The “en”
plural noun ending of Old English (e.g.
house/housen, shoe/shoen, etc) had largely
disappeared by the end of the Middle English period,
replaced by the French plural ending “s”
(the “en”
ending only remains today in one or two important
examples, such as children, brethren and oxen).
Changes to some word forms stuck while others did
not, so that we are left with inconsistencies like half
and halves, grief and grieves, speech and speak, etc. In another odd example of gradual
modernization, the indefinite article “a” subsumed over time the initial “n” of some following
nouns, so that a napron became an apron, a nauger became an auger, etc, as well as the
reverse case of an ekename becoming a nickname.