Re: Romanian verbal paradigm

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

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "m_iacomi" <m_iacomi@...> wrote:
>
>> Gender change is by no means surprising, especially for things
>> without clear reason to be more likely masculine than feminine:
>> Lat. F arbor > Rom. M. arbore, Lat. F. fagus > Rom. M. fag but
>> Lat. M. dolor > Rom. F. durere, etc.
>
> I thought these changes were explicable:

Of course all changes are explicable. The main reason is that
inanimates & abstract notions have no motivated gender, allowing
native speakers to choose it according to their linguistic
feeling (if gender marks no longer exist, as it was the case
in late VL, when final consonants weakened). Late VLatin already
exhibit "wrong" genders as in <cineres suas>, <duos arbores>, etc.

> 2. Most nouns in -or are masculine, so when the rule that trees are
> feminine was abandoned, _arbor_ could switch too. (I've a feeling
> this change is *not* Common Romance.)

Well, CIL XIII, 1780, 8-9 quoted above, along with masculine It.
"albero", Fr., Cat. "arbre", Sp. "árbol" (also "árbor"), etc. would
be some arguments against your feeling.

> 3. In Latin, abstract nouns (or at least, those derived from or
> parallel to adjectives) are feminine, *except* for abstract nouns
> in - or, which are masculine. This exception was abandoned, so the
> abstract nouns in -or became feminine. I'm not sure that this rule
> applies to Romanian. 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)".

> Surely Romanian _durere_ (f.) is merely the verbal noun of
> _durea_ 'to hurt, be in pain', i.e. derived from the Latin
> infinitve _dole:re_.

Probably right, but Lat. m. "pontem" > Rom. f. "punte" `narrow
bridge` is an undebatable example for gender change m. > f.. The
category of neuter is the one who gets essentially reorganized
from Late Latin to Romances, but on a minor scale other gender
shifts are still common.

Regards,
Marius Iacomi