Re: Somewhere came from Somewheres ? ---- unawares, amongst, betwixt

On 4/09/2024 9:22 a.m., HenHanna wrote:

  >>>    > Does the dropping of the final S go back to Greek or Hebrew?
 Crossposted to sci.lang, where people might know the answer.
               Is there a natural tendency for languages to lose final syllables or final consonants?  <<<
   -----------  Why is this thread  named   [Somewheres]  ?
            is there a suggestion that ...
                Somewhere  came from Somewheres ? --- (Dropped S)
                                        i think Not !
 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/somewheres
  i thnk the  -s in  Somewheres    is  old, and the same as in
 Forwards
Backwards
 Outwards
Inwards
Upwards
Downwards
Homewards
 Sideways
 Besides ?
 Unawares ?
  ‎forward + ‎-s → ‎forwards
‎downward + ‎-s → ‎downwards
‎alway + ‎-s → ‎always
‎sometime + ‎-s → ‎sometimes
‎betime + ‎-s → ‎betimes
‎while + ‎-s → ‎whiles
‎betide + ‎-s → ‎betides
‎toward + ‎-s → ‎towards
‎beside + ‎-s → ‎besides
‎evening + ‎-s → ‎evenings
‎unaware + ‎-s → ‎unawares
  ‎among + ‎-st → ‎amongst
‎mid + ‎-st → ‎midst
‎while + ‎-st → ‎whilst
 betwixt
 against
alongst
amongst
beknownst
midst
unbeknownst
whilst
whomst
 

You (whoever "you" are) are right.
I pointed this out a couple of days ago, referring to what I call "floating adverbial -s". You may have missed it as a result of your incessant cross-posting. (Thunderbird won't let me cross-post.)
All the words above are (I think) examples of it. (Sometimes with extra -t.)
IIRC, Peter Moylan originally asked about the form "besides", which was new to him. Some time later, he mentioned that in choral singing, the sound of [s] is disliked, and singers are instructed to mute or even suppress it. This led to general discussion of loss or weakening of [s] and other sounds in languages. But I don't think anyone actually claimed that "somewheres" became "somewhere" in this way. If they did, they were wrong.