LL-L "Morphology" 2003.05.14 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 14.MAY.2003 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: William Parker <William.Parker at three.co.uk>
Subject: Plurals in English

Ron

Picking up Luc's comments about the old West Vlaams use of s for plurals
reminds me of the reverse situation for Kentish speech - which
historically
was based on Jutish patterns. Local dialect used to use en plurals up
until
c1900 eg Housen [houses], eyren [eggs].  Today this form of plural found
in
a few examples - children, brethren, etc.  You can see this old usage in
the
well known passage in the Canterbury tales:
" 1490. CAXTON, Eneydos, Prologue
After dyuerse werkes, made, translated, and achieued, hauing noo werke
in
hande, I sittyng in my studye where as laye many dyuerse paunflettis and
bookys, happened that to my hande cam a lytyl booke in Frenshe, whiche
late
was translated oute of Latyn by some noble clerke of Fraunce, whiche
booke
is named Eneydos, made in Latyn by that noble poete and grete clerke
Vyrgyle; whiche booke I sawe ouer and redde therm... And whan I had
aduysed
me in this sayd boke, I delybered and concluded to translate it in to
Englysshe; and forthwyth toke a penne and ynke, and wrote a leef or
tweyne,
whiche I ouersawe agayn to correcte it. And whan I sawe the fayr and
straunge termes therm, I doubted that it sholde not please some
gentylmen
whiche late blamed me, sayeng that in my translacyons I had ouer curyous
termes whiche coude not be vnderstande of comyn peple, and desired me to
vse
olde and homely termes in my translacyons. and fayn wolde I satysfye
euery
man, and so to doo, toke an olde boke and redde therm, and certaynly the
Englysshe was so rude and brood that I coude not wele vnderstande it.
And
also my lorde abbot of Westmynster ded do shewe to me late certayn
euydences
wryton in olde Englysshe for to reduce it into our Englysshe now vsid,
And
certaynly it was wreton in suche wyse that it was more lyke to Dutche
than
Englysshe; I coude not reduce ne brynge it to be vnderstonden. And
certaynly
our langage now vsed varyeth ferre (1) from that whiche was vsed and
spoken
whan I was borne. For we Englysshe men ben borne vnder the domynacyon of
the
mone, whiche is neuer stedfaste but euer wauerynge, wexynge (2) one
season,
and waneth (3) and dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn Englysshe
that
is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother. In so moche that in my
dayes
happened that certayn marchauntes were in a shippe in Tamyse (4), for to
haue sayled ouer the see into Zelande, and for Iacke of wynde thei
taryed
atte Forlond, (5) and wente to lande for to refreshe them; And one of
theym
named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam in-to an hows and axed for mete; and
specyally he axyd after eggys; And the goode wyf answerde, that she
coude
not speke no Frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude
speke
no Frenshe, but wolde haue hadde egges, and she vnderstode hym not. And
thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde haue eyren; then the good
wyf
sayd that she vnderstod hym wel. Loo (6), what sholde a man in thyse
dayes
now wryte, egges or eyren. Certaynly it is harde to playse eueryman by
cause
of dyuersite and chaunge of langage. For in these dayes euery man, that
is
in ony reputacyon in his countre, wyll vtter his commynycacyon and
maters in
suche maners and termes that fewe men shall vnderstonde theym. And some
honest and grete clerkes haue ben wyth me, and desired me to wryte the
moste
curyous termes that I coude fynde. And thus bytwene playn, rude, and
curyous, I stande abasshed; but in my iudgemente the comyn termes that
be
dayli vsed ben lyghter to be vnderstonde than the olde and auncyent
Englysshe. And for as moche as this present booke is not for a rude
vnplondyssh man to laboure therm ne rede it, but only for a clerke and a
noble gentylman that feleth and vnderstondeth in faytes of armes, in
loue,
and in noble chyualrye, therfor in a meane bytwene bothe, I haue reduced
and
translated this sayd booke in suche termes in to our Englysshe, not ouer
rude ne curyous, but in suche termes as shall be vnderstanden, by goddys
grace, accord ynge to my copye. And yf ony man wyll entermete in redyng
of
hit, and fyndeth suche termes that he can not vnderstande, late him goo
rede
and lerne Vyrgyll or the pystles of Ouyde and ther he shall see and
vnderstonde lyghtly all, yf he haue a good redar and enformer. For this
booke is not for euery rude and vnconnynge man to see but to clerkys and
very gentylmen that vnderstande gentylnes and scyence.

