The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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in the areas which use -i forms to replace braccia, dita etc. But the word frutta
can also be a collective singular, la frutta, with a new plural le frutte; as in the
case of legne, frute is also found in the old northern dialects as the equivalent of
le frutta, thus corresponding to both frutta and frutte in the standard language.
We also find in Lombard Latin the forms FRUCTORA(S)/FRUCTURA, and these are
preserved in OIt. le fruttora, SIt. le frotturi; equally, Sardinian has a collective
sing. fruttora/fruttura, from old fructora/fructura (seemingly plural forms), for
which a pl. fruttoras is also found (Fless., § 8). In Rhaeto-Romance,
Engadinian has the collective frütta, as opposed to individual früts. Here
Sursilvan only seems to have fretgs; Ascoli quotes a collective fritga, calling it
Sursilvan, but the DRG only cites a form frichia taken from a single dictionary,
which seems from its spelling to belong rather to a Central dialect. Old French
has the collective la fruite as opposed to the individual fruit (now the only form
used), and similarly Provençal has la frucha/fruita, now frucho/fruto (which
also, in the Alps, can have the meaning of ‘milk products’) as against
fruch/fruit/fru(t) for the individual fruit; so also Catalan has la fruita, used
collectively and with a pl. les fruites, as opposed to the individual fruit (now
mostly figurative). Spanish has the collective fruta, but also with a pl. frutas, as
against the individual fruto (with t < CT after a high vowel, cf. enjuto, old
destruto, though Old Spanish also has frucho, found, for example, in Berceo, as
old ensucho, (a)ducho and lucha, trucha; the Glosas Silenses have fruitu, and
Aragonese has fruito as old destruito). Portuguese similarly has fruta, earlier
and popular fruita, for collective ‘fruit’, as opposed to the individual fruto.
b) Having looked at the development of the word for ‘fruit’, we may
now proceed to the names of the different kinds of fruit. In classical Latin the
fruit-trees generally belonged to the 2nd declension in -US, but were feminine,
as was ARBOR (for mythological reasons, as Lausberg explains); the fruits on