It is hardly necessary to repeat here that plit is a word of Romance origin, and rhymes properly with delit, appetit, not with liht, niht, &c., being separate in etymology from O. E. pliht.
From the fact that there is no rhyming of -iht with -it either in Gower or Chaucer, we may certainly gather that the sounds were somewhat different; but the fact that Gower does not usually write gh after i indicates, no doubt, that in this case the sound of the spirant was less marked than when preceded by broader vowels.
Where O. E. h is a final aspirate, g is not usually written, as sih, hih, nih, bowh, lowh, plowh, slowh, ynowh, except in the case of thogh, but very occasionally we find such forms as drogh, plogh. In the words which have w(u) h is often dropped, as in bowes, low, slow (preterites), ynow.
v. Inflexion.—(1) Substantives. In a certain number of words there is variation in the matter of final e: thus we have drink drinke, felawe felawh (fela), flyht flyhte, half halve, help helpe, kep kepe, lack lacke, lyf lyve, myn myne, queene queen, sor sore, wel wele, will wille, wyndou wyndowe, to which must be added many words with the suffixes -hede, -hode, -schipe, and the termination -inge, e.g. falshed(e), knyhthod(e), manhed(e), felaschip(e), hunting(e), knowleching(e), teching(e), wenyng(e). In these latter cases the presence of the e ending is not wholly dependent on the accent, for we have huntíng, i. 350, but húntynge, iv. 2429, techyng and techinge both equally in rhyme, i. 1592, v. 611, gládschipe, i. 3128, knithód, v. 2057, felaschíp, ii. 1217. Accent however has some influence, and it is hardly conceivable that the final e should count in the metre except where the accent falls on the preceding syllable, so that where the accent is thrown back, we find that the word is regularly followed by a vowel. In the case of the (English) termination -ere the final e is usually written: such words are beggere, forthdrawere, hindrere, ledere, lovere, makere, repere, spekere, writere. This -e, however, is either elided or passed over in the metre (as with janglere, v. 526), unless an accent falls on the termination, in which case it may be sounded, as vii. 2348, ‘The Sothseiere tho was lief.’
The forms game, gamen appear side by side both in singular and plural, as i. 347, vi. 1849, viii. 680.
As regards the oblique cases we note the following genitive forms: cherche, herte (also hertes), hevene, ladi, soule, sterre (pl.), wode (also wodes), to which add dowhter (also dowhtres), fader (also fadres), moder. In the expressions horse side, horse heved, &c., horse is genitive singular.
The -e termination of the dative appears in a good many prepositional phrases: to (in) bedde, in boke, to borwe, be (to) bote, with (of) childe, unto the chinne (but unto the chin, i. 1682), be daie, to (fro) dethe (also fro deth), of dome, on (under) fote (but upon the fot, at his fot), on fyre, to (upon) grounde, fro (unto) the grounde (also fro the ground), on hede, at (fro) home (also at hom), in (on, upon) honde, to (into) honde, (but ‘bar on hond,’ be the hond), on horse, to horse, to (in, of) house (but in myn hous), to (into) londe, be (in, over) londe, of (out of) londe, fro the londe, (but of his lond, &c.), be lyhte, to lyve, to manne, to mowthe, be mowthe, be nyhte (also be nyht, and regularly at nyht, on nyht, a nyht, to nyht), to rede, be (to, into, out of) schipe (also to schip), to scorne, to slepe (also to slep), to toune, to wedde, to wyve, to ȝere, be ȝere.
In the plural we have hors, schep unchanged, and also with numerals, mile, monthe, pound, ȝer (beside ȝeres), wynter. The plural of thing is thinges, sometimes thinge, not thing. Mutation plurals, feet, men, teeth, wommen. Plurals in -en, brethren, children, oxen (also oxes), ton, yhen.
The forms in -ere have plurals -ers, as janglers, kepers, lovers. From maiden we have beside maidens also maidenes (three syllables), iv. 255, which is perhaps the true reading in Chaucer, Leg. of G. Women, 722. From angel we have plural anglis, iii. 2256, as well as angles, and Nimphis, v. 6932, but there are few examples of plural in -is.
With regard to Romance substantives Gower appears to be stricter than Chaucer in preserving their form. He gives us regularly beste ‘beast,’ feste, requeste, tempeste. We have however baner (also banere), host, maner, matier (beside manere, matiere), press (beside presse), travaile, conseile (substantives) very occasionally for travail, conseil.