Part 39 (1/2)

OBS 8--When inanis are spoken to, they are _personified_; and their naure the objects are _supposed_ to be capable of hearing: as, ”What ailed thee, _O thou sea_, that thou fleddest? _thou Jordan_, that thou wast driven back? _Ye mountains_, that ye skipped like rams; and _ye little hills_, like lambs?

Tremble, _thou earth_, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob”--_Psalrauish unity and plurality

There are two nuular number_ is that which denotes but one; as, ”The _boy learns_”

The _plural number_ is that which denotes more than one; as, ”The _boys learn_”

The plural nu _s_ or _es_ to the singular: as, _book, books; box, boxes; sofa, sofas; hero, heroes_

When the singular ends in a sound which will unite with that of _s_, the plural is generally for _s only_, and the nurapes_

But when the sound of _s_ cannot be united with that of the priular plural adds _s_ to final _e_, and _es_ to other teres; fox, foxes_

OBSERVATIONS

OBS 1--The distinction of numbers serves merely to shohether we speak of one object, or of es, as the Greek and the Arabic, there is a _dual_ number, which denotes _two_, or a _pair_; but in ours, this property of words, or class of uish unity fros to nouns, pronouns, and finite verbs; and to these it is always applied, either by peculiarity of form, or by inference from the principles of concord pronouns are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their subjects, in nu the plural of English nouns, is that of si to them an _s_; which, when it unites with a sharp consonant, is always sharp, or hissing; and when it follows a vowel or a flat enerally flat, like _z_: thus, in the words, _shi+ps, skiffs, pits, rocks, depths, lakes, gulfs_, it is sharp; but in _seas, lays, rivers, hills, ponds, paths, roebs, flags_, it is flat The terular plural in _es_, with increase of syllables, are twelve; nae, ch_ soft, _che_ soft, _sh, ss, s, se, x, xe, z_, and _ze_: as in _face, faces; age, ages; torch, torches; niche, niches; dish, dishes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebuses; lens, lenses; chaise, chaises; corpse, corpses; nurse, nurses; box, boxes; axe, axes; phiz, phizzes; s readily unite in sound either with the sharp or with the flat _s_, as they themselves are sharp or flat; and, to avoid an increase of syllables, we allow the final _e_ mute to remain mute after that letter is added: thus, ays pronounce as monosyllables the words _babes, blades, strifes, tithes, yokes, scales, names, canes, ropes, shores, plates, doves_, and the like

OBS 3--Though the irregular plurals of our language appear considerably nuether, they are in fact very few in comparison with the ular In soh uniform in speech; an unsettlement peculiar to certain words that terminate in vowels: as, _Rabbis_, or _rabbies; octavos_, or _octavoes; attornies_, or _attorneys_

There are also so the plurals of nouns, and especially respecting those of foreign words; of compound terms; of naard to the nu all these puzzling points of English gra observations

OBS 4--It is a general rule of English gra with a vowel preceded by an other vowel, shall for an _s_: as, _Plea, pleas; idea, ideas; hernia, hernias; bee, bees; lie, lies; foe, foes; shoe, shoes; cue, cues; eye, eyes; folio, folios; bamboo, bamboos; cuckoo, cuckoos; embryo, embryos; bureau, bureaus; purlieu, purlieus; sou, sous; view, views; straw, straws; play, plays; key, keys; uys_ To this rule, the plurals of words ending in _quy_, as _alloquies, colloquies, obloquies, soliloquies_, are commonly made exceptions; because many have conceived that the _u_, in such instances, is athe power of _w_, and not a vowel for with the _y_ All other deviations from the rule, as _monies_ for _moneys, allies_ for _alleys, vallies_ for _valleys, chimnies_ for _chimneys_, &c, are now usually conde

OBS 5--It is also a general principle, that nouns ending in _y_ preceded by a consonant, change the _y_ into _i_, and add _es_ for the plural, without increase of syllables: as, _fly, flies; ally, allies; city, cities; colony, colonies_ So nouns in _i_, (so far as we have any that are susceptible of a change of nu _es_: as, _alkali, alkalies; sal in _y_ preceded by a consonant, are nu rule of for the plural: thus, _duty, duties_ The tered into _i_, according to the general principle expressed in Rule 11th for Spelling

