Re: -s plurals, was [Conlangs-Conf] Conference Overview

caeruleancentaur skrev:
>>"David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...> wrote:
>
>
>>Not to spark a YAEPT, but it seems to me (just a vague impression)
>>that "fishes" for the plural of "fish" is making a comeback with
>>younger people (12 and below).  Perhaps "fish" as a plural will
>>disappear in the future...  Though I imagine it'd stick around as
>>a mass noun (e.g., "I'm eating fish").
It is as a rule not safe to make predictions on
the basis of the usage of people below 12.  They
usually get corrected/succumb to the majority use,
but not always, hence language change! :-)
My son, who is 8, makes a lot of analogies, turning
strong verbs weak and over-applying the commonest
Swedish plural patterns (although sometimes he
strengthens weak verbs and weirds regular plurals too!)
Notably his half-siblings used many of those too,
but they don't any longer, and I even remember having
used some myself, or still do jocularly.

--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)