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Re: English Changes or what into Conlangs

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 7, 1999, 0:03
Bryan Maloney wrote:
> > Didn't the masculine gender sort of (and I'm being REALLY LOOSE here) > replace the other gender(s) of Old English during the shift to Middle > English? That might explain a lot of the -s -es pluralization.
Well, Strong Nouns Weak Nouns Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine S P S P S P S P S P S P Nom -- as -- (u) u a a an e an e an Acc -- as -- (u) e a an an e an an an Gen es a es a e a an ena an ena an ena Dat e um e um e um an um an um an um Final vowels were reduced to schwa, and finally lost, so all the feminine strong endings became the same, and the neuter simply lost the distinctive plural. The genders in the weak nouns merged, already being quite similar to begin with. -- "Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." - anonymous http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor