Isto de LATIN-L > Italian words derived from Latin third declension nouns may be from the > Latin nominative (for instance: aetas > eta'; libertas > liberta') or from > the Latin accusative (for instance artem > arte; ordinem > ordine). The general statement cited above is undoubtedly true, but I would like to ask Prof. Stupazzini if he is sure about his examples for nouns deriving from a Latin nominative. There are, of course, clear examples of such cases, like 'uomo' (man) derived from nom. 'homo' or 'drago' from. nom. 'draco'. On the other hand, the accent suggests that Italian nouns ending in -ta' like eta', liberta', volonta' actually derive from the Latin accusatives aetate(m), libertate(m), voluntate(m). This is further corroborated by old Italian forms like 'etate', 'libertate'/'libertade', 'volontate'/'volontade' and by the fact that in Spanish (Castellano), final -d -- like in liberdad < libertate(m) -- is still preserved, but very weak and about to die out in many dialects (hence making the Italian and the Spanish pronunciation of liberta' vs. liberdad quite similar in the last syllable). These are in my opinion rather strong arguments for the assumption that liberta' etc. derive from acc. libertate(m) etc., the word accent (usually preserved in Italian except under certain well-defined conditions) being the strongest argument. Hence, among the -tas/-tate(m) words that found their way from Latin into Italian only one (that I know) derives from the nominative -tas: 'confraternita' (accent on the antepaenultima) < nom. confraternitas [whereas fraternita' < acc. fraternitate(m)]. Dr. Rainer Thiel - Paper mail: Univ. FB 07, Klass. Phil. - D-35032 Marburg, Germany (EU) - For more information and for my PGP public key check my homepage: http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~thielr/