Re: Wenedyk - The article

--- Roberto Suarez Soto <ask4it@...> wrote:
> On Sep/01/2002, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> [articles]
> > you decide! It took a while for Romance to develop
> > them;
>
>         And that's why I wonder: why?
Why? Who knows? That's for philosophers to seek. As
for how, that at least can be answered.

> I mean: when and from where did romance languages
> develop articles?
From Latin demonstrative pronouns. Generally ille
gives us the familliar il/el/la/lo/le type of article;
ipse gives us so/sa. As for when, I recall reading
that the Latin pronouns saw increased use as
protoarticles. Unus shows up as an indefinite article
even in CL; ille, ipse, id and hoc show up as articles
by the 8th century.

> If latin didn't have them, they could only be taken
> from germanic/celtic/goth/some other "barbarian"
> language, isn't it?
Germanic didn't have them either, until demonstratives
came to be used as articles! Our "the" ultimately
comes from the same root as "that". Of course,
Germanic seems to have had them longer: Gothic (known
from the 2nd or 3rd centuries, if I recall right)
shows articles that are clearly from demonstrative
roots. And of course, the Greek article ho is also of
a demonstrative root.

> Or did they evolve "just because"?
It would seem that demonstrative pronouns in
IndoEuropean languages have a propensity to form
articles: it's a small step to go from "that stone", a
really definite statement, to "the stone", definite
but not as emphatic. It may be that all the Germanic
tribes invading the Western Empire after 453 had a
grammatical effect in catalysing or speeding up the
development of articles.

> Roberto Suarez Soto
Padraic.


=====
parla, mays ben parla; et pharleir becko il maboun.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com

Reply