--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:
> one can see the things how one likes. So far I have from
Latin "plâns"
> with final "-ns".
In Latin the past participle and verbal noun of <plango> 'beat
noisily,..' is <planctus> 'beating the breast, lamenting'. (The
participle and verbal noun are declined differently - the verbal
noun is a u-stem.) It's development is very similar to that of
<sanctus> 'sacred', even to the point of French (and thus English)
showing the /k/ in Old French _plaint_, _pleint_ (whence English
_plaint_), while in other languages (Provençal, Spanish, Old
Portuguese and Italian - e.g. Italian _pianto_ 'tears, weeping') the
descendant can be derived from the simplified form *plantus.
I do not see any need to derive Romanian _plâns_ from Latin *planxus
(which is plausible, given the perfect _planxi:_). As Romanian
still has the verb _plânge_ 'weep', the past participle has clearly
been refashioned as _plâns_. I don't know whether Latin _planctus_
would ultimately have given *plâmpt or *plânt in Romanian. A form
like *plâmpt would invite replacement by _plâns_.
Richard.