Plural inflection in Western Lombard

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The general lines of diachronics of Western Lombard plural declension are drawn here (referring to Milanese orthography):

[edit] Feminine

The bulk of feminine words ends with desinence -a; plural feminine is adesinential. The last vowel founds its original length (in non-final syllable you can't ear the difference) that's often long when followed by a voiced consonant, short when followed by a voiceless consonant. When the stem ends with a difficult group of consonants you can see an addiction of a final -i or of a schwa between consonants (for example: in Milanese sing. scendra, plur. scendr>scender). So in adjectives, plural form and masculine form are often the same.

[edit] Masculine

The bulk of masculine words ends without desinences; plural masculine is adesinential. When the stem ends with a difficult group of consonants you can see, in singular and plural, an addiction of a schwa between consonants. When the addiction of schwa appears unnatural, they add a final -o (pron. /u/), that in the plural is -i.

The masculine words ending in -in, and some ending in -ett, have plural in itt. The masculine words ending in -ll have plural in -j (derived from addiction of -i and fall of -ll-; you can see the same phaenomenon in the origin of determinate article: sing. ell>el, plur. elli>ej>i).

Some masculin words ending in -a can be unvarying (they often are words from ancient Greek or idiomatic words to define a person; e. g. pirla = a stupid).


[edit] See also