Re: YAEGT: 's (was Re: Standard Average European (was: case system))

2008/4/14, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>:
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Benct Philip Jonsson
>  <melroch@...> wrote:
>  >  That was because the masculine a-stem inflection type (which
>  >  are so called because they had a stem ending in -a in Common
>  >  Germanic), which in Old English had genitive singular in -es
>  >  and nom/acc plur in -as, spread to other nouns regardless of
>  >  original inflection class and gender. It didn't happen
>  >  overnight, and even today some 'weak plurals' remain in
>  >  _children, oxen_.
>
>
> Wouldn't those be the "strong plurals"?
>
>
>  --
>
> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
>
No, the n-declension is called the 'weak declension'
in Germanic linguistics ever since Grimm.  Generally
speaking he thought that the more analytic constructions
were younger, and hence 'weaker' than the more
fusional ones.

--
/ BP

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