The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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c) Passing now to French, we find in the main the W. Romance
separation of BRACHIUM and BRACHIA as seen in modern bras ‘arm’ and brasse
‘fathom’. However, in Old French we find the older Rhaeto-Romance situation
reflected to some extent. Firstly, la brace can be used for a person’s two arms,
with the phrase “en/entre sa brace” being found frequently for ‘in his/her arms’;
other similar phrases are “s’entretienent a une brace”, “brace estendue”, “brace
levee”, “brace a brace”, “a brace de corps”, this last still preserved as “nager à
la brasse” ‘swim breaststroke’. Here brace is grammatically a feminine singular,
but the meaning is plural, and Väänänen also quotes a form “ambes les brace”
(no reference given), while Tobler & Lommatzsch give “ces brace” (Oxf. LHs.)
and “ambe sa brace” (Hist. Jos., this perhaps the same as the “ambe brace”
given by Nyrop). Here we find examples of plural concord, but this seems to be
very rare in Old French, except in the case of words of measurement (see
below), and in some cases may be imitated from Latin. Bourciez quotes les doie
(no reference; see my comments in §6d below), and Spitzer (op. cit.) “bestes et
tuit aumaille” (reproducing the Latin “bestiae et universa pecora”; Oxford
Psalter), “aumaille petiz ot les granz” (Latin “animalia pusilla cum magnis”,
ibid.; cf. “cent almaille”, Laws of Will. Conq.), “les prophecies et les signe”
(Job), and “li altre…la dure lenge [=leigne] qui tardiement esprendent”
(A.Tobler, Archiv., XXVI, 288); this last example seems to me, however, to be
falsely included, as the antecedent of “qui esprendent” is “li altre” (not quoted
by Spitzer) rather than “la lenge”. In addition, Nyrop gives “s’oste ses arme”
(Rich. li biaus, 2255, occurring in the rhyme; “ses armes” is found a little later, l.
2469), as well as another example falsely analysed. But quite apart from these
few isolated instances we have ample evidence in French of the use of the
collective form in the combination of numeral and unit of measurement, just as
in Rh. dua bratscha, a usage which must originally have been widespread in
Western Romance as a whole. In the case of this word, both Bourciez and
Spitzer quote an example of quatre brace (with no reference, and no example in