Re: English Changes or what into Conlangs

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> abrigon wrote:
> > Why did
> > we get stuck with -es and -s, I think it may have alot to do with those
> > who wrote dictionaries back in the 16th Century, who wanted a lingo to
> > be more Latin/French looking.
>
> No, what happened was in some places in England the -es forms became
> most common, and -en plurals turned into -es (with a few exceptions),
> while in others the -en forms won out.  The London dialect happened to
> be a -es dialect.  If the capital had been in another place, we'd
> probably wear shoen and live in housen.
>
> Also, I wonder, if it first happened in Northern England - did Old Norse
> have a preferences for /s/ in plurals?  I wonder if it might've been a
> Norse influence that traveled southward, like the verbal -s?
Taking out my much less dusty E.V. Gordon on Old Norse: -ar/-ir is by
far
the most common plural ending in Old Norse.  In the nominative, that is.
I suspect that the -s ending in Old English was dominant only in
English.
Masculine a-stem,  as I stated before.  Heeeeeere's GOTHIC!  Masculine
o-stem:

        sa dags         the day  nominative
        this dagis      the day's genitive
        thamma daga     the day dative
        thana dag       the day accusative

        thai dagos      the day nominative plural    S ENDING
        thize dage      the days' genitive plural
        thaim dagam     the days dative plural
        thans dagans    the days accusative plural

Compare to Old English daeg (masculine a stem again):

        se daeg         the day nominative
        thaes daeges    the day's genitive
        thaem daege     the day dative
        thone daege     the day accusative

        tha dagas       the days nominative plural    S ENDING
        thara daga      the days' genitive plural
        thaem dagum     the days dative plural
        tha dagas       the days accusative plural

So there's a precedent in old western and eastern Germanic languages to
have a plural s-ending in the masculine declensions, it seems.  The
masculine a-stem in Old English was a common and easy declension, and
by a process of analogy and exposure to Norman French it reduced most
of its other nouns to this system in the Middle English period.

Interesting.  I'd never thought about the shared s-ending in French
and English.  I guess the question has never come up in any of
my classes.  Thanks!

Sally
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