The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
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(which also appears as castellas <strong>in</strong> Lombard <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong>) is used by Dante as a plural<br />
castella, and this is flanked by castelle <strong>in</strong> other dialects; elsewhere it is only<br />
known as a place name, Sp. Castilla (and from Mozarabic the local place<br />
names Cazalla <strong>in</strong> Seville and Murcia and Cacella <strong>in</strong> Portugal), Prov., Cat., Ptg.<br />
Castella (Rum. pl. castele is a modern borrow<strong>in</strong>g; the Portuguese form became<br />
the name of the Japanese kasutera cake). Italian has an old plural form mul<strong>in</strong>a<br />
(and dim<strong>in</strong>utive mul<strong>in</strong>ella) from MOLINA ‘mill’ (actually an adjectival form<br />
com<strong>in</strong>g from SAXA MOLINA ‘millstones’), which appears as a fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong> Prov.,<br />
Cat., Sp. mol<strong>in</strong>a and Ptg. mo<strong>in</strong>a. SAXA ‘stones’ itself (fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e s<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>in</strong> late<br />
<strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong>) is represented by the It. dial. pls. sasse, sassəra and Eng. collective<br />
sassa. Another adjectival form that replaced an earlier noun (unless it is a<br />
deverbal) is *IEIUNA for IEIUNIA ‘fasts’ (seem<strong>in</strong>gly adjectivalized <strong>in</strong> “le ieiunia<br />
quattuor tempora” <strong>in</strong> the “Umbrian Confession”), which has given the It. dial.<br />
pls. jagiuna (<strong>ON</strong>eap.), digiune, digiunora, to which corresponds the Rum.<br />
ajunuri ‘eves’; s<strong>in</strong>gular forms are Surs. gig<strong>in</strong>a, Eng. gegüna, OFr. jeune (fem.<br />
as well as masc.), Sp. en ayunas. A mysterious form *BOKJA or *BOTTJA<br />
appears <strong>in</strong> the Rum. pl. boŃuri ‘lumps’ (and <strong>in</strong> the fem. boaŃă, ‘pellet’ ?), and as<br />
a s<strong>in</strong>gular <strong>in</strong> It. bozza ‘boss’, ‘nautical stopper’ (I suspect that the similar<br />
boccia ‘bud’, ‘ball for bowl<strong>in</strong>g’, ‘head’ has been re-formed from *bocca on the<br />
pl. bocce and is therefore unconnected with bozza, cf. Rum. boacă ‘ball for<br />
bowl<strong>in</strong>g’, ‘head’, ‘turnip’; but the reverse may be the case, as we f<strong>in</strong>d the Surs.<br />
collective botscha for ‘hemp panicle’, ‘balls for bowl<strong>in</strong>g’, ‘round stones’), Fr.<br />
bosse, Prov. bossa ‘ditto’, Cat. bossoga ‘boss’, bossa ‘stopper’ (there is also a<br />
boç ‘muzzle’), Sp. boza, Ptg. boça ‘stopper’. For COAGULA ‘rennet’ we have<br />
Rum. pl. chiaguri (with metathesis) and the s<strong>in</strong>gulars Fr. dial. (Anjou) caille<br />
‘rennet’, ‘curds’, Fr.-Prov. (Forez.) calhas ‘buttermilk’, Sp. cuaja ‘slime<br />
collected <strong>in</strong> a dried-up pond’. CAPISTRA ‘halters’ has given the Rum. pl.<br />
căpestre (s<strong>in</strong>g. căpăstru) and a form chavestra which Meyer-Lübke (Schicks.,<br />
p. 135) labels “Lad<strong>in</strong>”; it may be Dolomitic, as it is not found <strong>in</strong><br />
144