(1) far  (2) Growing (3) becoming smaller (4) Thames (5) near the shore
(6)
well (as conjunction)

Chaucer was writing c1350-1400 before standard London speech had been
fully
fixed, as demonstrated by some of the stnadard words he uses that are
now
unknown or archaic  - eek [cf D ook] But even in his time the trend
towards
the use of the northern [e]s plurals was well established and this trend
has
continued since.

Perhaps this trend in English illustrates the impact of key texts in
language boundary definiton, eg the bible helped in that definition
process:
- Luther's work lead to the clearer distinction between (so-called) high
and
low German, The King James of 1611 [though based on much earlier work]
was a
key milestone for the development of English, and similarly the Staten
Bijbel did much the same of Dutch - and greatly influenced the evolution
of
Afrikaans by acting as a brake on the progressive creolisation of the
language which would have occurred if the communitiy had been wholely
non-literate.

> William Parker
> Business Systems Analyst, 3
> Direct Line + 44 (0) 1628 765276
> Mobile Number + 44 (0) 7782 325572
> http://www.three.co.uk

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Morphology

Thanks for sharing that gem and your thoughts (above), William (Bill?)!
It's truly appreciated and offers a lot of food for thought.

Aside from morphological diversity, you raised interesting points about
the genesis of stratification and labeling of language varieties in the
course of standardization, illustrated very nicely by way of a snippet
of time during which Middle English was steering toward London-based
standardization (Geoffrey Chaucer, 1340~45 - 1400).  And how delightful
to read a little anecdote about inter-Lowlands communication in the 14th
century, with Zeeland mentioned (at that time probably referring to the
whole of Western Flanders)!  (This is the sort of material I'm
personally particularly keen on.)

Interesting to hear what you said about _-en_ as a plural marker in
Kentish!  I'd certainly be interested in finding out more about that.
Now, you or someone else please enlighten me on this.  So Kentish
varieties are supposed to have Jutish substrates.  Unless we talk about
different types of Jutish, I would then expect Kentish to use something
like *_-er_ to mark plurals, since Scandinavian derives plurals by means
of _-er_, _-ar_, _-or_, etc., and _-en_, _-an_, etc., is the
common-gender definite article (though, probably under Saxon, i.e.
Lowlands, influence, Southern Jutish now preposes definite articles,
such as _æ_).  _Eyren_ for 'eggs' sounds suspiciously Low Franconian
(Flemish/Dutch) to me, and I wonder if it is was brought with Frankish
settlers.  It is one of those interesting double plurals.  In Modern
Dutch the singular is _ei_, and the plural is _eieren_ (/ei+er+en/);
cf., German and Lowlands Saxon (Low German) _Ei_ -> _Eier_, versus
_Bohn(e)_ 'bean' > _Bohnen_ 'beans'.  Another, somewhat different
example of Dutch double plural is _schoen_ 'shoe' -> _schoenen_ 'shoes',
where the first plural suffix has become a part of the singular form
(*_schoe+(e)n_), cf. LS _schou_ (_Schoh_) -> (*_schoue_ > *_schöye_ >)
_schöy_ (_Schöh_), German _Schuh_ -> _Schuhe_.  Please also note Scots
_schae_ 'shoe' -> _schuin_ 'shoes'!

Thanks again!
Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.: Learning Chaucer's English:
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/less-0.htm

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