s-plurals as creolism

Nielsen: "'Continental Old English' and s-Plurals in Old and Middle
Dutch" mentions that the appearance of -as-plurals in Old Dutch (or
Old English): 11-century 'hebban alla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase
hic anda thu'. Note -as in the pl. of a _neuter_ noun. This is the
road to gender collapse.
M.Du. -s "first cropped up in the South-West, the same area,
conveniently enough, in which <nestas>, <geldindas>, etc, are
associated". Nielsen speculates that there may have been influence
from English settlers in the Calais area, or descendants of the -thun
inhabitants.
Plural -s, as opposed to -as proves to be a problem; no intervening
form -es has been recorded. The nearest English dialects prefer -(e)
n, the nearest French ones does not unambiguously have pl. -s.

BTW, if Nordwestblockese did have a plural -os (Eud-os-i) which was
transferred to early Germanic in that area, it would have become -s,
as opposed to -as > es.

Torsten