[§ 203]. Men, feet, teeth, mice, lice, geese.—In these we have some of the oldest words in the language. If these were, to a certainty, true plurals, we should have an appearance somewhat corresponding to the so-called weak and strong tenses of verbs; viz., one series of plurals formed by a change of the vowel, and another by the addition of the sibilant. The word kye, used in Scotland for cows, is of the same class. The list in Anglo-Saxon of words of this kind is different from that of the present English.
| Sing. | Plur. | |
| Freónd | Frýnd | Friends. |
| Feónd | Fynd | Foes. |
| Niht | Niht | Nights. |
| Bóc | Béc | Books. |
| Burh | Byrig | Burghs. |
| Bróc | Bréc | Breeches. |
| Turf | Týrf | Turves. |
[§ 204]. Brethren.—Here there are two changes. 1. The alteration of the vowel. 2. The addition of -en. Mr. Guest quotes the forms brethre and brothre from the Old English. The sense is collective rather than plural.
Peasen = pulse.—As children is a double form of one
sort (r + en), so is peasen a double form of another (s + en); pea, pea-s, pea-s-en. Wallis speaks to the singular power of the form in -s;—"Dicunt nonnulli a pease, pluraliter peasen; at melius, singulariter a pea, pluraliter pease."—P. 77. He might have added, that, theoretically, pease was the proper singular form; as shown by the Latin pis-um.
Pullen = poultry.
Lussurioso.—What? three-and-twenty years in law!
Vendice.—I have known those who have been five-and-fifty, and all about pullen and pigs.—"Revenger's Tragedy," iv. 1.
If this were a plural form, it would be a very anomalous one. The -en, however, is no more a sign of the plural than is the -es in rich-es (richesse.) The proper form is in -ain or -eyn.
A false theefe,
That came like a false fox, my pullain to kill and mischeefe.