irrregular plurals

[gilbert read]

-        I am asking this question purely out of idle
curiosity and not in relation to any project thesis or
whatever.
         Does anyone know of any language where the
singular and plural of a significant number of NOUNS
are formed from historically unrelated stems?
         In English we have many nouns with irregular
plurals but in nearly all cases it is apparent that
they were originally formed from the same or cognate
stems.
         Examples
man/men, stigma/stigmata, foot/feet, mouse/mice
cow/kine, ox/oxen, shelf/shelves
The only example I can think of in English where the
singular and plural of a noun are formed from
unrelated stems is the rather weak one of
person/people
when used in some contexts like
How many people can you see?
(By contrast in many languages singular and plurals of
pronouns and verb forms use apparently completely
unrelated stems. e.g. he is/they are)
I can only see one person.

I've gone through the grammars of numerous languages
on the shelf in the State Library in Melbourne and the
case seems similar for all languages in grammars on
the shelves.
For example, in all examples of irregualar plurals in
Fila Island language(Vanuatu) that I could find one
could surmise that historically they were originally
formed from the same stems.
Just a few examples
tefine(woman)fafine(women),
teriki(chief)/fitoriki(chiefs),
tangata(man)/taangata(men)
        I am sure you can think of examples in
languages with which you are familiar.
        Please keep replies as brief as possible
because as I said I've asked the question purely out
of idle curiosity.


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