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

2008/4/14, Benct Philip Jonsson <melroch@...>:
> 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.
Of course things **look** different in modern English, but
that's another matter.
--
/ BP