txakur/dzhagaru/cachorro....

[Eduard Selleslagh]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kreso Megyeral" <miskec4096 at hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 12:10 AM

> In one Spanish grammar written in Croatian I found that there are still some
> words in Spanish considered neuter (of course, not "leche") that express
> collectives or some young animals. The article quoted is LO. Is it indeed,
> or is it some interpretation of the author?

[Ed]

LO is a definite article for the neuter sg., derived from Lat. demonstrative
(acc.) ILLUD (like LA < ILLAM, and EL < ILLUM). It is usually used in phrases
like 'hacer lo necesario' ('faire le nécessaire', 'do what's needed/the
necessary things') where it designates collectives, or in more abstract ones :
a characteristic like 'lo bello, lo bonito es que...' ('the beautiful/nice
thing [about it] is that...').

In some regions - the one I know for certain is Murcia - it appears in place
names like 'Lo Pagán', apparently referring originally to a property of some
family; in the same region you find also toponyms like Los Urrutias (Basque
settlers in the Campo de Cartagena when it was still largely a 'secano') or Los
Velones, where such reference cannot be doubted. I would guess that LO has then
a collective meaning 'all that belongs to...'

LO can also be used separately as a general indication of 'the things': 'lo que
hay que hacer...' ('that what has to be done...'), similar to Fr. 'ce [que]'.

I am not aware of any neuter nouns in Spanish.

If my memory serves me right, there are some southern Italian family names like
Lo Vecchio, that might be based upon similar toponyms, but I leave that to the
specialists in S. Italian dialects. Of course, LO is an article in regular
Italian, but only as a replacement before sp-, sc- etc,. for euphonic reasons
('lo sport').

Ed. Selleslagh