The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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inscription (Bourciez, §218c), and as KAPO in a Spanish Latin text of the year
844. (No. 4 in Gifford and Hodcroft’s Textos Lingüísticos); the second of these
forms may only reflect 2nd-decl. *CAPU, which seems to be the ancestor of the
Romance forms in general, but it seems to me that CAPUS could equally well be
a 3rd-decl. neuter in view of the Lombard Latin pl. CAPORA, still preserved in
southern Italian dialects, while the stem CAPIT- continues in dialectal forms like
cápito, cápeto, taken from the old pl. cápita, cápeta (cf. also Rum. capete,
capuri). Also TERMlN-/*TERMlT- appears in Rumanian as Ńărm(ure), pl. Ńărmuri,
behind which we may possibly see a third stem *TERMOR-. (Note also the
agreement between ARMORA and Rum. armuri, with OFr. ars pointing to
3rd-decl. ARMUS.)
e) I have just spoken of “Lombard Latin” in connection with CAPORA.
The spread of the plural ending -ORA to nouns of other classes, as seen here, is
particularly noticeable in these documents, which date back to the 8th century in
Italy, and continue till the 12th. Aebischer (op. cit.) gives a full account of all
the forms occurring both with this ending and with the double plural -ORAS
(note that this ending, with final -S, is not limited solely to northern Italy;
perhaps it was felt that the pronunciation -ORA was a mispronunciation of
-ORAS), and with feminine concord (see below), and some of the salient forms
are also quoted by Meyer-Lübke, Väänänen and Rohlfs. Aebischer points out
the links between these and the 4th-century forms to show that the Italian and
Rumanian forms (see my §1) must have had a common origin, and gives as
examples of similar formations PAVIMENTORA, CAMPORA, CURSORA, FUNDORA,
LOCORA, RIVORA and pământuri, câmpuri, cursuri, funduri, locuri, râuri. He
could also have added VENTORA, RAMORA, ARCORA, LACORA, VADORA, LATORA
(replacing LATERA), to which correspond Rum. vânturi, ramuri, arcuri, lacuri,
vaduri, laturi (or lături). It is also interesting that this -ORA is used as the plural
ending for abstract nouns taken from Latin 4th-decl. nouns or participial forms,