Re: Rules to add -s/-es endings to English nouns

On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:30 -0400, Padraic Brown
<elemtilas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:28:05 -1000, John Swindle <jcswindle@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jul 2008 18:13:58 -0700 (PDT), Visa Inquirer
<visa_desirer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am trying to understand how English plurals form.

There are some rules in http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/crump.htm.
But many items there cause questions.

Rule: ... (add) -es to those singulars that end in a sibilant sound (/
s/, /z/, /ts/, /dz/).
But why then quiz has plural quizzes?


If we saw quiz, quizes, we might think the sound of the first vowel
had changed, as in "quit" vs "quite". That's probably why the "z" is
doubled. But note that the plural of "bus" is either "buses" or
"busses".

I'd naturally read a vowel change in the former, though of course can
compensate, reasoning that the writer probably doesn't actually intend
the plural of buse.


And the same of course would go for quizes, but I wasn't arguing that
this stuff's regular. For me to accept Peter T. Daniels' view that
the English plurals were once regular and that the exceptions can now
be listed--which may of course be true--would be to accept that I
should now be able to spell them, which somehow seems an unacceptable
conclusion.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Synopsis
    ... the last couple of letters and make it regular. ... irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor ... Old English noun was, ...
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  • Re: Synopsis
    ... the last couple of letters and make it regular. ... irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor ... Old English noun was, pronounced roughly like modern ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Structure and complexity
    ... >> Colin Fine wrote: ... Did PIE have such irregularities? ... > regular' than another, ... of French introduced the s suffix for plurals of some words but not ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Synopsis
    ... the last couple of letters and make it regular. ... irregular plurals, I see them as regular plurals of minor ... Old English noun was, pronounced roughly like modern ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)