The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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became regarded as a plural form, giving rise to a new singular); this is also
matched by a Sic. fasòa ‘beans’, as against standard fagi(u)olo ‘bean’ from
PHASEOLUS, with cognates in Sp., Ptg. (It is interesting to note here that the
feminine singular ERVILIA ‘cultivated vetch’, which has given NIt. (Emil.)
arvija, Ptg. ervilha ‘pea’, has become a collective singular in Rhaeto-Romance,
so UEng. arvaglia, LEng. arbaglia, Surs. arveglia, Comasco erbeja, and from
these have developed new masculine forms for the individual ‘pea’, arvagl and
arvegl; similarly Spanish, by a different route, has created arvejo ‘bastard
chick-pea’ from arveja ‘vetch’ (cf. erveja in Berceo and Alex., Moz. arbilya,
Ast. arveya, Arag. arvilluela).) VlMINA ‘withes’ has given NIt. (Bol.) vemna,
Bergam. venna, Friul. vimine, and Gal. vimia, to which may be compared Mall.
vima and Béarn. bimo (M.-L., Gram., Schicks.); the REW and other sources
give Ast. blimba, Leon. blima, bimbria, brimba, Prov., Cat. vima. VlBURNA
‘wayfaring trees’, ‘viburnums’ has given It. vavorna, Pied. viorna, Fr. viorne,
Prov. viourno (the REW quotes viorna as a Spanish form, but I can find no
support for this; it may be the old Provençal form). At first sight we may see
PAPAVERA ‘poppies’ in many of the modern forms, such as Rum. paparoană,
Lombard pópola, Pied. pompola, Cat. dial. paparola (-ota), Sp. amapola (Moz.
apapaura, Sanab. papoya), Ptg. papoula (Gal. mapoula); however, the
immediate source of the Rumanian form is Greek or Bulgarian, and the Spanish
and Portuguese forms betray Arabic interference.
From (TERRAE) TUBERA/*TUFERA ‘truffles’ we have OIt. tubera ‘tuber’
and truffa ‘truffle’ (this perhaps from French, like Rum. trufă), Lomb., Pied.,
trifola, Ven. tartufola ‘truffle’, Surs. collective sing. trufla (with individual
truffel), Fr. truffe (earlier truffle and tartufle, often with the meaning ‘potato’,
also taking the forms tartoufle, cartoufle, whence Germ. Kartoffel), Prov. trufa,
OCat. tofera, now tófona, with tru(m)fa ‘potato’ from French, Arag. tufera, Sp.
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