Re: New Brithenig words, part Deux.

Raymond Brown scripsit:

> >In other
> >words, you have to assume that the nominative plural survived as in Italian,
> >not the accusitive pl. /-o:s/ as in Spanish, French etc.
>
> Hang on - the nominative _did_ survive in Old French, cf.
>            SINGULAR     PLURAL
> Nominative:  murs        mur
>    Oblique:  mur         murs
But then it died almost without a trace, except for special cases like pretre
< PRESBYTER and on < HOMO.

Anyway, it turns out that the Italian plural endings aren't really from the
nom. either, it just looks that way.  Consider adj. "magnifico", fem. pl.
"magnifiche" /-ke/.  If this were from MAGNIFICAE, it would have been
"magnifice" /-tSe/; instead, it is from MAGNIFICAS, with loss of "-s".

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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