tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 16 08:12:34 1997

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Re: SopDaq



>Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 17:55:57 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "Eliseo C. d'Annunzio, Esquire" <[email protected]>
>
>On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
>
>> >> What is likely is that the process is not (or no longer) productive.
>> >> No one would deny that _feet_ is formed from _foot_ via umlaut, but
>> >> that doesn't make *_beet_ a correct plural form of _boot_.
>> >
>> >True, but _boot_ and _foot_ don't have the same sound in
>> >the middle.
>> 
>> But "boot" and "tooth" do, and yet one is teeth and the other boots.
>
>True, however, words which are pluralized generally base the plural on the
>ending, not the middle of the word. The word "boot" does not necessarily
>rhyme with "tooth", the only other usable noun that springs to mind that
>does rhyme with "boot" is "root", and its plural is "roots", which of
>course, rhymes with "boots". So, Mark, I'm not sure what line you were
>leading us to...

Sheez.  Then consider "booth" and "tooth", which DO rhyme, but "booth"
pluralizes as "booths" and "tooth" as "teeth."  Happy now?

~mark


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