/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    2.1.1.5 Other plurals
    quickinfo

    A few native nouns which do not end in a full vowel obtain the suffix -s in the plural.

    1
    die Düwel, do Düwels (or: Düwele, ‘devil(s)’), dät Köäkske, do Köäkskes ‘a kind of biscuit(s)’s, die Oom, do Ooms (or Ome, ‘ bachelor’), die Skeper, do Skepers ‘shepherd(s)’

    Monljude is the plural form of Mon or Monmoanske ‘man’. Wieuwljude is the plural form of dät Wieuw of dätMoanske (‘woman, wife’). In nouns denoting occupations, the plural -ljude is used instead of -monljude when it is about males, e.g. die Hondelsmon, do Hondelsljude ‘merchand(s)’. When it is about females, the plural form can end in -wieuwljude (e.g. dät Hondelswieuw, doHondelswieuwljude ‘female merchand(s)’) or in -wieuwe (e.g. dät Waskwieuw, do Waskwieuwe ‘laundress(es)’). The distinction seems to be sociolinguistically determined. The wieuwe-type of plurals may be considered archaic and in some cases condescendent, cf. dät Rabbelwieuw, do Rabbelwieuwe ‘gossiping woman, women’.

    Ju Ku ‘cow’ has a suppletive plural doBäiste, literally: ‘the beasts’. The singular noun dät Bäist is often used in the meaning of ‘cow’. The original irregular plural of ju Ku has been ousted by this suppletive plural form.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Syntax
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X