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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Somewhere came from Somewheres ? ---- unawares, amongst, betwixt
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2024 09:45:07 +1200
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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.