Re: English Changes or what into Conlangs

 > Sally Caves wrote:
>> Which leads me to wonder: what is the status of the "s" plural
>> in Indo-European nouns and in Latin?  Where did the Old French speakers
>> get it, and why did it become standard there as well?
>
>>From the accusative plural endings -as (feminine) and -os (masculine) -
> I think both those vowels were long, but I'm not sure.  Anyways, in Late
> Latin, fourth and fifth declinsions were absorbed by first and second,
> so that the nouns were inflected thusly:
>
>       1st        2nd        3rd
>     S     P     S     P    S    P
> Nom os    i     a     e?   (e)  es
> Obl o     os    a     as   (e)  es
>
In reading this thread I immediately thought of Lehmannn's Theoretical Bases
of Indo-European (1993).  In this book he gives a sample reconstructed
paradigm of the Proto-Indo-European noun:
                   singular   plural
Nominative     -s, -0     -es
Vocative          -0        -es
Accusative       -m       -ns
Instrumental  -bh/mi   -bh/mis
Dative           -ey         -bh(y)/mos
Ablative         -e/od    -bh(y)/mos
Genitive         -(e/o)s  -om
Locative       -i, -0       -su

So I would argue that -s is the characteristic Indo-European plural marker.
Of course, in various phonological environments, it shifted to other things,
but I feel that it presence in the proto-language supports the idea that
s-plural in English could be from a number of sources since all the sources
ultimately derive from PIE.

-Doug