Vitanuova for 2007 October

Snake

I forgot to mention that I also saw a snake on Mt. Diablo.

Reanalysis

I was talking to someone about how the Portuguese "força" (feminine singular) is a reanalysis of the Latin "fortia" (neuter plural) because one neuter plural ending "-a" in Latin looks like one feminine singular ending "-a". I think I learned this in Jozsef Herman's book. I said that I had another example but couldn't think of it.

Earlier today I was on a bike ride and the example came back to me -- "obra" in Spanish and Portuguese is a feminine singular meaning "(creative) work", a reanalysis of Latin "opera" (neuter plural). I've periodically complained about an old Microsoft ad in Wired which tried to pluralize "magnum opus" as "magnum opii" (nope, the correct plural is "magna opera"); on the other hand, I guess misconceptions just like Microsoft's ad agency's are what got us modern Romance languages...