Isto de LATIN-L


> Italian words derived from Latin third declension nouns may be from the
> Latin nominative (for instance: aetas > eta'; libertas > liberta') or from
> the Latin accusative (for instance artem > arte; ordinem > ordine).

The general statement cited above is undoubtedly true, but I would like to
ask Prof. Stupazzini if he is sure about his examples for nouns deriving
from a Latin nominative. There are, of course, clear examples of such
cases, like 'uomo' (man) derived from nom. 'homo' or 'drago' from. nom.
'draco'.

On the other hand, the accent suggests that Italian nouns ending in -ta'
like eta', liberta', volonta' actually derive from the Latin accusatives
aetate(m), libertate(m), voluntate(m). This is further corroborated by old
Italian forms like 'etate', 'libertate'/'libertade',
'volontate'/'volontade' and by the fact that in Spanish (Castellano), final
-d -- like in liberdad < libertate(m) -- is still preserved, but very weak
and about to die out in many dialects (hence making the Italian and the
Spanish pronunciation of liberta' vs. liberdad quite similar in the last
syllable).

These are in my opinion rather strong arguments for the assumption that
liberta' etc. derive from acc. libertate(m) etc., the word accent (usually
preserved in Italian except under certain well-defined conditions) being
the strongest argument. Hence, among the -tas/-tate(m) words that found
their way from Latin into Italian only one (that I know) derives from the
nominative -tas: 'confraternita' (accent on the antepaenultima) < nom.
confraternitas [whereas fraternita' < acc. fraternitate(m)].



Dr. Rainer Thiel
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