>I just looked it up. Example 'die blauen Jungs' "matrosen". And
>under 'Mädel' pl. -s (umgsp.), -n (oberdt.). That sounds to me
>like plural -s is nothern, thus platt. Perhaps you don't
>recognize innerdeutsch loans? ;-)
It is said of the _s-ending_ that it is of Niederdeutsch
(Plattdeutsch) origin (for the s-plural construction). That's
right. "Pluralendung -s (diese ist aus dem Niederdeutschen
[bei anderen Wörtern aus dem Französischen oder Englischen]
übernommen und hat sich bei einigen Wörtern eingebürgert,
vor allem bei Tiernamen und --> Kurzwörtern, die auf einen
Vokal ausgehen: /Uhus, Zebras; Akkus, Unis, Hochs, Tiefs/"
(from Wahrig, Deutsches Wörterbuch, the introductory part
of it, grammar) as well as Mädels, Jungs, Kerls, Muttis,
Vatis, Omas, Opas ... (hoch, tief, Uhu, Mädel, Jung(e), Kerl,
Mutti, Vati, Oma, Opa are no(t only) niederdeutsche words,
but also mittel- and oberdeutsche or rather mittel-/ober-
deutsche than niederdeutsche variants.)
>The explanation I've seen is that it's short for Müllers
>Haus etc.
Müllers Haus = Müller's Haus = das Haus der Person
namens Müller. But in that house live... the Müllers
-> "in jenem Haus wohnen die Müllers".
>That genitive apostrophe thing appears in Danish too. I believe
>it's a recent influence from English.
In German "Rechtschreibung" it is recommended since 1902
(or 1904? - I'm lazy to look it up in the same Wahrig now :-)
that one writes Müllers and not longer Müller's. But virtually
nobody gives a darn on the recommendation, so that from
Schleswig to Konstanz and Aachen to Vienna most signs read
Maier's Bäckerei, Müller's Brauerei etc. (I don't know how
it is on Bahnhofstr. in Zürich. :))
But BTW the s-genitive which in German is also used
to build composita: then, it's called "Fugen-s" or "Binde-s".
In this category, it happens in certain lexical circumst. that
Oberdeutsch-speaking Germans surpass their "Nordlichter"
brethren, i.e. Niederdeutsch-speakers. Example: Schweinebraten
as Hochdeutsch + North German. But Schweinsbraten South-German,
esp. Bavarian (Austrian is also Bavarian). And no Schweinehaxe,
but Schweinshax(')n. :)
(Another example (rather a sociolectic one): Schadenersatz
(compensation pay) in general, and Schadensersatz in particular,
i.e. in a stricter style used by justices, attorneys, solicitors
etc.)
>Torsten
George
PS: Heide Wegener, Die Pluralbildung im Deutschen. Ein
Versuch im Rahmen der Optimalitätstheorie
http://www.linguistik-online.de/3_99/wegener.html
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