Re: English compared to other European languages

Rasmus Underbjerg Pinnerup wrote:
> Seán O'Leathlóbhair wrote:

>> Did the simplification occur naturally or was it helped along by a
>> deliberate language reform?

> Quite naturally, I believe, by a number of processes. Can deliberate
> language reforms even influence such things?

> Only in the 20th century were the last remains of a singular-plural
> contrast ("vi er" vs. "vi ere") stricken from the orthography, but the
> difference in pronunciation must have disappeared quite a long time ago.

Peder Syv (1631-1702) noted that the plural forms had disappeared from the
spoken language and his contemporary Henrik Gerner (1629-1700) even
suggested that the written language ought to be changed to reflect this. In
some manuscripts of "Jyske Lov" (a law text from 1241), we find passages
like <alle the thær thennæ bok ser> where the singular form <ser> is used
instead of the plural <se>.

Thus, the disappearence of the plural forms from the spoken language was
complete some 400 years ago at the latest and they had begun to disappear
at least 700 years ago. Gerner's wish did not come true until about 1900.
Talk about conservatism.

--
Torsten
.

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