Adjectives

C.L. to Romance: menu
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Comparatives and Superlatives

In the case of comparatives, the transition from Latin to Romance would appear to be largely synthetic, with analytical forms replacing the C.L. comparative form: MAGIS:  PLUS + adjective.

In Gaul and Italy, we have plus in French and Provençal, and più in Italian.

In Iberia and Dacia it was MAGIS which came through:

mais (Portuguese)

más (Spanish)

mai (Roumanian)

més (Catalan)

mais (occasionally, in French stock phrases e.g. the somewhat antiquated je n'en suis mais.)

Mediaeval Aragonese gave us plus, and Portuguese chus (PL > ch in Portuguese - see palatalisation).

Absolute superlatives were made by using a descendant of MǓLTǓM (except France, where mou(l)t became mout in Old French (c.f. argent fait mout, amour fait tout) but gave way to très in the modern vernacular).

Only five Latin synthetic comparatives survive into Castilian: mejor, menor, and menos with the later additions inferior and supremo. Absolute superlatives are formed with the suffix ísimo; érrimo (e.g. paupérrimo) is an extremely 'culto' form, rooted in learned usage during the Renaissance and Golden Age. Menos  is actually the only Latin neuter form to have survived into Castilian.