On the Shortening of Certain Abstract Nouns in the Duecento

As is well known, a number of Italian abstract and a few other nouns are derived from Classical Latin equivalent nouns of the 3rd declension having terminations in -tas, -tatis and -tus, -tutis, e.g. voluntas, voluntatis; virtus, virtutis. In early Italian texts these words either appear in a long form—volontate or volontade—or a curtailed form—volontà. For some time both long and short forms exist side by side; one may read in Dante: ‘E'n la sua volontate è nostra pace’ and ‘per me si va nella citta dolente.’ The use of either for some time appears arbitrary, until the shortened form begins to gain ground and, finally, in modem Italian is used exclusively. Thanks however to the derivative and retrogressive nature of the Italian literary language—which, in the eighteenth century, still continues to be based on that of the fourteenth—the life of the long form is unnaturally and artificially prolonged

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