four corners of the definition. The remaining method is not a grammatical process: in such pairs of words as brother, sister; boy, girl; bull, cow, the difference of gender is marked, not by a modification in the form of one of the words, but by the use of words wholly unconnected with each other.

88. (3) Gender marked by the Use of Different Words. As examples of these correlatives, or pairs of words not grammatically connected, take the following in addition to those given above:-boar, sow; buck, doe; bullock or steer, heifer; colt, filly; drake, duck; earl, countess; drone, queen-bee; gaffer, gammer; gander, goose; hart, roe or hind; monk, nun; ram, ewe; sire, dam; wizard, witch; sloven, slut; bachelor, maid or spinster.

These words deserve notice:

Drake was once end-rake; the end was the significant part, meaning duck, as Ente does in German to-day, and the rake was a mere suffix, meaning 'lord' or 'male.' Thus two-thirds of the important part, the root, have been lost, and one-third, a single letter, has been kept, with the whole of the masculine ending. It is as if the word actress were decapitated and reduced to tress.

Lord is loaf-ward, 'bread-guardian': lady contains the same root loaf, and possibly meant originally 'loaf-kneader.'

Gaffer is a corruption of 'grandfather,' gammer of 'grandmother.' Sir=sire=senior; madam=mea domina, 'my lady.'

Wizard comes from Old Eng. wīs, 'wise,' with suffix -ard added, not from the English witch, though both words have originally the same

root.

Woman wife+man, not 'wife of man,' but 'wife-person.'

=

89. It is evident that in almost all cases the feminine is formed from the masculine. In the following words this order is reversed:

Bridegroom, the masculine of bride, was originally bryd-guma, or 'bride's-man,' in German bräutigam. Guma meant 'a man' in Old English.

Gander comes from the same root as goose, the German for which is gans. The d has crept in between the n and the last syllable, as in tender and gender (Latin tener, gen-er-is).

Widower has been formed from widow.

QUESTIONS.

I. Give the feminine form or word corresponding to mayor, bullcalf, murderer, milkman, ogre, peacock, marquis, testator, czar, sultan, fox, earl.

2. Give the masculine form or word corresponding to roe, hind, nun, countess, landlady, doe-rabbit, abbess, traitress, margravine, spinster, bride, lass.

3. Write the feminine words corresponding to hero, giant, sorcerer, ram, stag, and the masculine words corresponding to duck, heifer, goose, empress, executrix.

4. Give two examples under each of the following heads:

(1) Nouns of common gender:

(2) Nouns in which the termination -ster is without a feminine force:

(3) Nouns in which the masculine has been formed from the feminine:

(4) Feminine Nouns without corresponding masculines.

[Only a few examples of (4) are to be found; e.g. brunette, dowager, milliner, laundress, shrew, virago.]

5. If we personify the objects indicated by the following names, which of them should we speak of as she?-Earth, Sun, Moon, Night, Death, Love, Nature, Winter, War, Justice, Time, Liberty.

86

CHAPTER X.

INFLEXION OF NOUNS.-II. NUMBER.

90. Number is an inflexion which shows whether we are speaking of one thing or of more than one.

When we speak of one thing, the form of the noun is singular; when of more than one thing, the form of the noun is plural. In Greek there was a dual number with separate inflexions, used when two things were spoken of, and English once had a dual number in the personal pronouns. But the absence of a dual from modern English is not a matter for regret. It is enough to distinguish between one and more than one; to distinguish between one, two, and more than two, is a needless refinement.

91. The ways of forming plurals in English nouns are shown in the following classified scheme, which should be learnt by heart :—

Table of Plural Forms.

I. Add -s to the singular.

II. Add -es to the singular of

1. Nouns ending in a sibilant, viz., s, z, sh, x, ch.

2.

Nouns ending in ƒ or fe, if of English origin and preceded by / or by a long vowel; change ƒ into v.

3. Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant; change y into ¿.

III.

Archaic or Old English forms:

I. Add -en, ox-en.

2.

Add -er, child-(e)r-en.

(3. Change the vowel: men, geese.

IV. Foreign forms:

92.

Ancient; seraphim, phenomena, appendices.
Modern; banditti, mesdames.

