If Mouse Is To Mice Why Isn't House To Hice?

Question

I've always wondered. Is there a rule that explains this or is it just another flaw in the English language? :)

Answer 1

As a matter of fact, in older English the plural of "house" WAS something very much like "hice". We can still see this in German which has singular "Maus", plural "Maeuser" (mouse/mice) and singular "Haus", plural "Haeuser" (house/houses). German, in fact, preserves many older plural forms that English has done away with. (For instance, the relationship words Vater/Vaeter, Mutter/Muetter, Bruder/Brueder.)

Most of the older forms in English have done as "house" did, adopting the Modern English way of forming plurals by adding -(e)s. But there was a group of them -- foot/feet, goose/geese, tooth/teeth, louse/lice, man/men, etc. -- that did not make the change. Then there are those whose older forms may co-exist alongside the new forms, like the somewhat archaic form "brethren" (and if you have a King James Bible, you can find "kine" as the plural of "cow").

(Note that the -(e)n is another remnant of an older, Germanic way of forming the plural. We see it again in plurals like "oxen".)

Some of the older forms survive as "irregular plurals". Many of them do so because of the different vowel

Actually, the changed vowel in Old English plural noun forms (and various other parts of the language) was NOT invented as a way to mark the plural. It was an indirect result.

Here's how it happened:

1) In most of the ancient Germanic languages, adding a suffix with an i-vowel in it caused the vowel in the preceding syllable to change to be a bit more like the i-vowel ("vowel harmony" -- a comon, very natural change in human speech). This change is called "i-mutation" or "umlaut".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_umlaut

2) Old English had a whole system of case endings Some of these endings had i-vowels in them and caused the change in the preceding vowel noted in #1. (These changes took place in various forms, not just plurals.)

We can see the same sort of change in many other words that took various suffixes: hale/health, long/length, old/elder, eldest, food/feed.
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/IOE/pronunciation.html#pronounce:imutation

3) The system of case endings died out amidst the massive changes that gave us Middle English (for which you may blame the Norman French invaders if you like!) But the vowel changes in many of these old noun forms survived.. Without the endings, the changed vowel itself began to function as a marker of the plural form.

4) The "new" system of forming plurals by adding -(e)s was adopted for MOST English nouns. But many of the most common, familiar words were NOT changed. (This is typical of human language. Note how all our irregular VERBS are COMMON words - have, be, bring, come, go... Rarer words are easily forced into a consistent pattern.)

Answer 2

No, I don't think it's a flaw, but just a comparison. It is just analogies. I am not sure what house is to, but maybe it is to home, or condo, or apartment, or something! Maybe even it is houses is to house, and Mice to Mouse. There is not a rule I know of, but it sure isn't a flaw! I doubt it, because I am good in English, and I haven't heard of anything. By the way, I've never heard of "hice" LOL! :-)

Answer 3

Because hice isn't a word lol =) Good question though

Answer 4

2 mouse = 1 mice
2 mice = 1 moose

Gracie Allen as Gracie in
"We're Not Dressing" (1934)

Answer 5

i think mouse to mice is the flaw. house to houses is more appropiate to the english language.

Answer 6

And in German:

das Haus (the house) neuter gender
die Maus (the mouse) feminine gender

Answer 7

You forgot "louse" and "lice". And what about "moose"? Why no "meese"? WHY WHY WHYYYYY WHYYYYY!???
No, it's not another flaw in the King's English, it is a quaint peculiar-ism that others WISH they had!

Thus spake the Munya!

Answer 8

That's the reason why you cannot judge a nation by its language.

Answer 9

same reason why the plural of moose is moose....its just one of those things that is an exception to the English language...

Answer 10

it's irregular
house to houses is the rule. words that don't follow the rule are simply labled irregular