[Lexicog] Re: lexical entries as singulars or plurals

[Fritz Goerling]

Nice creative invention of a German-sounding plural "bageln" in English,
David!
Here are some plural-endings in German which are totally irregular and which
I  cannot explain having learnt them automatically since childhood:

      sg.                                          pl.
der Schlüssel (key)       die Schlüssel
dieSchüssel  (bowl)      die Schüssel- n
die Katze (cat)               die Katze-n
der Hund (dog)              die Hund-e
das Kind (child)             die Kind-er
das Haus (house)          die Häus-er
die Maus (mouse)         die Mäus-e
das Auto (car)                die Auto-s
der Hafen (harbour)       die Häf-en
das Dorf (village)           die Dörf-er

I can understand that foreigners have problems to memorize all these
irregularities

So the question in the subject line "lexical entries as singulars or
plurals" should be
for German "lexical entries as singulars and plurals."

Fritz Goerling



  Cool! (I just invented bageln for fun.)

  --David T

  billposer at alum.mit.edu wrote:

  > Dave Tuggy wrote:
  > >>Go for it, Fritz! And eat lots of loxen and bageln along the way.
  >
  > Actually, if memory serves me right (my Yiddish is not the best),
  > bagel has the irregular plural bagelach, on the same pattern
  > as kinderlach "children".
  >
  > --
  > Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
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