Remarks on the Table of Plural Forms.

I. The ordinary mode of forming a plural in modern English is to add -s in writing: thus a new word like telephone or cablegram takes s. If however a word is borrowed directly from a foreign language, it may retain the form of the plural which it had in that foreign language. Such a word is then said to be 'imperfectly naturalized'; it has not yet become an English subject.

Observe however that though we add s in writing, we often add z in pronunciation. We have seen that if a surd s is added to a word ending in a sonant, either the inflexion s or the last letter of the noun must be altered. Both sounds must be sonant or both must be surd; otherwise it is difficult to pronounce them in the same syllable. Thus we write slabs, pods, hogs, but we pronounce these words slabz, podz, hogz. To pronounce them slaps, pots, hocks, preserving the true sound of the s, would be to obscure the nouns themselves.

II. This inflexion in s is a survival of the older form of the plural in -es.

I.

The inflexion es as a separate syllable is necessarily retained to make the plurals of nouns ending in a sibilant sound. For if we add s to words with s, z, sh, x, or ch, for their last letter, such as gas, topaz, bush, box, church, the s thus added cannot be pronounced. As we have seen, x is an abbreviation of ks, so words ending in a really end in S. The ch of which we speak here is the ch of arch, beech, and is really a compound of t+sh, so the sibilants enumerated above are reducible to three, viz., s, z, sh. The hard ch of monarch and the ch of the Scotch loch take s.

2. For the formation of plurals of nouns ending in an ƒ sound, it is impossible to state concisely a rule which shall cover all instances. The rule, as we have stated it, is rather complicated, yet some words evade it. The following nouns illustrate the rule: leaf, loaf, calf, wife, wolf, self, for these words are of English origin and the vowel is long, if short, the ƒ is preceded by l. On the other hand, the long vowel sound oo in roof, hoof, is not followed by -ves: these words take s. Staff, though of English origin and with long vowel, has for its plural

or,

both staves and staffs. Strife, safe, brief, chief, proof, take s conformably with the rule, as they are not of English origin, but come from the French. But beef is exceptional in making beeves, as it is a French word. Wharf, dwarf, scarf, turf, are found with plurals in both forms, fs and ves.

3. There is hardly anything in the nature of an exception to the rule respecting nouns ending in y. A word like soliloquy, which makes its plural in ies, looks as if it were an exception, but it really follows the rule, for the combination qu has the force of kw, which is a consonantal sound. Perhaps the only established exception is flys, meaning 'carriages,' and inn-keepers can scarcely be blamed for refraining from advertising Flies on hire.' Some words in ey are occasionally found with their plural in ies, e.g. monies, but it is better to spell them according to the rule.

4. With regard to nouns in o, it is difficult to discover any principle which determines whether their plurals are in s or in es. Many of our words in o are of Italian origin, and these take s, as do all nouns in io. The nouns in o which take es are usually of earlier introduction. Cargo, echo, hero, potato, negro, take es: canto, solo, alto, piano, folio, oratorio, take s.

Observation and practice are required to enable us to form the plurals of nouns in ƒ or in o correctly. Rules are of little or no use for the purpose. Still it is our business in dealing with grammar to search out the principles, if such there are, on which the rules are based, although the rules when we get them may be insufficient guides.

III. Old English forms, other than es and s, which survive in modern English are few.

I. Oxen is the only modern English word which presents us with the form en simply. Chicken is not a plural form, though it is used as such in country districts. Kine is a double plural: cow in Old English modified its vowel to form the plural and became cy, as mouse becomes mice, and the plural inflexion en was also added. Swine however is not the plural of sow. In Old English several neuter nouns of one syllable, such as swine, sheep, deer, folk, underwent no change of their singular form when they were used in the plural number.

2. Child-er-en is a double plural, the er being one sign of the plural and the en another. No other word preserves for us the inflexion er with a plural force. Brethren is a double plural, brother having already modified its vowel to mark the plural, before en was added. But the -r- in brethren, unlike the r in children, belongs to the original word, and is not an inflexion.

3.

There are only six nouns, in addition to the double forms mentioned above, which change their vowel to mark the plural: man, foot, tooth, goose, mouse, louse.