5. Of strong plurals, besides men and its compounds, ky and brethir by change of vowel (Umlaut), we have eyn(e) (A.S. eagan), with singular e or ey (VI. 523), oxin or oxyne (X. 381, 388), schoyne (II. 510). These (with hosen and fan (faes)) are the only plurals in n preserved in Northern English.
6. Some old neuters (A.S.) take no inflection in the plural: deir, hors, etc.; hous has hous and housis (X. 60, etc.), but cf. on (4) (note); thing has thing (XI. 27, etc.) and thingis. Cf. also gudis and gude (XVII. 517, 521). One form is in er or ir, childer (XII. 246) or childir (XVII. 515), A.S. cildru.
7. Nouns indicating time, space, quantity, weight, and number are unchanged in the plural: fifty yheir (in I. 522 occurs ten yheris, quite an exceptional case), tuelf moneth, six and fourty wyntir (A.S. plural also winter), twa myle, tuenty thousand pund, etc. For paris in C (XIII. 463), E reads payr. In XII. 234 C has thre gret avantage, where E gives avantagis, but reads vasselagis (!) to rhyme.
8. Only men suffers inflection in the plural possessive: the Inglis menis fewte (VIII. 19), of othir mennis landis (XI. 148). In till Scottis men possessioune (XVII. 202) we may have, as Henschel suggests,[184] a piece of “scribal carelessness;” but Hampole undoubtedly uses this as a valid form:
“Sal dede men banes be set togyder
Thurgh messes, and rightwis men prayers.”
Proper Nouns.
In general, these follow the common nouns in their forms, but note:
1. Two names ending in s have no inflection for the genitive: King Adrastus men (II. 529), Thomas prophecy (II. 86). This occurs also in Chaucer.
2. Douglas has both flectionless and inflected forms: the Douglas men (X. 398), the Lord Douglassis men (XX. 481).