The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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4 which were originally masculine or even, occasionally, feminine. (For a comparison of the developments in the two languages, see P. Aebischer, “Les pluriels analogiques en -ora en Italie”, in ALMA, VIII (1933). There is also a treatment of the subject by G. CaragaŃă, which I have not been able to trace.) Furthermore, we shall see, as Aebischer stresses, that this development is not one which belongs to the more recent history of the individual languages, but had its genesis in Latin itself, where an inherited tendency (see below) for masculine nouns denoting objects which might, in the plural, be considered collectively as a group or in pairs, to form a new “neuter” plural in -A was extended further, giving forms like late Latin DIGITA, FRUCTA beside DIGITI, FRUCTUS (or FRUCTI). (These forms, like the previously existing neuter plurals, could also become new feminine singulars in Romance.) We shall also find that, as we go back in time, the cleavage between Rumanian and Italian on the one hand, which still preserve the old neuter forms in a plural function, and the other languages, which do not, was not so sharply marked. Rather, we shall find that the picture changes gradually as we go further west from Italy, passing first through a zone where these forms still have, or once had, a limited plural use, and finally arriving at the Iberian peninsula, where they are only found as feminine singulars, though still often retaining their collective meaning. In searching for my examples, I have taken as my starting-point those Latin (including late Latin) neuter plurals that have survived as plural forms in both Italian and Rumanian, and then turned to the other languages to see what traces they have preserved of these same words, and in what functions. 2. The early Latin stage. a) This tendency for the neuter plurals to become feminine singulars goes hand in hand with another, which is for the neuter nouns to be merged with the masculines, and both these tendencies had their inception right at the early 4
5 5 stages of the language. (Incidentally, it is curious that the neuter gender should have been so vulnerable in Romance, when it is still thriving in Greek, Slavonic and Germanic; among the modern Germanic languages, apart from German and Icelandic which preserve three genders, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (Riksmål) have merged their masculine and feminine genders but still kept the neuter separate! It may also require a stretch of the imagination for those brought up on Kennedy’s Latin Primer, as I was, or its equivalents, to realize that the ancient Romans did not have all their nouns tidily sorted out into declensions in their minds, arranged in neat little tables showing gender, number and case!) In the case of the interchange between neuter and feminine, we need to bear in mind that in the Indo-European languages the nominative and accusative forms of the neuter plurals have the same origin as a type of feminine singular with collective meaning (in this connection note that the classical Greek neuter plurals take a singular verb); see E. H. Sturtevant, “The Prehistory of Indo-European ā-stems” (Language, Vol. 14, pp. 239-247), and “Indo-Hittite Collective Nouns with a Laryngeal Suffix” (Language, Vol. 24, pp. 259-261). So the neuter gender tends to embrace words which can, in their plural signification, be conceived of in the mass (or in pairs) rather than individually, though this is certainly not true of all neuter words. Bourciez (op. cit.) suggests that another cause for the change to feminine singulars might be the frequent use of the plural for the singular made by poets (e.g. GAUDIA, which scans as a dactyl, for GAUDIUM, which can only be used in a hexameter if the final syllable is elided before a following short vowel), but the effect this would have on popular speech seems to me doubtful. (Of greater significance are the “double plurals” formed from the plurals which became feminine singulars, for which see below.) When it comes to confusion with the masculines, there are two points
Page 1 and 2: 1 1 The Latin Neuter Plurals in Rom
Page 3: individually. 3 3 Such treatments a
Page 7 and 8: 7 7 preserved in Italian, such as t
Page 9 and 10: 9 9 ‘well’, CAPILLUM ‘hair’
Page 11 and 12: etween the 2nd and 4th declensions)
Page 13 and 14: 13 13 changing their declension in
Page 15 and 16: 15 15 Another popular development w
Page 17 and 18: une formation hybride à cheval sur
Page 19 and 20: 19 19 with acc. pl. LUSTROS, in ins
Page 21 and 22: 21 21 OSSUUM/OSSUORUM/OSSORUM/OSSAR
Page 23 and 24: 23 23 inscription (Bourciez, §218c
Page 25 and 26: 25 25 PRAESTIGIUM, INFAMIUM, BLASPH
Page 27 and 28: 27 27 Ling. Lat., but Nyrop quotes
Page 29 and 30: 29 29 singular in early times), SPI
Page 31 and 32: 31 31 substantia consumitur” (Ita
Page 33 and 34: 33 33 plural (evidence of the early
Page 35 and 36: 35 35 in Chir.) as ‘leaves’? Th
Page 37 and 38: 37 37 loanwords and verbal nouns; i
Page 39 and 40: 39 39 singulars are felt to be the
Page 41 and 42: 41 41 language, producing a situati
Page 43 and 44: 43 43 c) Passing now to French, we
Page 45 and 46: 45 45 separated from braç, as are
Page 47 and 48: 47 47 a modern formation). Old Ital
Page 49 and 50: 49 49 ‘powder horns’, ‘corner
Page 51 and 52: 51 51 also represent Latin -NIA (cf
Page 53 and 54: 53 53 ‘heels’ gives the Rumania
Page 55 and 56:
55 55 böila, Eng. böglia, Surs. b
Page 57 and 58:
57 57 de Dial. Esp., p. 346). But b
Page 59 and 60:
59 59 j) Traces of other old neuter
Page 61 and 62:
61 61 uova, with dial. ove or ovi f
Page 63 and 64:
63 63 ‘kneading-trough’, in the
Page 65 and 66:
65 65 8. Numerals and pronominal ad
Page 67 and 68:
67 67 mil and modern mille (masc.).