But, to this principle, or rule, some writers have supposed that _proper nouns_ were to be accounted exceptions And accordingly we sometimes find such names made plural by the oras'_, [it should be, _the Pythagorases_,] the _Aristotles_, the _Tullys_, the _Livys_, to appear, even to us at this distance, as stars of the first nity_, Vol

i, p 131 This doctrine, adopted frorammars, I was myself, at one period, inclined to countenance; (see _Institutes of English Gra ledthe _y_ than for retaining it, I shall by-and-by exhibit soe, and leave the reader to take his choice of the two forms, or principles

OBS 6--The vowel _a_, at the end of a word, (except in the questionable teruinea_,) has always its Italian or middle sound, as heard in the interjection _aha!_ a sound which readily unites with that of _s_ flat, and which ought, in deliberate speech, to be carefully preserved in plurals fro: as, _Canada, the Canadas; cupola, cupolas; comma, commas; anathema, anathemas_ To pronounce the final _a_ flat, as _Africay_ for _Africa_, is a norance

OBS 7--The vowel _e_ at the end of a word, is generally silent; and, even when otherwise, it re; the _es_, whenever the _e_ is vocal, being sounded _eez_, or like the word _ease_: as, _apostrophe, apostrophes; epito anomalous in respect to pronunciation, so the _e_ to _y_ in the singular, and writing _ies_ for the plural: as, _apostrophy, apostrophies; epitomy, epitomies; simily, similies_ A reformation of soe of being first proposed; but it is not extensively adopted, and perhaps never will be; for the vowel sound in question, is not exactly that of the terminations _y_ and _ies_, but one which seeh si in open _o_ preceded by a consonant, the regular_es_; as in _bilboes, uambadoes, barricadoes, fumadoes, carbonadoes, tornadoes, bravadoes, torpedoes, innuendoes, viragoes, oes, echoes, buffaloes, volcanoes, heroes, negroes, potatoes, manifestoes, mulattoes, stilettoes, woes_ In words of this class, the _e_ appears to be useful as a ht sound of the _o_; consequently, such of them as are the most frequently used, have becoraphy In practice, however, we find many similar nouns very frequently, if not uniforrottos, solos, quartos, octavos, duodecimos, tyros_ So that even the best scholars seeht to regard as the _regular_ one The whole class includes more than one hundred words Some, however, are seldom used in the plural; and others, never

_Wo_ and _potato_ are so from a notion, that such as have the _e_ in the plural, should have it also in the singular But this principle has never been carried out; and, being repugnant to derivation, it probably never will be The only English appellatives that are established in _oe_, are the following fourteen: seven monosyllables, _doe, foe, roe, shoe, sloe, soe, toe_; and seven longer words, _rockdoe, aloe, felloe, canoe, misletoe, tiptoe, diploe_ The last is pronounced _dip'-lo-e_ by Worcester; but Webster, Bolles, and soive it as a word of two syllables only[142]

OBS 9--Established exceptions ought to be enumerated and treated as exceptions; but it is impossible to remember horite sorenados, stilettoes_ and _palmettos_, if they are allowed to differ in termination, as these exauide his pen, even Johnson hiraphy of the coh to _copy_ it tithout inconsistency This o_ and _potargo_ Since, therefore, either termination is preferable to the uncertainty which must attend a division of this class of words between the two; and since _es_ has so a better index to the sound; I shallin _o_ preceded by a consonant take _es_ for the plural Murray says, ”_Nouns which_ end in _o_ have soo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, volcano, wo: and solio”--_Octavo Gra, unless it is to be inferred from his _examples_, that others like thely; and this is what I teach, though it cannot be said that Murray maintains the principle

OBS 10--Proper names of _individuals_, strictly used as such, have no plural But when several persons of the saree common, and admits of the plural form and an article; as, ”_The Stuarts, the Caesars_”--_W Allen's Gram_, p 41

These, however, ; because they are only inflections, peculiarly applied, of certain names which are indisputably such So likehen such nouns are used to denote character: as, ”_Solomons_, for wise men; _Neros_, for tyrants”--_Ib_ ”Here we see it becomes a doubt which of the two _Herculeses_, was the monster-queller”--_Notes to Pope's Dunciad_, iv, 492 The proper naenerally plural; and, except in a direct address, they are usually construed with the definite article: as, ”_The Greeks, the Athenians, the Jews, the Jesuits_” But such words ular form with the indefinite article, as often as we have occasion to speak of an individual of such a people; as, ”_A Greek, an Athenian, a Jew, a Jesuit_” These, too, may be called _proper nouns_; because they are national, patrial, or tribal na to some place or people, and are not appellatives, which refer to actual sorts or kinds, not considered local