LL-L: "Morphology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.MAY.2000 (05) [E]

[Ian James Parsley]

Mike,

I would suggest there are a few others, most notably 'child-children'. The
vowel change in pairs such as 'foot-feet' would also be conservative.

Ulster-Scots has retained several plurals in -n, such as 'een' (eyes),
'treen' (trees), and in fact 'oosen' (oxen). One of these also has a vowel
change, 'shae-shuin' (shoes).

There is a particularly interesting plural formation with 'beast-beece'
(beasts), with vowel modification and reduction (loss of the last
consonantal sound) - the only other example I've come across of a plural
being formed by losing a final sound was in Letzeburgish (though typically I
can't remember it now!)

Best,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
0772 0951736
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"