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The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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areas as a s<strong>in</strong>gular (so used by Isidore): It. (Tarent.) énčida and (Fassa) énžia<br />

(these formed from an alternative form *INGUITA; M.-L., E<strong>in</strong>f.; cf. §4c above),<br />

LEng. a<strong>in</strong>gla, OFr. eigne/engre/a<strong>in</strong>gle etc., now a<strong>in</strong>e, Prov. engueno, Sp. (Ast.)<br />

<strong>in</strong>gua/yénguana, Ptg. <strong>in</strong>gua, Sard. (Log.) imbena, (Camp.) <strong>in</strong>guna (Fless., §<br />

10). Aga<strong>in</strong>, VIRILIA ‘male genitals’ has given the fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>es Sp. verija, Ast. bria,<br />

Ptg. virilha, Gal. brillas ‘gro<strong>in</strong>’, while *RENA ‘kidneys’ now appears as Rum.<br />

rână ‘side’, OPied. (Lodi) rena, Umbr. pl. r<strong>in</strong>a, OFr. re<strong>in</strong>es, Gasc.<br />

regno/(ar)reo ‘re<strong>in</strong>s’, ‘back’. F<strong>in</strong>ally *SPLENA ‘spleen’ has survived <strong>in</strong> Rum.<br />

spl<strong>in</strong>ă, OIt. splena, Tess<strong>in</strong> špyena (REW), while the REW and Rohlfs (§384)<br />

also quote other forms (Ven., Friul., etc.) com<strong>in</strong>g from the related SPLENIA.<br />

i) Pass<strong>in</strong>g to the head, we f<strong>in</strong>d the pre-classical CAPILLA ‘hair’, which<br />

also appeared <strong>in</strong> a curs<strong>in</strong>g tablet, cont<strong>in</strong>ued <strong>in</strong> OIt. i capella (Dante, Inf.,<br />

32:103); <strong>in</strong> Rhaeto-<strong>Romance</strong> we f<strong>in</strong>d the collective form only <strong>in</strong> the phrase Eng.<br />

alla chavella, Surm. alla tgavella, Surs. ella cavella <strong>in</strong> the sense of gett<strong>in</strong>g ‘<strong>in</strong>to<br />

a person’s hair’. Godefroy gives one example of OFr. une chevele, and <strong>in</strong><br />

Mistral I f<strong>in</strong>d Occ. cabelho for the ‘bushy top of a tree’, ‘plume of maize’ etc.<br />

For CEREBELLA ‘bra<strong>in</strong>s’ we have It. pl. cervella and cervelle (but i cervelli <strong>in</strong><br />

figurative senses), with dial. OSien. ciaravella, Mil. c<strong>in</strong>ivella, Lomb. servela,<br />

OBerg. cenevelle; as s<strong>in</strong>gular collective forms Friulian has serviele, Vegliot<br />

carviale, French cervelle and Prov. cervella (<strong>in</strong> the sense of ‘a person’s bra<strong>in</strong>s’<br />

as opposed to Fr. cerveau, Prov., Cat. cervell ‘the bra<strong>in</strong>, as an organ’), and<br />

Sard<strong>in</strong>ian carvedda, (M.-L., Schicks., p. 135). <strong>The</strong> word for ‘heads’ itself,<br />

CAPITA, survives <strong>in</strong> the Rumanian pl. capete (giv<strong>in</strong>g rise to a new s<strong>in</strong>g. capăt)<br />

and the Logudorian s<strong>in</strong>g. cabida ‘head of cattle’ (beside Log. cabidu, Camp.<br />

cabidu/cabudu ‘head of a rope’); we also f<strong>in</strong>d OTusc. capita/capeta (and new<br />

s<strong>in</strong>gs. capito/capeto elsewhere), while <strong>in</strong> Spa<strong>in</strong> CAPITA is fleet<strong>in</strong>gly represented<br />

by Mozarabic chentocapta ‘eryngo’ (= ciencabezas; V. García de Diego, Man.<br />

56

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