The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
62<br />
forms were homophonous by this time), and Prov. pairas for paira. As we have<br />
seen, this collective usage still cont<strong>in</strong>ues <strong>in</strong> Rhaeto-<strong>Romance</strong>, and we may<br />
suppose that it was once general <strong>in</strong> all the Western <strong>Romance</strong> languages. Other<br />
languages derive their words for ‘pair’ from *PARICULA (perhaps orig<strong>in</strong>ally a<br />
plural) or *PARICULU, so Rum. s<strong>in</strong>g. păreche (Mac. Rum. păreacl’e and<br />
părecl’u), Prov. parelha and parelh (the modern form), Cat. parella ‘couple’,<br />
parell ‘pair’, Sp. pareja, Ptg. parelha (and <strong>in</strong> Brazil parelho ‘two-piece suit’),<br />
Sard. (Camp.) pariga; Old French also used pareil, and Italian has pariglia (a<br />
northern form) and Cal., Sic. paricchia or paricchiu, parigghia, this latter from<br />
the standard language.<br />
Of the other unit words, let us take first late <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> CARRA ‘carts’. Here<br />
we have the Rum. pl. care (Mold. cară) as the general word for ‘carts’, not<br />
only ‘cartloads’, and then OIt. due carra (dial. carre) for ‘two cartloads’, as<br />
opposed to carri ‘carts’; here the northern dialects also preserve the old neuter<br />
form, so Ven. mille cara, as compared with ose for standard ossa. In<br />
Rhaeto-<strong>Romance</strong> we f<strong>in</strong>d Eng. dua (traia) charra (and Central tgarra) as well<br />
as duos chars, whereas Sursilvan only has the construction dus carrs. Old<br />
French has the similar c<strong>in</strong>quante care (<strong>in</strong> the Roland), though it also uses the<br />
plural form charres <strong>in</strong> such cases; similarly <strong>in</strong> Provençal we f<strong>in</strong>d VII charra de<br />
leigna (Graf., ibid.), but this <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> plural form does not seem to have survived<br />
beyond the Pyrenees. Aga<strong>in</strong>, <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> MODIA ‘2-gallon units’ (found <strong>in</strong> Pl<strong>in</strong>y, and<br />
note also the Lombard <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> MODIORA) gives the Italian pl. moggia<br />
‘hogsheads’; note too that besides the standard Tuscan form moggio, Italian<br />
also uses the northern mozzo for ‘hub’. Of the correspond<strong>in</strong>g OFr. muie<br />
Godefroy only gives examples with the plural -s affixed, but for Provençal<br />
Grafström quotes tria semoia < SE(MI)MODIA ‘gallons’ (a usage not recorded by<br />
Levy); as far as I can ascerta<strong>in</strong>, Eng. mozza is likewise the collective plural of<br />
möz ‘bushel’, but the Surs. mosa has become a unitary word for a<br />
62