The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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114 erbour-, erboul-, Cat., Sp., Ptg. herbor-, herbol-, and there is no accounting for it on the basis of any Latin derivatives of HERBA, the usual explanation given being the influence of ARBOR, with the -l- forms taken as derived from HERBULA, so I find Meyer-Lübke’s thesis attractive (with the -l- forms explained as resulting from dissimilation). In the case of FUNDUS we have evidence of the extended stem in Surs. sfundrar, UEng. sfundrer, LEng sfu(o)ndrar, Fr. effondrer, modern Occ. esfoundra, afoundra, enfoundra (enfrounda), Cat. esfondrar, enfondrar. For ARCUS I have found no other traces of -OR- forms, but a neut. pl. *ARCA is attested by Surs. arca/artga, Eng. archa ‘sheet of paper’ (for which the German is Bogen = ‘bow’), Fr. arche, Prov. arca ‘arch’, and perhaps Cat. Arca for a site with dolmens; I will return to this point in a minute. Corresponding to COLFORA we have forms with -r- in Fr. gouffre and Gasc. goufre, though these are masculine; other forms with -r-, such OGen. gorfo, Cat. gorf, Sp. (Ast.) gorfo, seem to show a phonetic change from l to r. Alongside Lomb. Lat. fetora we have Sard. (Gall.) edóra ‘mob of boys’ from fedu (OSard. fetu) ‘offspring’, with the same displacement of accent we have observed before; it is also worth noting that two of the other Sardinian words with -ora, fruttora and rivora, have counterparts in the Lomb. Lat. fructora and ri(b)ora, Rum. frupturi (Schicks., p. 51), râuri and derivative râurean. The meagre number of examples I have been able to turn up shows what very few traces remain of -ORA outside Eastern Romance. f) Let us now see if we can observe any pattern at all underlying the spread of -ORA as a plural ending in Rumanian and Italian. Excluding the classical masculine 3rd-declension nouns which already had -R- in their oblique forms, such as PULVIS, CINIS, and certain neuters, such as CAPUT, NOMEN, the words we have looked at so far are a pretty mixed bag; there are (see §4d) the 2nd-decl. mascs. ARMUS, CIBUS (with early 4th-decl. forms), ERVUS, FUNDUS (and late FUNDUM), NODUS (only attested in Romance), RIVUS, with COLFUS 114
115 115 from a late Greek form kólphos, masc. or neut. PUTE-US/-UM, VAD-US/-UM, and the 4th-decl. mascs. ARCUS, FETUS, FRUCTUS, GRADUS, all with early 2nd-declension forms. If we add the further words I quoted in §4e as having parallel forms in Rumanian and Lombard Latin, we have 2nd-decl. mascs. CAMPUS, LOCUS (which also had a neut. pl. LOCA), RAMUS (with late pl. RAMA), VENTUS, 2nd-decl. neut. PAVIMENTUM, and 4th-decl. mascs. CURSUS, LACUS. What are we to make of this? For a start, there is one group which I alluded to earlier in §3. This consists of the 4th-declension masculine deverbal nouns in -TUS, -SUS, such as ACTUS, VISUS, which came to be paralleled by forms derived from the nominal use of the neuter of the past participle, as ACTUM, VISUM; this also led to other new formations such as FRUCTUM, GUSTUM, PASSUM (cf. “passa” for ‘fords’ quoted by Du Cange, s.v. passum), and to the appearance of forms like PRATUS, FURTUS, FATUS, no doubt intended to be corrections of supposedly mistaken neuter forms (note the parallel with LECTUS (2 and 4) and late LECTUM). We thus have a situation where there was widespread fluctuation between masculine 4th-declension forms and neuter 2nd-declension forms, and later evidence shows that this development affected all the 4th-declension masculines (including those that showed 4th-declension forms at one stage or another), giving forms like the ARCORA, CIBORA, GRADORA, LACORA quoted before, and Lomb. Lat. lectora, portora, pratora, Rum. gusturi, porturi, sânuri, visuri, also geruri, cornuri (beside coarne) from the neuters GELU, CORNU; further, as a later development perhaps, Istro-Rum. acur (Schicks., p. 53), It. dial. acora/agora (beside which Rohlfs, §370, quotes a Latin ACURA), ficora from the feminines ACUS, FICUS (which also were used as masculines, with a neuter FICUM also appearing; cf. also the development of PECUS), and even dial. (Salent.) manure from MANUS, which has no history of masculinity. g) Having established the point that these nouns became neuters, the next question we face is why they should have adopted the -ORA rather than the
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1 1 The Latin Neuter Plurals in Rom
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individually. 3 3 Such treatments a
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5 5 stages of the language. (Incide
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7 7 preserved in Italian, such as t
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9 9 ‘well’, CAPILLUM ‘hair’
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etween the 2nd and 4th declensions)
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13 13 changing their declension in
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15 15 Another popular development w
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une formation hybride à cheval sur
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19 19 with acc. pl. LUSTROS, in ins
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21 21 OSSUUM/OSSUORUM/OSSORUM/OSSAR
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23 23 inscription (Bourciez, §218c
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25 25 PRAESTIGIUM, INFAMIUM, BLASPH
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27 27 Ling. Lat., but Nyrop quotes
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29 29 singular in early times), SPI
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31 31 substantia consumitur” (Ita
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33 33 plural (evidence of the early
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35 35 in Chir.) as ‘leaves’? Th
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37 37 loanwords and verbal nouns; i
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39 39 singulars are felt to be the
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41 41 language, producing a situati
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43 43 c) Passing now to French, we
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45 45 separated from braç, as are
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47 47 a modern formation). Old Ital
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49 49 ‘powder horns’, ‘corner
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51 51 also represent Latin -NIA (cf
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53 53 ‘heels’ gives the Rumania
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55 55 böila, Eng. böglia, Surs. b
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57 57 de Dial. Esp., p. 346). But b
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59 59 j) Traces of other old neuter
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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: 113 113 FUNDUS, ARCUS, COLFUS, NODU
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
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165 165 has at the same time become
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167 167 üj ‘grape’. Similarly
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169 169 feminines; examples are It.
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171 171 feminine noun which has nei
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173 173 Cat. bolla ‘seal on cloth
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175 175 Lat. VENA. Spanish seems to
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177 177 Heidelberg, 1920; Romanisch
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