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> The answer is that the -s plural is from the Vikings/Norse Which is interesting, because modern Swedish has an -n plural (among other plurals) and no -s plur
by phamilton 8y ago
> The answer is that the -s plural is from the Vikings/Norse
Which is interesting, because modern Swedish has an -n plural (among other plurals) and no -s plural. Compare ögon (eyes) and öron (ears) with their old english eyen and earen. I guess it would follow that Swedish had a lot of Angle Saxon influence in its evolution.
- empath75 8y agoIt’s actually more that the Old Norse and Old English had different endings and the Vikings didn’t bother to figure out the English system. I don’t think they know whether the -s is from a Norse ending or whether the Norse settled on -s for other reasons. The simplified version eventually spread because England was a mixture of various ethnicities for centuries and you’d have different variants of English from one town to the next— and after the Vikings you had the normans. I think it’s the equivalent of the guy I was eating with at a restaurant in Nicaragua who yelled to the waitress ‘honey, el forko por favor?’ Like, there was an attempt at Spanish.
- phamilton 8y ago> I don’t think they know whether the -s is from a Norse ending or whether the Norse settled on -s for other reasons I think you misunderstood... Modern Swedish doesn't have the -s ending at all for plurals. My point is that somehow that got lost.