The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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142 mugete ‘bellowings’, suflete ‘breathings’, ‘lives’, ‘souls’, and râsete ‘bursts of laughter’, this perhaps a deverbal of RISITARE, as cuget-e ‘thought-s’ is of COGITARE. There are also some similar formations in -ate, as cântate ‘singings’, lătrate ‘barkings’, şuierate ‘whistlings’, ‘hissings’. All in all, the fact that Rumanian has so many participial formations of “mixed” declension corresponding to the Latin neuters, where the other languages have feminine forms, seems to me a strong argument for believing with Collin that the genesis of these latter formations, at least, lies with the old neuter plurals, which in their turn are based on concepts like ‘things collected’, ‘things spent’, ‘things promised’. 13. Miscellaneous neuters surviving with a plural function. a) I have come to the end of the words which can be grouped together in classes, and am left with quite a number of miscellaneous words which have no special common link. Of these, some still retain their plural function in Rumanian and/or Italian, while others only survive as feminine singulars throughout the Romance-speaking area. So let me take the former group first, noting that it includes not only classical Latin neuter nouns, but also others that adopted neuter forms in late Latin. I am basing myself here on Italian forms listed by Rohlfs (§§368-370), and they constitute quite a formidable collection. Thus from PRATA ‘meadows’ we get the Italian dialectal plurals prata, prade, pratora and pratola (with dissimilation); there is also a singular form prata (and pl. pratas in Lombard Latin), and to this correspond Surs., LEng. prada, UEng. preda, OFr. pree, Prov. prada, OCat. prada and the place name Prades (Lausberg and others quote a Rum. praturi, but Rumanian scholars say no such form exists). VASA ‘vessels’ survives as a plural in Rum., OIt. vase, and as a feminine in Friul. vaze, Surs., OSp. vasa; Buck also gives VASA CAMPANA ‘Campanian bronze instruments’ as the source of It. campana ‘bell’, which also 142
143 143 spread to the Iberian Peninsula. The diminutive VASCELLA is also found as a plural form vascella in Old Italian, and otherwise appears widely as a collective feminine singular for ‘dishes’ in Surs. vischala (old vaschalla) with unitary vischi, Eng. vaschella with unitary vaschè, Fr. vaisselle, Prov. vaissella, Cat. vaixella, Sp. vajilla (evidently not of purely Castilian origin), Ptg. baixela (Sard. vašella is from Catalan). OSTIA ‘doors’, which was also a feminine singular as a place name, appears as a plural only in OIt. uscia, and otherwise has become a singular, so Rum. uşă/uşe, Surs. collective escha ‘doors’ with unitary esch, OFr. huisse, Prov. ussa. The collective sense of FERRA ‘irons’ can be seen in Rum. fiare ‘irons’, ‘chains’ (beside the regular plural fiere), similar to the OIt. ferra (and Lombard Latin ferroras), whereas OFr. ferre (hapax) ‘ironwork’, Prov. ferra ‘ditto’ are singulars (in Catalan there is only one doubtful example of fera recorded, seemingly for masc. ferre, but the phrase en ferres could equally well come from the feminine as from the masculine); the Am. Sp. hierra and Ptg. ferra ‘branding’ are evidently deverbals, but Ptg. ferra ‘shovel’ would seem to have developed out of the idea of ‘fire-irons’. Again, SIGNA ‘signs’ (feminine in late Latin) has given Rum. semne and OIt. (Sic.) singna (Monaci, No. 41) as plurals, and, as singulars, OFr. seingne (hapax), Prov. senha, OCat. senya, Sp. seña, Ptg. senha, Sard. sinna. The cognate INSIGNIA ‘insignia’ appears as a plural in OIt. insegna (in a manuscript variant of singna), but otherwise only as a singular in It. insegna ‘badge’, ‘signboard’, ‘standard’, ‘ensign’, and similar Fr. enseigne, Prov. ensenha, Cat. ensenya, Sp. enseña (Portuguese only has the learned insignia); the Surs. enzenna/ansenna, Eng. insaina/insegna (Italianized) ‘sign’ also seem to be crossed with this form. FILA ‘threads’ is continued as a plural in Rum. fire and the It. collective fila as opposed to individual fili and also in Calab. filure; the Sp. sing. hila ‘lint (for a wound)’ would also seem to be a continuation of this, though in other senses it is more likely to be a deverbal of hilar, following the pattern of Fr. file ‘file’, ‘row’, ‘line’, which has spread to other areas as well. CASTELLA ‘castles’
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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
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63 63 ‘kneading-trough’, in the
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65 65 8. Numerals and pronominal ad
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67 67 mil and modern mille (masc.).
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69 69 OFr. nu(l)s, nule, Prov. nuls
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71 71 find the meaning ‘leaf’,
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73 73 in the areas which use -i for
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75 75 c) Let us now look at the sit
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77 77 turn to the dialects to find
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79 79 matching these also ulivo/uli
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81 81 corme), corne (OFr. cornelle)
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83 83 beside cuerno/corgno, prunell
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85 85 cerezal ‘cherry orchard’,
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87 87 ‘holm-oak’ tree, but Arag
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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: 141 141 languages the first consona
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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