Date:  Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:15:30 -0500

From:  "Peter L. Patrick" <PPATRICK[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET>

Subject: Re: 2 pl



This isn't "2pl", but it IS "pl"!

I was fascinated to see in Dick Heaberlin's reply about "y'all"

that he pluralizes /buku/ + /-z/. I've heard folks from Louisiana and

SE Texas use /buku/ in English as a quantifier much as he does:

    "there are buku(z) of us"

but I never noticed the inflection with plural /-z/ before-- is this a

regular and usual thing in, what I guess we'd have to call, Cajun

English?

    I've done a couple of studies of pluralization in Jamaican

Creole, where mesolectal speakers (maybe everyone, in fact) often use

English /-z/ and less often post-nominal /-dem/, and very occasionally

even combine them in a double plural. So I'd be interested to know

from you Cajun observers and others about this mixing of markjers from

different systems... Is it restricted to pre-vocalic environments

where, eg, /buku [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]v [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]s/ would sound odd?

    --peter