[tied] Re: Rom aia - Alb ajo < PAlb aja: 'that/this one (fem.)'

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:

> Richard Wordingham wrote:
> > 'Adverbial -i'! In monosyllables, final Latin -s yields -i, as in
> > Italian, where the resulting final -i is known as 'adverbial -i'. The
> > accusative masculine and feminine of Latin _duo_ are _duo:s_ and
> > _dua:s_. The question here is then probably when _duo:s_ would have
> > become a monosyllable. The regularisation of the nominal plural to
> > *dui: is also not impossible - I don't remember whether Italian shows
> > a similar development.
> >
> > The development Latin _tre:s_ > Romanian _trei_ presents no problems.
> >
> > Richard.
>
> Italian has "due", "tre"; no final "i" there

Early Tuscan had several different forms for 'two'. If you look at
the dialect forms, e.g. via www.zompist.com/numbers.shtml or in
http://members.tripod.com/~rjschellen/MidItalianNums.htm (it's a shame
that the second site uses a 'hacked' font (LAMCOUR) for phonetic
symbols, making them obscure), you'll see that forms in -i are widespread.

I must admit that the Friulian forms make a stronger case for
derivation from *dui:.

Richard.