A reduplicated plural is a grammatical form achieved by the superfluous use of a second

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

ending. In

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

the plural is usually formed with the addition of 's': e.g. one cat, two cats; one chair, two chairs. In the

Sussex dialect English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern English English; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England. As of ...

, however, until relatively recently there existed a reduplicated plural: e.g. one ghost, two ghostes/ghostesses; one post, two postes/postesses (note that here the Sussex pluralisation instead of adding just 's' after 'st', adds either 'es' as its usual plural, or a reduplicated 'esses'. Reduplicated plural forms, or similar forms, can also appear in African American Vernacular English, New York Latino English, and in some other rarer forms of American English, often in specific lexical items, such as ''testes'' rather than ''tests'' . Donald Mackenzie suggests that in Kipling's in '' Puck of Pook's Hill'' the word 'pharisees' apparently used by Shoesmith for

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

was formed as a Sussex reduplicated plural.''"Dymchurch Flit"'', Donald Mackenzie
/ref> In '' The Hobbit'' and ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'', the character Gollum speaks with reduplicated plurals, often complaining about "sneaky little hobbitses".

References

Grammatical number Sussex {{grammar-stub