one-size-fits-all' pronunciation here. All'um same. 'Course, we also flatten our vowels and clip 'em short, so almost every vowel comes out as a schwa!