Page 69 and 70:
69 69 OFr. nu(l)s, nule, Prov. nuls
Page 71 and 72:
71 71 find the meaning ‘leaf’,
Page 73 and 74:
73 73 in the areas which use -i for
Page 75 and 76:
75 75 c) Let us now look at the sit
Page 77 and 78:
77 77 turn to the dialects to find
Page 79 and 80:
79 79 matching these also ulivo/uli
Page 81 and 82:
81 81 corme), corne (OFr. cornelle)
Page 83 and 84:
83 83 beside cuerno/corgno, prunell
Page 85 and 86:
85 85 cerezal ‘cherry orchard’,
Page 87 and 88:
87 87 ‘holm-oak’ tree, but Arag
Page 89 and 90:
89 89 péšego), with another varie
Page 91 and 92:
91 91 the Piedmontese form la figa
Page 93 and 94:
93 93 assisted by the feminine noun
Page 95 and 96:
95 95 (oak), roveto (bramble), vign
Page 97 and 98:
97 97 r) The position in Catalan is
Page 99 and 100:
99 99 native to the area all right,
Page 101 and 102:
101 101 but the fortuitous similari
Page 103 and 104:
103 103 trufa from French, Ptg. tub
Page 105 and 106:
105 105 Italian plurals in -ora and
Page 107 and 108:
107 107 account for Prov. nos (besi
Page 109 and 110:
109 109 Italian as the Latinism fri
Page 111 and 112:
111 111 Sard. pettorale. PIGNORA is
Page 113 and 114:
113 113 FUNDUS, ARCUS, COLFUS, NODU
Page 115 and 116:
115 115 from a late Greek form kól
Page 117 and 118:
117 117 like cambiora, digiunora, f
Page 119 and 120:
119 119 down by purely popular tran
Page 121 and 122:
121 121 examples I have given above
Page 123 and 124:
123 123 note that -egl- > -agl- is
Page 125 and 126:
125 125 dictionary ascribes the Ita
Page 127 and 128:
127 127 with the same meaning. This
Page 129 and 130:
129 129 ‘brotherhood’, and the
Page 131 and 132:
131 131 Vegl. fyasta (the Rum. fest
Page 133 and 134:
133 133 ‘salary’, and in these
Page 135 and 136:
135 135 legenda, Fr. (learned) lég
Page 137 and 138:
137 137 the widespread forms corres
Page 139 and 140:
139 139 morceau, Engl. bit), It. bo
Page 141 and 142:
141 141 languages the first consona
Page 143 and 144:
143 143 spread to the Iberian Penin
Page 145 and 146:
145 145 Rhaeto-Romance. From VINCUL
Page 147 and 148:
147 147 VISCUM ‘mistletoe’. Fro
Page 149 and 150:
149 149 are also forms without clas
Page 151 and 152:
151 151 also lists Rum. par as “n
Page 153 and 154:
153 153 of ACUS ‘needles’, wher
Page 155 and 156:
155 155 become a singular meaning
Page 157 and 158:
157 157 From LINTEA ‘linen cloths
Page 159 and 160:
159 159 esquírola ‘ditto’. Fro
Page 161 and 162:
161 161 Rum. răza is ‘scrape’,
Page 163 and 164:
163 163 combination of meanings; in
Page 165 and 166:
165 165 has at the same time become
Page 167 and 168:
167 167 üj ‘grape’. Similarly
Page 169 and 170:
169 169 feminines; examples are It.
Page 171 and 172:
171 171 feminine noun which has nei
Page 173 and 174:
173 173 Cat. bolla ‘seal on cloth
Page 175 and 176:
175 175 Lat. VENA. Spanish seems to
Page 177 and 178:
177 177 Heidelberg, 1920; Romanisch
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