Re: [tied] Romance Neuter Nouns (was: Lat. -idus)

From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 35921
Date: 2005-01-15

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 08:32:55 +0000, petegray
<petegray@...> wrote:

>
>>This Latin pattern [singular in -o, plural in -a] has been preserved in
>both Italian and >Romanian. ... The common innovation is that adjectives
>qualifying
>>neuter plural nouns have the feminine plural form. Is there any
>>trace of this in Western Romance, or indeed in the western provinces
>>of the Empire?
>
>I can't think of any. And since the western languages generalise the -s
>plural, it would be no surprise if all traces of the plural in -a had
>disappeared. Likewise, I cannot think of any nouns which are masculine in
>the singular and feminine in the plural, for either Spanish or French, but I
>admit to less than perfect acquaintance with those languages!

The only trace of the neuter which can be found in Western
Romance is the passage of certain neuter words to feminine
gender, e.g. folium pl. folia => Sp. hoja, Cat. fulla, Fr.
feuille.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...