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Re: Test and more.

From:Grandsire, C.A. <grandsir@...>
Date:Monday, December 20, 1999, 7:46
Nik Taylor wrote:
> > Fabian wrote: > > <lil> is an odd word here, as it can mean 'to the' or 'to a'. A flaw in > > Maltese disambiguation not found in other particles. > > What's the origin of this {lil}? I'd assume that, since Maltese is > derived from Arabic, that in the sense "to the" it comes from a > contraction of something with "al"? Perhaps something like "li al" or > "lil al"? >
French does that too: a` + le -> au a` + les -> aux de + le -> du de + les -> des as well as Spanish (a + el -> al, de + el -> del) and even Italian which does this with the prepositions a, di, in (and two others I don't remember) and all definite articles, leading to forms like nella <- in + la. -- Christophe Grandsire Philips Research Laboratories -- Building WB 145 Prof. Holstlaan 4 5656 AA Eindhoven The Netherlands Phone: +31-40-27-45006 E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com