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Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE: [CONLANG] Optimum number of symbols

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Saturday, May 25, 2002, 19:50
Quoting And Rosta <a-rosta@...>:

> Jan van Steenbergen: > > --- And Rosta wrote: > > > > > > man:men, woman:women, foot:feet, goose:geese, tooth:teeth, > mouse:mice, > > > > child:children, ox:oxen, fish:fish, shrimp:shrimp, deer:deer, > sheep:sheep, > > > > moose:moose, elk:elk, salmon:salmon, herring:herring, bison:bison, > > > > calf:calves, half:halves, hoof:hooves, elf:elves, knife:knives, > > > > life:lives, wife:wives, loaf:loaves, self:selves, shelf:shelves, > > > > thief:thieves, leaf:leaves, scarf:scarves, wolf:wolves. > > > > Wouldn't "brethren" belong to this category as well? > > Yes, actually. > > My sense is that in contemporary English, _brethren_, like _police_, > lacks a singular, and hence does not belong in the above list. But > _brethren_ and __police_ remain irregulars in not taking the -s > plural.
That's not my experience. Inasmuch as I've ever heard the plural "brethren" used at all, it has always been used in circumstances, often in religious orders, where the singular "brother" was quite accessible. It's just that "brethren" as a plural is very very sociolinguistically restricted. ===================================================================== Thomas Wier "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n / Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..." University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought / 1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn" Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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And Rosta <a-rosta@...>