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The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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84<br />

masc. pressec for ‘peach’, <strong>in</strong> this case not flanked by any fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e form.<br />

Otherwise fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e forms are the rule: pera, pruna, mora (and amora), cerira<br />

(now cirera), serva, maçana, nespra (Mall. nespla), dial. fraga/fraula (for<br />

standard maduixa ‘strawberry’). (For the ‘cornel’ only the tree-name corn,<br />

cornell, corniol is found.) <strong>The</strong> word for ‘orange’, taronja, is likewise fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e<br />

(though <strong>in</strong> Roussillon a masc. taronjo is found); this word, which comes from<br />

the same Arabic source as the cognate Sp., Ptg. taronja ‘bitter orange’,<br />

‘grapefruit’, is used for the sweet fruit <strong>in</strong> preference to naronja, which is<br />

reserved for the bitter one. Similar fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e forms are llimona ‘lemon’, llima<br />

‘lime’, and Catalan also has andr<strong>in</strong>a, apparently from Spanish, for ‘sloe’; note<br />

also the dial. nouella ‘Adam’s apple’. For ‘jujube’ Catalan has the masc.<br />

gínjol, and for ‘sour cherry’ gu<strong>in</strong>da or gu<strong>in</strong>dola (earlier guíndola). Orig<strong>in</strong>al<br />

<strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>es are ametlla (old amenla), (a)vellana, castanya and oliva (note<br />

also the placename Oliu); <strong>in</strong> the standard language alz<strong>in</strong>a (Valen. aul<strong>in</strong>a)<br />

‘holm-oak’ is only the name of the tree, but <strong>in</strong> dialect it refers to the acorn, as<br />

does Prov. eus<strong>in</strong>o (the tree be<strong>in</strong>g alz<strong>in</strong>era). Codony is the standard word for<br />

‘qu<strong>in</strong>ce’, but codonya is also used, as <strong>in</strong> Provençal, for a larger variety. We<br />

also have the expected masc. albercoc ‘apricot’, together with gerd ‘raspberry’<br />

(here the pruna de Damasc (or Domàs) is a ‘greengage’); note also prun<br />

‘plum’ <strong>in</strong> the adjo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g zone of Benasque (DCELC). Catalan also provides<br />

corroboration of my etymology of OFr. perma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> permany (peramany),<br />

denot<strong>in</strong>g a large k<strong>in</strong>d of pear.<br />

i) <strong>The</strong> position <strong>in</strong> Spanish is more similar to that <strong>in</strong> Italian, <strong>in</strong> that it<br />

often preserves the old mascul<strong>in</strong>e name of the tree, as well as the neuter<br />

s<strong>in</strong>gular for the fruit. (But for the name of the tree it may also use -ARIU, -ARIA,<br />

as <strong>in</strong> almendr-ero/-era, albaricoquero, avellanera, morera, or transfer the -al<br />

end<strong>in</strong>g, normally used along with -ar to denote an orchard or plantation, so<br />

peral ‘pear tree’, moral ‘mulberry tree’, as compared with pomar ‘orchard’,<br />

84

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