Re: Romanian verbal paradigm

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" wrote:

> [...] It is striking that Romanian abstract nouns in -oare should
> be feminine. Is this a native development or French influence?

Of course is native. Latin -oria > Rom. -oare as in "sanatoria" >
"sunãtoare" (with folk etymological /u/ in the 1st syllable), or
Latin -o:re(m) > DR, AR -oare, MgR -oari as in "languo:r(em)" >
DR "lângoare" (AR "lãngoare", MgR "lãngoari"), "albo:r(em)" >
"alboare", "sudo:r(em)" > "sudoare", etc.

> I notice that DEX identifies a lot of the Romanian abstract nouns
> in -oare as loans from French.

French -eur is canonically mapped into Rom. -oare in loanwords.
Incidentally, Latin -o:re(m) evolved in French -eur ("langueur",
"sueur"), so out of phonetical similarity of French suffix with
Romanian one, they have also shared semantic field -- another
good reason for the mapping.

>>> The only example I can think of is Latin _dolor_ (m.) > *doru >
>>> _dor_ (n.) 'longing'. The new gender may be connected with the
>>> plural in Romanian being _doruri_.
>>
>> Actually Rom. "dor" < VLat. "dolus" (derivative of "dole:re"). If
>> you start as usual with accusative of "dolor", you'll get "dolorem"
>> -> *durore, no way for "dor(u)".
>
> The accusative would indeed have yielded *duroare.

OK, with canonical diphthongation of /ó/ in most Romanian speaking
area (since [ó] can't exist as opposed to [oá], they're actually
two phonological realizations of the same phoneme, but this is
rather a minor technical detail).

> What is the evidence for *dolus?

No * required since it's CLatin too. VL is the semantism `sorrow,
pain`, but it's pretty close to II-nd meaning listed for example in
C.T. Lewis, `guile, deceit, deception`.

> Just as there is no way for Romanian _sorã_ 'sister'? I recall
> seeing the explanation _soror_ > sor(u) > sorã, with the masculine
> ending being replaced by the feminine ending.

Of course. "soru" is attested in ancient DR texts and still alive
when linking the word: "soru-mea" `my sister`. The word has got its
"corrected" ending vowel quite recently, there is no mystery.

Regards,
Marius Iacomi