§ 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. "Gammer Gurton's Needle," v. 2. _Chickens_.--A third variety of the double inflection (en + s), with the additional peculiarity of the form _chicken_ being used, at present, almost exclusively in the singular number, although, originally, it was, probably, the plural of _chick_. So Wallis considered it:--"At olim etiam per -en vel -yn formabant pluralia; quorum pauca admodum adhuc retinemus. Ut, _an ox_, _a chick_, pluralitur _oxen_, _chicken_ (sunt qui dicunt in singulari _chicken_, et in plurali _chickens_)." _Chick_, _chick-en_, _chick-en-s_. _Fern_.--According to Wallis the -n in _fer-n_ is the -en in _oxen_, in other words a plural termination:--"A _fere_ (_filix_) pluraliter _fern_ (verum nunc plerumque _fern_ utroque numero dicitur, sed et in plurali _ferns_); nam _fere_ et _feres_ prope obsoleta sunt." Subject to this view, the word _fer-n-s_ would exhibit the same phenomenon as the word _chicken-s_. It is doubtful, however, whether Wallis's view be correct. A reason for believing the -n to be radical is presented by the Anglo-Saxon form _fearn_, and the Old High German, _varam_. _Women_.--Pronounced _wimmen_, as opposed to the singular form _woomman_. Probably an instance of accommodation. _Houses_.--Pronounced _houz-ez_. The same peculiarity in the case of s and z, as occurs between f and v in words like _life_, _lives_, &c. _Paths_, _youths_.--Pronounced _padhz_, _yoodhz_. The same peculiarity in the case of þ and ð, as occurs between s and z in the words _house_, _houses_. "Finita in f plerumque alleviantur in plurali numero, substituendo v; ut _wife_, _wives_, &c. Eademque alleviatio est etiam in s et th, quamvis retento charactere, in _house_, _cloth_, _path_."