# Double plural

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{{Short description|Form of plurality}}
{{distinguish|Reduplicated plural}}
{{Expand Dutch|Stapelmeervoud|October 2024}}
A '''double plural''' is a [plural form](/source/plural_form) to which an extra [suffix](/source/suffix) has been added, mainly because the original plural suffix (or other variation) had become [unproductive](/source/productivity_(linguistics)) and therefore irregular. So the form as a whole was no longer seen as a plural, an instance of [morphological leveling](/source/morphological_leveling). For example, if "geese" (the plural) became the word for "goose" (the singular) in a future version of [English](/source/English_language), a word ''geeses'' might become the licit plural form.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nordquist |first=Richard |title=Double Plurals in English |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/double-plural-grammar-1690409 |access-date=October 28, 2024 |website=ThoughtCo.}}</ref> Likewise, "peoples" in English currently means "nations or ethnic groups" but is sometimes used informally as a plural of "person" (eg, "these peoples standing here").

==Examples==

===English and Dutch===
Examples of this can be seen in the history of English and [Dutch](/source/Dutch_language). Historically, the general English plural markers were not only ''-s'' or ''-en'' but also (in certain specific declensions) ''-ra'' and ''-ru'' (which is still rather general today in [German](/source/German_language) under the form ''-er''). The ancient plural of ''child'' was "cildra/cildru", to which an ''-en'' suffix was later added when the ''-ra'' and ''-ru'' became unused.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moylan |first=Peter |title=Double Plural |url=http://www.pmoylan.org/pages/articles/language/Double_plurals.html |access-date=October 28, 2024 |website=Peter & Lynne's place}}</ref> The Dutch plural form ''kind-er-en'' and the corresponding [Zeelandic](/source/Zeelandic) form ''kind-er-s'' are also double plurals which were formed in the same way as the English double plurals, while for example German and [Limburgian](/source/Limburgian) have (historically conservative) single plurals such as ''Kind-er''.

''Breeches'' is an example involving an old plural that did not use a suffix. It was formerly ''breech'' which came from Old English ''brēċ'' which was the plural of ''brōc'', the latter developing separately as ''Brook''.

==References==
{{Wiktionary|double plural}}
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Alexiadou |first=Artemis |year=2024 |title=Double plural marking in language mixing and the building blocks of nominals |url=https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/11585/ |journal=[Glossa](/source/Glossa_(journal)) |volume=9 |doi=10.16995/glossa.11585|doi-access=free }}
{{refend}}

Category:Grammatical number
Category:Historical linguistics

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Double plural](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_plural) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_plural?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.