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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151<br />
151<br />
also lists Rum. par as “n.”, though I can f<strong>in</strong>d no support for this elsewhere; for<br />
SOMNI ‘sleeps’ there are -ORA forms <strong>in</strong> both areas, Rum. somnuri and It. dial.<br />
sonnora, while the similar S<strong>ON</strong>I ‘sounds’ appears <strong>in</strong> OIt. suonora, Sic. sonira.<br />
Late CUNEA ‘wedges’ has given Rum. cuie ‘nails’; we have seen that It. cogna<br />
‘measures of w<strong>in</strong>e’ comes from C<strong>ON</strong>GIA, not CUNEA, which only appears as a<br />
fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e s<strong>in</strong>gular <strong>in</strong> Cosenza, Sic. cugna ‘co<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g die’ (for ‘wedge’ It. uses the<br />
learned cuneo). Another Italian measure of capacity that I have chanced to turn<br />
up is OCampan. pl. tomela (from tomolo; Monaci, No. 23).<br />
e) From the late plural LAQUEA ‘nooses’ (also found as a fem. s<strong>in</strong>g.),<br />
which developed as *LACIA, have come Rum. pl. laŃuri ‘nooses’ and the s<strong>in</strong>gs.<br />
NIt. (Imola) laza ‘str<strong>in</strong>g’, Fr. lasse ‘silk cord’ and Cat. llaça ‘disc (pad) of<br />
rope’, while a similar *MALLEA ‘hammers’ (cf. Caper’s condemnation of<br />
MALLEUM for MALLEUS) has given Rum. pl. maiuri, regional maie ‘mauls’ and<br />
the s<strong>in</strong>gs. MFr. maille, Occ. malho, maio ‘mallet’, and perhaps the Sp. maja<br />
‘pestle’, though Ptg. malha ‘beat<strong>in</strong>g’ is clearly a deverbal. Also PILI ‘hairs’ is<br />
represented by a Sic. pila, though <strong>in</strong> Rumanian the usual plural is the masc.<br />
peri, with neuter păruri only rarely found. <strong>The</strong> Greek noun AER ‘air’ had a pl.<br />
AERA <strong>in</strong> late <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> (and also earlier <strong>in</strong> poetry), and this has survived as a plural<br />
<strong>in</strong> Rum. aere, and otherwise as a s<strong>in</strong>gular <strong>in</strong> OIt. aira, now aria (also adopted<br />
<strong>in</strong>to Rhaeto-<strong>Romance</strong> and virtually replac<strong>in</strong>g native ajer, er), OFr. aire, now<br />
absorbed by air, and Sard. (Cent.) áera (ágera). We have already looked at the<br />
-ORA forms for CAMPI ‘fields’, Rum. câmpuri, Lombard <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> campora(s),<br />
cont<strong>in</strong>ued <strong>in</strong> Old Tuscan and <strong>in</strong> place names like Campora, Campori; apart<br />
from these you have Sp. tierra campa, Ptg. terra campa ‘treeless land’ and Ptg.<br />
campa dos mouros ‘ancient grave sites’, from which campa ‘gravestone’. For<br />
PANNI ‘cloths’, Meyer-Lübke (Schicks.) quotes It. pannora, and Monaci (No.<br />
131) has an OTusc. s<strong>in</strong>g. panoro formed from this and mean<strong>in</strong>g ‘a measure of