The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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10 neuter DUA for DUO ‘two’, which is preserved in classical times in the phrase DUAPONDO (= PONDERE). In the 3rd declension too we find confusion between the neuter and the masculine, so early acc. LACTEM ‘milk’ beside LAC/LACT/LACTE, POLLINEM beside POLLEN, old RETEM ‘net’, GUTTUREM ‘throat’, PAPAVEREM ‘poppy’, MURMUREM ‘murmur’, nom. PRAESEPES ‘manger’ for later RETE, GUTTUR, PAPAVER, MURMUR, PRAESEPE/PRAESEPIUM, old neuter pl. UTRIA ‘leather bottles’ for UTRES, and old neuters SAL/SALE ‘salt’ and PANE ‘bread’ becoming classical masculines SAL and PANIS, and similarly SANGUEN ‘blood’ giving way to masculine SANGUIS. It also appears that AUGUR ‘augur’ and CALOR ‘heat’ were originally neuter. (The forms Fr. laite, Sp. lecha, Ptg. leita ‘milt’ appear to be recent formations from lait, leche, leite ‘milk’, and have no connection with the fact that Lat. LAC was a neuter; I can find no evidence of a Latin plural form.) We can see from all this that there was widespread confusion, but it is hard to see any particular pattern of development emerging, especially as the classical forms may not represent a later stage, but simply be retentions, sometimes artificial, of an earlier idiom; in this connection we may get more enlightenment as to what the popular trend was when we come later to compare Petronius with the early writers. (I am also hampered by the fact that my main sources — the dictionaries of Lewis & Short, Gaffiot and Souter (Glossary of Later Latin), the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, Väänänen, Grandgent, Bourciez and Muller & Taylor (Chrestomathy of Vulgar Latin) — do not always state whether the transference to masculine or neuter gender affects only the singular or the plural or both.) The one thing that does emerge clearly is the confusion of genders and of declensions (this also happened between the masculine and feminine genders, as in the case of nouns like CALLIS, FINIS, CINIS, COLUS, ACUS and the names of trees, which were feminine in classical Latin but became masculine in the pre-Romance stage; many of the names of trees also fluctuated 10
etween the 2nd and 4th declensions). 11 11 3. The classical age. When we come to the classical age we find the same kind of pattern continuing. Some old neuter plurals have become feminine singulars, for example MENDA and GANEA for old MENDUM ‘mistake’, GANEUM ‘tavern'. TRIMODIA is found for TR1MODIUM, as ‘a measure of 3 modia’. LACERTA, which was used by Accius as the plural of LACERTUS ‘muscle’, is a singular in the Golden Age, with the sense of ‘lizard’ (alongside LACERTUS, which has both senses). For ‘turnip’ both RAPUM and RAPA are found, and for ‘pea(se)’ both PISUM and PISA, while the port of OSTIA (from OSTIA ‘mouths of the river’) is treated both as a neuter plural and as a feminine singular. In the same way CODETA ‘areas where horsetails grow’, used in the plural like FRUCTETA, GLABRETA, RUBETA, came to be a feminine singular place name. We find Laberius using IDOLA for IDOLUM ‘idol’, while Calidius is quoted as using HORREA for HORREUM ‘barn’, and Vitruvius has SCHIDIAE ‘splinters’. BALNEUM ‘bath (in a private house)’ takes the form BALNEAE as the regular plural in the sense of ‘public baths’, though the poets use BALNEA, no doubt partly for the sake of the metre. So also we find EPULUM ‘public feast’ and EPULAE ‘banquet’ (the singular EPULA is also found in early Latin, and a plural AEPULA in an inscription). OSTRE-UM/-A ‘oyster’ coexist in all ages (see also §4f below). Again, many nouns are used in both the masculine and neuter genders, so CLlPE-US/-UM ‘round shield’, BACUL-US/-UM ‘stick’, BALTE-US/-UM ‘belt’ (BALTEUM is rare in the singular, but the pl. BALTEA is common in poetry, metri gratia), VAD-UM/-US ‘ford’, FOR-US/-UM ‘gangplank’, ‘row’, CUBIT-UM/-US ‘elbow’, ‘cubit’ (later grammarians say that CUBITI is ‘elbows’ and CUBITA ‘cubits’, but this seems to be a fictitious distinction), GLADIOL-US/-UM ‘small sword’, FRET-UM/-US (4th decl.) ‘strait’, ANGIPORT-US (4th decl.)/-UM ‘alley’, CADUCE-US/-UM ‘wand of Hermes’, CARR-US/-UM ‘wagon’, SIBIL-US/-UM ‘hiss’,
Page 1 and 2: 1 1 The Latin Neuter Plurals in Rom
Page 3 and 4: individually. 3 3 Such treatments a
Page 5 and 6: 5 5 stages of the language. (Incide
Page 7 and 8: 7 7 preserved in Italian, such as t
Page 9: 9 9 ‘well’, CAPILLUM ‘hair’
Page 13 and 14: 13 13 changing their declension in
Page 15 and 16: 15 15 Another popular development w
Page 17 and 18: une formation hybride à cheval sur
Page 19 and 20: 19 19 with acc. pl. LUSTROS, in ins
Page 21 and 22: 21 21 OSSUUM/OSSUORUM/OSSORUM/OSSAR
Page 23 and 24: 23 23 inscription (Bourciez, §218c
Page 25 and 26: 25 25 PRAESTIGIUM, INFAMIUM, BLASPH
Page 27 and 28: 27 27 Ling. Lat., but Nyrop quotes
Page 29 and 30: 29 29 singular in early times), SPI
Page 31 and 32: 31 31 substantia consumitur” (Ita
Page 33 and 34: 33 33 plural (evidence of the early
Page 35 and 36: 35 35 in Chir.) as ‘leaves’? Th
Page 37 and 38: 37 37 loanwords and verbal nouns; i
Page 39 and 40: 39 39 singulars are felt to be the
Page 41 and 42: 41 41 language, producing a situati
Page 43 and 44: 43 43 c) Passing now to French, we
Page 45 and 46: 45 45 separated from braç, as are
Page 47 and 48: 47 47 a modern formation). Old Ital
Page 49 and 50: 49 49 ‘powder horns’, ‘corner
Page 51 and 52: 51 51 also represent Latin -NIA (cf
Page 53 and 54: 53 53 ‘heels’ gives the Rumania
Page 55 and 56: 55 55 böila, Eng. böglia, Surs. b
Page 57 and 58: 57 57 de Dial. Esp., p. 346). But b
Page 59 and 60: 59 59 j) Traces of other old neuter
Page 61 and 62:
61 61 uova, with dial. ove or ovi f
Page 63 and 64:
63 63 ‘kneading-trough’, in the
Page 65 and 66:
65 65 8. Numerals and pronominal ad
Page 67 and 68:
67 67 mil and modern mille (masc.).
