A double plural is a plural form to which an extra suffix has been added, mainly because the original plural suffix (or other variation) had become unproductive and therefore irregular. So the form as a whole was no longer seen as a plural, an instance of morphological leveling. For example, if "geese" (the plural) became the word for "goose" (the singular) in a future version of English, a word geeses might become the licit plural form.
Examples of this can be seen in the history of English and Dutch. Historically, the general English plural markers were not only -s or -en but also (in certain specific declensions) -ra/-ru (which is still rather general today in German under the form -er). The ancient plural of child was "cildra/cildru", to which an -en suffix was later added when the -ra/-ru became unproductive; the Dutch plural form kind-er-en and the corresponding Zeelandic form kind-er-s are also double plurals which were formed in the same way as the English double plurals, while for example German and Limburgian have (historically conservative) single plurals such as Kind-er.
Breeches is an example involving an old plural that did not use a suffix. It was formerly breech which came from Old English brec which was the plural of broc.
References
Look up double plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
double, plural, confused, with, reduplicated, plural, this, article, does, cite, sources, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jst. Not to be confused with Reduplicated plural This article does not cite any sources Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Double plural news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message A double plural is a plural form to which an extra suffix has been added mainly because the original plural suffix or other variation had become unproductive and therefore irregular So the form as a whole was no longer seen as a plural an instance of morphological leveling For example if geese the plural became the word for goose the singular in a future version of English a word geeses might become the licit plural form Examples of this can be seen in the history of English and Dutch Historically the general English plural markers were not only s or en but also in certain specific declensions ra ru which is still rather general today in German under the form er The ancient plural of child was cildra cildru to which an en suffix was later added when the ra ru became unproductive the Dutch plural form kind er en and the corresponding Zeelandic form kind er s are also double plurals which were formed in the same way as the English double plurals while for example German and Limburgian have historically conservative single plurals such as Kind er Breeches is an example involving an old plural that did not use a suffix It was formerly breech which came from Old English brec which was the plural of broc References Edit Look up double plural in Wiktionary the free dictionary This linguistic morphology article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Double plural amp oldid 1162919461, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
