The origin of plural endings in Modern English nouns.

Most changes occurred to the Noun in ME.

Number: The quantity of the Number endings was reduced as far as the declensions disappeared. The markers of the Plural became more uniform (-s, -en, root-sound interchange). The preference of the consonantal endings can be explained by the fact that the vowels were more apt to change and reduction then the consonants that in general proved to be more stable.

In late ME the ending -es was the prevalent marker of nouns in the pl. In Early NE it extended to more nouns – to the new words of the growing E. vocabulary and to many words, which built their plural in different way in ME or employed –es as one of the variant endings.

The ME pl. ending –en used as a variant marker with some nouns lost its former productivity, so that in standard Mod E it is found only in oxen, brethren, and children.

The small group of ME nouns with homonymous forms of number (ME deer, hors, thing0 has been further reduced to 3 ‘exceptions’ in Mod E: deer, sheep, swine.

It follows that the majority of E nouns have preserved and even reinforced the formal distinction on Number in the Comm. Case. Meanwhile they have practically lost 3 distinctions in the Gen. case, for Gen. has a distinct form in the pl only with nouns whose pl ending is not –es.

Despite the regular neutralization of number distinctions in the Gen. case we can say that differentiation of Number in nouns has become more explicit and more precise. The functional load and the frequency of occurrence of the Comm. Case are certainly much higher than those of the Gen.; therefore the regular formal distinction of Number in the Comm. Case is more important than its neutralization in the Gen. case.

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