Re: Romance articles/pronouns

> Date:         Mon, 20 Aug 2001 23:29:44 -0000
> From: D Tse <exponent@...>
>
> I am working on a Romance conlang, and I'm trying to figure out how
> to do the article and pronoun systems. Does anyone know whether it
> is implausible for the Latin pronouns "is", "ea", "id", etc. to
> become either articles or pronouns in a Romance language? What are
> some different ways that pronouns and articles work in Romance
> languages?
A Romance language is normally understood as one descended from Vulgar
Latin. So the question becomes: was is still alive in any popular
sociolect of the Roman Empire? I don't have any reference to hand, but
my guess would be that it wasn't.

> I think some language (specifically which I cannot remember,
> Sardinian?) used reflexes of Latin ipse for their definite article,
> but I'm not too sure.
Sardinian branched off very early, it seems, and is very conservative
in other aspects as well. But to keep is, I think you'd have to
postulate an even earlier branch point, or some isolated colony that
purposely adopted silver (or even golden) age Latin for daily use.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)