Page 69 and 70:
69 69 OFr. nu(l)s, nule, Prov. nuls
Page 71 and 72:
71 71 find the meaning ‘leaf’,
Page 73 and 74:
73 73 in the areas which use -i for
Page 75 and 76:
75 75 c) Let us now look at the sit
Page 77 and 78:
77 77 turn to the dialects to find
Page 79 and 80:
79 79 matching these also ulivo/uli
Page 81 and 82:
81 81 corme), corne (OFr. cornelle)
Page 83 and 84:
83 83 beside cuerno/corgno, prunell
Page 85 and 86:
85 85 cerezal ‘cherry orchard’,
Page 87 and 88:
87 87 ‘holm-oak’ tree, but Arag
Page 89 and 90:
89 89 péšego), with another varie
Page 91 and 92:
91 91 the Piedmontese form la figa
Page 93 and 94:
93 93 assisted by the feminine noun
Page 95 and 96:
95 95 (oak), roveto (bramble), vign
Page 97 and 98:
97 97 r) The position in Catalan is
Page 99 and 100:
99 99 native to the area all right,
Page 101 and 102:
101 101 but the fortuitous similari
Page 103 and 104:
103 103 trufa from French, Ptg. tub
Page 105 and 106:
105 105 Italian plurals in -ora and
Page 107 and 108:
107 107 account for Prov. nos (besi
Page 109 and 110:
109 109 Italian as the Latinism fri
Page 111 and 112:
111 111 Sard. pettorale. PIGNORA is
Page 113 and 114:
113 113 FUNDUS, ARCUS, COLFUS, NODU
Page 115 and 116:
115 115 from a late Greek form kól
Page 117 and 118:
117 117 like cambiora, digiunora, f
Page 119 and 120:
119 119 down by purely popular tran
Page 121 and 122:
121 121 examples I have given above
Page 123 and 124:
123 123 note that -egl- > -agl- is
Page 125 and 126:
125 125 dictionary ascribes the Ita
Page 127 and 128:
127 127 with the same meaning. This
Page 129 and 130:
129 129 ‘brotherhood’, and the
Page 131 and 132:
131 131 Vegl. fyasta (the Rum. fest
Page 133 and 134:
133 133 ‘salary’, and in these
Page 135 and 136:
135 135 legenda, Fr. (learned) lég
Page 137 and 138:
137 137 the widespread forms corres
Page 139 and 140:
139 139 morceau, Engl. bit), It. bo
Page 141 and 142:
141 141 languages the first consona
Page 143 and 144:
143 143 spread to the Iberian Penin
Page 145 and 146:
145 145 Rhaeto-Romance. From VINCUL
Page 147 and 148:
147 147 VISCUM ‘mistletoe’. Fro
Page 149 and 150:
149 149 are also forms without clas
Page 151 and 152:
151 151 also lists Rum. par as “n
Page 153 and 154:
153 153 of ACUS ‘needles’, wher
Page 155 and 156:
155 155 become a singular meaning
Page 157 and 158:
157 157 From LINTEA ‘linen cloths
Page 159 and 160:
159 159 esquírola ‘ditto’. Fro
Page 161 and 162:
161 161 Rum. răza is ‘scrape’,
Page 163 and 164:
163 163 combination of meanings; in
Page 165 and 166:
165 165 has at the same time become
Page 167 and 168:
167 167 üj ‘grape’. Similarly
Page 169 and 170:
169 169 feminines; examples are It.
Page 171 and 172:
171 171 feminine noun which has nei
Page 173 and 174:
173 173 Cat. bolla ‘seal on cloth
Page 175 and 176:
175 175 Lat. VENA. Spanish seems to
Page 177 and 178:
177 177 Heidelberg, 1920; Romanisch
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