Re: Synopsis

On 12/26/08 6:25 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:
On Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:42:09 -0600, Suzanne Blom
<sueblom@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:GaCdnUBb3Kou0sjUnZ2dnUVZ_g-dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
rec.arts.sf.composition:

[...]

I want to do what was done to peasen, that is, chop off
the last couple of letters and make it regular.

That's probably the real difference in how we look at it: I
think of English as having several regular nominal
declensions, one of which -- the<-(e)s> plural -- is the
default. Thus, instead of seeing<theses> and<criteria> as
irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor
declensions.

I kind of like what happened to the plural of<child>. The
Old English noun was<cild>, pronounced roughly like modern
English<chilled>, a neuter noun originally with an
identical plural. In late Old English, however, the noun
was assimilated to the class of nouns that contained<lamb>
'a lamb',<cealf> 'a calf', and<æg> 'an egg', which formed
their plurals by adding<-ru>:<lamb(e)ru>,<cealfru>,
<ægru>, and eventually<cildru> 'children'. In Middle
English this regularly became<childre> and<childer>. In
southern ME, however, there was a tendency to generalize the
<-en> plural exemplified by<oxen> (OE<oxa> 'an ox',<oxan>
'oxen'), much as the<-(e)s> plural has been generalized in
the standard language. Where the North and the Midlands had
<childre> and<childer>, the South had<child(e)ren>, and it
is this southern form that has (somewhat exceptionally)
become standard. And if that double change of declension
isn't enough, the Old Northumbrian dialect of OE sometimes
made the noun masculine, with plural<cildas>; this plural
presumably underlies the rare Northern ME<childes> (15th
c.).

And just for fun: if we'd regularly inherited our word for
'egg' from OE instead of borrowing it from Old Norse, we'd
probably speak of one 'ay' (or one 'aye'), but a dozen
'ayre' (or perhaps 'ayer'). (We might spell it with initial
<e> instead of<a>.)

Actually, we inherited both, but William Caxton, the first English printer, made a deliberate choice to standardize on "egg/egges" instead of "ey/eyren".
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Synopsis
    ... the last couple of letters and make it regular. ... irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor ... Old English noun was, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Synopsis
    ... the last couple of letters and make it regular. ... irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor ... Old English noun was, pronounced roughly like modern ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Synopsis
    ... Old English noun was, ... a neuter noun originally with an ... had plurals in Old English, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Synopsis
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    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Intro D: Mini-FAQ on Grammar, Usage & Punctuation
    ... British English, ... Often it is necessary to use a third person singular pronoun when the ... often called "hash" (related to hatch marks and cross-hatch). ... Plurals not ending in s: Use 's for the possessive plural (men's, ...
    (alt.usage.english)
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