Reduplicated plural
Encyclopedia
A reduplicated plural is a grammatical form achieved by the superfluous use of a second plural
ending.
the plural is usually formed with the addition of 's': e.g. one cat, two cats; one chair, two chairs. In the Sussex dialect
, however, until relatively recently there existed a reduplicated plural: e.g. one ghost, two ghostes/ghostesses; one post, two postes/postesses (note that here the Sussex pluralisation instead of adding just 's' after 'st', adds either 'es' as its usual plural, or a reduplicated 'esses'. Kipling in Puck of Pook's Hill
uses the Sussex reduplicated plural, employing for example 'pharisees' for fairies.
For the case when two different plural endings have historically been added on to a word (but one of them is no longer synchronically felt to have to have plural force, or even to be a distinct morpheme), see Double plural
.
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
ending.
Example
In EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
the plural is usually formed with the addition of 's': e.g. one cat, two cats; one chair, two chairs. In the Sussex dialect
Sussex dialect
The Sussex dialect is a dialect that was once widely spoken by those living in the historic county of Sussex in southern England. Much of the distinctive vocabulary of Sussex dialect has now died out...
, however, until relatively recently there existed a reduplicated plural: e.g. one ghost, two ghostes/ghostesses; one post, two postes/postesses (note that here the Sussex pluralisation instead of adding just 's' after 'st', adds either 'es' as its usual plural, or a reduplicated 'esses'. Kipling in Puck of Pook's Hill
Puck of Pook's Hill
Puck of Pook's Hill is a historical fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history. The stories are all narrated to two children living near Burwash, in the area of Kipling's own house Bateman's, by people...
uses the Sussex reduplicated plural, employing for example 'pharisees' for fairies.
For the case when two different plural endings have historically been added on to a word (but one of them is no longer synchronically felt to have to have plural force, or even to be a distinct morpheme), see Double plural
Double plural
A double plural is a plural form to which an extra suffix has been added, mainly because the original plural suffix had become improductive and therefore irregular. So the form as a whole was no longer seen as a plural .Examples of this can be seen in the history of English and Dutch...
.