Konsekwencje zaniku liczby podwójnej w języku łacińskim. Głos w sprawie dualnej genezy piątej deklinacji łacińskiej
The Consequences of the Loss of Latin Dual Number Concerning the Dual Genesis of the Fifth Declension in Latin

Summary/Abstract: The loss of the dual number in the early pre-literary phase of the development of Latin caused massive changes in the Latin declension. The dual forms of consonant stems, which in animate nouns (later masculine and feminine nouns) were probably characterised by the ending *-ē, gen. du. *-ēs (< PIE nom. du. *-eh1, gen. du. *-eh1s), were generally reinterpreted as plurals (hence the secondary plural ending -ēs < nom. du. *-ē in Latin) and sometimes as collectives or singulars (nom. sg. -ēs < nom. du. *-ē). The latter process led to the formation of the fifth Latin declension with the characteristic -ē-. This category includes very numerous nouns that have no plural forms (singularia tantum). Also the Old Latin dual forms ending in *-ī (< PIE *-ih1) like viginti ‘twenty’ were transformed by regular morphological processes into singulative forms with -iēs, -iēi, which are also in the fifth declension. On the basis of these observations, the author advances the research hypothesis that the fifth Latin declension appeared already in the pre-literary period as a result of the loss of the earlier dual inflection.

• Details
• Contents