Subject: Re: Newfangled Plural Nouns
Date: Oct 13 09:55:11 1994
From: Eugene Hunn - hunn at u.washington.edu


On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, Eugene Hunn wrote:

So... shall we adopt the plural of "woodpecker" as "weekpeeker"?
Actually, I kind of like the sound of it.

Gene.

On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, Jim Lyles wrote:

>
>
> Gene Hunn and others have noted a tendency to leave off
> the -s inflection in plural nouns, especially of bird names.
> Some correspondents have been irritated by the tendency.
>
> May I point out, however, that the use of the final -s
> to form almost every English plural is modern, newfangled
> innovation. The good old language, Old English (from about
> the year 450 to about 1100), formed plurals (depending on the
> class of the noun) in many ways. Notice the change of the
> root vowel in FOOT/FEET or MAN/MEN. Notice the -en ending
> in OX/OXEN. Notice the double plural ending -er and -en
> in CHILD/CHILDER (old plural) or CHILD/CHILDEREN (double
> plural). Notice the -a plural in the old SUNU (son, singular)/
> SUNA (sons, plural). And notice the uninflected plural in
> SHEEP(singular)/SHEEP(plural) and DEER/DEER.
>
> Thus, this tendency to add a -s to just any noun, including
> bird names, is a modern and trendy departure from the
> good old language that we purists esteem.
>
>
> --Jim Lyles
> Tacoma
>