On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 09:46:24 +0100 (MET), Harald Hammarstrom
<
haha2581@...> wrote:
>> > Northern Middle English uses s-plurals, as far as I know?
>>
>> Everybody used -es plurals (< OE masculine -as) in Middle English.
>
>I was under the impression that -s plurals in modern English were
>due to French influence!? Does the Dutch -s plural also have an
>indigenous progenitor?
Yes. The situation in Dutch is different in that different dialects are
involved. Masculine o-stems in West Germanic had either generalized the
nom. form *-o:siz (OE -as, OS -os) or the acc. form *-anz (OHG -a, OLF -a).
Dutch is mainly based on Old Lower Franconian, which is why most plurals
don't have -s (they have the weak plural ending -en instead, which in the
masc. o-stems replaced -a > -e, -0). The s-plural in Dutch spread from the
Saxon area as an alternative for plurals in -en. In modern Dutch, it is
the plural of choice for native Gmc. words ending in the suffixes
-er(d)/-aar(d), -el, -em, -en, and all diminutives. It is also used as the
plural for many words borrowed from French.
What was the Old Frisian o-stem masc.pl.?
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...