Why doesn't orthography distinguish between /s/ and /z/ in English plurals?
I know the -s plural ending came into Old English via Old Norse - most of the Germanic plurals were simplified down to the -s suffix. Yet, many modern English plurals (and third person singular verb endings) are pronounced as -s or -z (as in catS and dogZ and also /Iz/) depending on whether the last sound of the root is voiced or voiceless. Yet this isn't reflected at all in the orthography. Any ideas why? Historically, was the Old Norse Plural voiceless? Did Old Norse tend to devoice word endings? Has the voicing of the plurals evolved over time? I was trying to find something on this and couldn't. I am not a historical linguist, but rather an applied one and I was teaching my students about plural pronunciations and this came to mind. Curiosity kills the cat here....any thoughts? Thanks :)
