The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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j) Traces of other old neuter forms referring to parts of the body are seen
first in It. le membra, with old and dial. membre, Rh. la membra (formerly with
plural concord) for ‘limbs’, as opposed to masc. membri, members ‘members’;
here Rumanian similarly has membre and membri, but in this case the word is a
modern borrowing. The Friul. membris is ambiguous. A fossilized form of
MEMBRA is also seen in OFr. vie et membre, Prov. vida e membra (cf. Engl. “life
and limb”, from the old pl. limu), Angevin “avoir de la membre”. In this case we
also have one more rare example of the extension to Catalan of a singular form
with plural signification in the phrase “ta vita ni ta membra” found in two
slightly Latinized texts in Russell-Gebbett’s chrestomathy (elsewhere we can
also find “de nostra membra” and “de omnia membra” in what may be called
Catalan Latin texts). From late Latin PUGNA (PUGNUS is also found once as a
neuter in Plautus) come It. pugna (as in “serrare le pugna” = ‘die’) beside older
pugnora and standard pugni, and Rum. pumne beside popular pumnuri and
standard pumni; there is no collective form in Rhaeto-Romance, but the Fr.
poigne (OFr. “vivre par sa poigne”) and Prov. ponha ‘grip’ seem to belong here,
whereas other forms like Cat. punya, OSp. puña and Sard. punna would appear
to be deverbals. Latin NERVIA does not seem to have survived, but *NERVA is
seen in It. dial. nerəva alongside nerbora (also OTusc.), and in the collectives
Eng. gnierva, Surs. gnarva. DORSA has been preserved in Rum. doase/dosuri, Fr.
dosse ‘flitch’, ‘plank with the bark on’, and Prov. trasdossa ‘lean-to’ (M.-L.,
Schicks., p. 163). The Salento dialect has extended the -ORA ending to manure
‘handfuls’ from MANŪS ‘hands’, and a similar mânure ‘hands’ is found in Old
Rumanian (ibid., p. 175); Italian and Rumanian also agree here in having the old
plurals mano and mânŭ and transference to the -A declension — OTusc.
mana–mane, Rum. mână–mâini. As one word for ‘legs’ Italian has le cuoia
from CORIA ‘hides’, which in Lucania has become a sing. coira ‘leather’ like Sp.
cuera, Ptg. coira ‘leather jacket’, Sard. (Log.) cordza ‘bark’. Rumanian has
picioare for ‘feet’, ‘legs’ from PETIOLI (*PEC-) ‘little feet’, where Italian has