The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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PRAESTIGIUM, INFAMIUM, BLASPHEM1UM, MEMORIUM. Amongst other forms,
such as COPULUM, MANICUM, TEGULUM, Appel quotes several examples of the
substitution of -MONIUM for -MONIA, giving forms such as AEGRIMONIUM,
CAERIMONIUM, QUERIMONIUM. There are no traces of *MEDULLUM ‘marrow’,
which we might expect from a comparison of the Romance forms, but
Grandgent quotes Meyer-Lübke for a form ORIDIUM ‘rice’ (for ORYZA), showing
the same orthographic treatment as BAPTIDIARE and exactly corresponding to
Rum. orez (not It. riso, which is ultimately from modern Greek).
f) We come now to those neuter plurals which became feminine
singulars in late Latin, but first let me say that in some cases it is difficult to see
which of the two is intended (we have already seen that the double plurals are
no guarantee of the existence of feminine singular forms). Muller and Taylor
say of the singular nouns in general that they had one single oblique form (they
are evidently thinking of Proto-Italo-Western Romance, excluding Rumanian),
and in the case of the 3rd-decl. neuters they give examples of the nom.-acc.
form being used for the ablative in Merovingian Latin, so “de flumen”, “de uno
latus”, “de alio latus”, “a longum tempus”, “suscepto...onus” (Väänänen gives a
similar example of “ex ipso pignus” from the Ed. Roth.). They do not, however,
make any observations about the neuter plural, but in the texts one finds phrases
like “de tempora” ‘from the temples’ (Chir.), “a fundamenta” (inscr.), “ex ipsis
memorata loca” (Form. Marc.), “de quantamcumque carra”, “de ipsa carra” and
“nec de navigia, nec de portus, nec de carra nec de saumas'” (Tardif’s Cartons
des Rois), “in qualibet loca” (Form. Andec.), “de spolia” and “sub folia auseriae
absconsus fuisti” (Pass. Mem.), “sine arma” (Gl. Reich.). Similar examples are
provided by Appel, so “de paradisi gaudia” (Agnell.), “de vita et claustra
monachorum” (Mon. Hist. Pat.), “excepto vivenda et fodro” (Cap. Car. Mag.),
and one by Carnoy, “cum gaudia vite” (inscr. in Spain). One hesitates to see
these as feminine forms, even where this development is found in Romance, as