[gothic-l] Re: "the"

[Francisc Czobor]

It's correct, indeed. The Romanian definite article has the same 
origin like those in Western Romanic (i.e. from the Latin 
demonstrative illus, illa, etc.) but is suffixed due to the Thracian 
substratum, like in Bulgarian, and, very significant, in Albanese.

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, åÇÏÒÏ× ÷ÌÁÄÉÍÉÒ <vegorov at i...> wrote:
> **********************
> Hi Llama Nom!
> 
> I have to admit that, throwing into the "the" discussion the remark 
> upon inspiration of the Romance definite articles by Germanic, 
> I hoped to acquire a definite answer on origins of both Romance and 
> Germanic articles. It starts seeming to me I missed.
> No doubt, the definite article arose as far back as in the vulgar 
Latin, 
> since all Romance languages, as you have rightly noted, have 
similar 
> derivatives. The postposition of the Romanian definite article is 
solely 
> due to the Dacian substrate. It is typical for all Balkan language 
union. 
> Cf. the Bulgarian enclitics <-ot, -to, -ta>, which are of the 
Slavonic 
> origin (from <tot, to, ta> 'this, that' by genders) though none of 
other 
> Slavonic languages have neither the enclitics nor the definite 
articles 
> at all. You know, Bulgarian, being a Slavic language, also belongs, 
> with its Thracian substrate, to the Balkan language union.
> 
> Vladimir
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com [mailto:gothic-l at yahoogroups.com]On
> Behalf Of llama_nom
> Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 9:05 PM
> To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [gothic-l] "the"
> 
> 
> 
> So, what do we think?  Was the use of a definite article in Romance 
> inspired by Germanic?  Or vice-versa even?  I'm afraid I don't know 
> anything about when the Romance article arose.  It's common to 
eastern 
> and western varieties, except that Romanian (like North Germanic) 
has 
> fixed in after the noun, while the western Romance languages, as 
far 
> as I know, all have a preposed article.  Does this apply to more 
> obcure dialects too?  A cursory glance at the beginning of the 
Mark's 
> Gospel in the (Latin) Vulgate suggests a more sparing use of 
> demonstratives than Gothic.
> 
> Llama Nom
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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