Re: Messy orthography (Re: Sound change rules for erosion)

Quoting Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>:

> >  and if this ending perhaps starts to replace the
> >others. For example, surely the five vowels didn't occur with exactly the
> >same frequency in the proto-lang, and the one(s) that were more common
> >would have survived on more plurals and come to be viewed as regular and
> >then spread to other words.
> [snip]
>
> How long would it take for the -en, -an, -on, and -un to all merge into -in
> after the word-final short vowels were lost?  Would the separate plural
> endings persist for a long time or a short time?
I would say a long time. German has four or five separate plurals that all
maintain good currency, with only a slight tendency for simplification. Welsh
has something like *nineteen* different plural forms. Native speakers have good
memories, so while simplification is eventually inevitable, a reasonable number
of plural formations are likely to survive for a very long time.


--
JS Bangs
jaspax@glossopoesis.org

"We're counting on our virtues
   Because it's too hard to count the dead."
     -Jason Webley

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