The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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and -ETA have come to be used to refer to a single group of trees or other
vegetation (and later, by extension, to other groups of objects).
o) In this case Rumanian, true to type, keeps these words as “mixed”
nouns, with -et in the singular and -ete (or -eturi) in the plural, so pomet/pomăt,
pomete, and similarly frăsinet, sălcet (pl. sălcete or sălceturi), Mac.-Rum.
arburet (standard arboret is a new formation), făget, ulmet, nucet, lauret, spinet,
castanet, prunet, meret, peret, alunet, cărpinet, vişinet, brădet (fir), călinet
(guelder rose), bunget (‘thicket’) and so on (rivalled by other formations, as
brădeŃ, brădiş, fânaŃ, fâneaŃă, with -iş being especially productive). In Italian
both types are found as singulars, with regional distribution, but in Old Italian
we seem to have one survival of -ETA used as a plural in the place name le
Castagneta, which occurs in the same piece as Castagneto (Mon., No. 12, a
Latin text with Italian names). Today, according to Rohlfs (§1135), -ETU is
preferred in the south (in the form -itu, with u-mutation) and -ETA in the north
(though he quotes a greater number of examples of -ETU from that region!),
while Tuscany uses both, but with a preference for -eto, which is the only form
used for certain trees. So we find fagg-eto/-eta, pin-eto/-eta, alber-eto/-eta
(tree; aspen), acer-eto/-eta (maple), castagn-eto/-eta (the latter quoted for
Corsica, which favours -eta), querc-eto (Calab. cercitu)/-eta (and presumably
cerqueto in the central areas which use the form cerqua), noceto (Calab.
nucaritu)/Noceta, ontan-eto/-eta (alder), uliv-eto/-eta (Latian livitu/leveta),
felc-eto/-eta (fern), ginestr-eto/-eta (‘thorny place’), cerr-eto/-eta (turkey-oak),
but pometo (Calab. pumaritu), alneto (alder), betulleto ‘birch’, carpineto
(hornbeam), calluneto (‘heath’), ciliegeto, corileto (hazel), pioppeto (poplar),
frassineto, salceto, spineto, olmeto, mirteto (myrtle), pereto, pruneto,
elceto/lecceto (Calab. ilicitu), fich(er)eto, laureto (Loreto), giglieto (lily),
giuncheto (rush), canneto (reed), moreto, roseto (Calab. rosaritu), rovereto
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