Re: Spanish pronouns

Elliott Lash sikayal:

> I'm trying to find out information about the Spanish pronoun
> "se" when used as an indirect pronoun. For example:
>
>   Yo se lo mandé  "I sent it to him"
>
> All Spanish learners have heard their teachers say
> that the pronoun "le" magically turns into "se" when
> followed by  lo/la/los/las. Couldn't there be something
> more to it. I was thinking that perhaps "se" is a descendant
> of "ipsi" the dative of "ipse".
No, "se" was a pronoun in Latin, too.  It was the reflexive accusative
pronoun "his/herself".  In most of the Romance langs it replaced
the dative pronoun when there was another accusative pronoun present, as
well as retaining reflexive and sometimes passive usage.

>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
>
> Elliott.
>
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_