Concerning the plural problem in Serbian

[E. Wayles Browne]

Danko Sipka cites Serbo-Croatian neuter nouns ending in -e, genitive
-eta, which have a form in -ad:

>bure,eta n; +
>burence,eta n; +
>}ebe,eta n; +
>}ure,eta n; +
etc., where + means they can make an -ad form with plural meaning:
burad 'barrels', burencad 'little barrels', c'ebad 'blankets', c'urad
'young turkeys' etc.

Can we test these for plurality, in the manner of Zaliznjak? If
burad is really the plural of bure, it should be possible
to make a sentence
Jedno od tvoje buradi bilo je prazno.
"One of your barrels was empty."
Is it?

In a previous posting Sipka mentioned forms with -ad and then a plural
ending on the -ad. Would these be buradi, burencadi, c'ebadi, c'uradi?
What do these -ad-i forms mean?


Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.
tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu