The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

95
95
(oak), roveto (bramble), vigneto; northern forms are roveda (Berg. ruida),
Pesseda (spruce, from northern pezo for standard peccia), Castagneda, and also
Frasnedo, Faido, arbréi, beol’é, fighé, ortighé (nettle), genestré/genestrái and
pumái.
p) As far as the Rhaeto-Romance forms are concerned, I have not been
able, from the materials available to me, to ascertain clearly to what extent
Latin -ETU, -ETA have survived in their original function; formally, we have
Surs. -iu, -eida and Eng. -ai (from -aid, cf. aschai(d) < ACETU ‘vinegar’
corresponding to Surs. ischiu), -aida. Here, the surprising Sursilvan form -iu
seems to show the same development as is seen in -au, -iu from -ATU, -ITU,
-UTU, notably in past participles, with, perhaps, the raising of -e- to -i- in hiatus,
as in Diu and the possessives miu, tiu, siu. The forms I have been able to turn
up are Surs. ruvriu (oak), figiu (beech, with Fieu, -fagieu, -figieu in place
names), tuliu (pine), and the place name Ignieu (alder), where Engadinian has
Agnai, Agnaida. Besides these, Upper Engadinian has pomaraida, which I
quoted earlier as the collective for ‘fruit’, grusaida ‘rhododendron’, and the
place name Lusai/Alossai (bird-cherry). But the real vitality of the suffix is seen
in those cases in which -ETU has come to be used to form words denoting other
kinds of groupings (as is the case in Italian, and cf. also Sardinian below); so
we find Surs. plattiu, Eng. plattai for ‘a place (in the mountains) full of flat
stones’, Surs. crappareida ‘stony wasteland’, Eng. chalcherai ‘a place full of
limestone’, chavrai ‘a horde of goats’ (cf. NIt. cavredo), giallinai ‘a swarm of
hens’, femnai ‘womenfolk’ (cf. It. donneto). For Friulian the REW quotes
pinede, perhaps indicating that in this area -ETA was more popular than -ETU.
q) In French we find that in the old language -oi < -ETU shares equal
place with -oie < -ETA (and survives in names), whereas the modern language