LL-L "Morphology" 2002.12.28 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Daniel Prohaska <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2002.12.27 (08) [E]

Ole Stig Andersen wrote:
>>Speaking of double negatives, how about double plurals?<<

The British Celtic languages have a singular noun following a numeral,
i.e. Corn. <Dew dhen>  "two men" (sg. <den> = "man, person"; pl. tus =
"men, people");

<teyr hath> three cats (sg. cath; pl.: cathas);

<pymp bledhen> five years (sg. bledhen; pl. bledhennow);

Dialectal and regional English does this a lot, as in "that`s five
pound, please"; "it´s only about ten mile" etc.

Breton has true double plurals when the diminuitive is used:

For example:

<bag> = "boat" => <bagoù> (or <bigi>) =
"boats"
<bagig> = "little boat" => sg.n. + pl.sufx. +
dim.sufx. + pl.sufx.
=> <bagoùigoù> = "little
boats"

Breton (as well as Cornish and Welsh) also have "double" pluarls in
other nouns, well, strictly speaking: collective, singulative, plural,
i.e.

Corn. <ster> = "stars" (i.e. in the sky, in general)> collective;
<steren>  = "(one) star"                        >
singulative;
<sterennow> = "(a countable amount of) stars"     > plural

Bret. <pesk> = "fish" (col.)
<pesked> = "fish" (pl.)
<peskedenn> = "(one) fish" (sg.)
<peskedennoù> = "(countable amount of) fish"

Yours, Dan

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