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From: Carl Edlund Anderson
?Can anyone point me to an good explanation (online or otherwise) of the
development of the articles (particularly the definite articles) in Italian?
I'm pretty clear on the developments into Spanish, but have been messing
around with Italian recently and was wondering what was going on in there,
especially with the plural definite articles.
While I'm at it, any good general works on the developments from Vulgar
Latin into Italian (or, perhaps more correctly, the various Italian
dialects)? :) Something around the level of Ralph Penny's book on the
history of Spanish is probably about right for me at this stage!
Cheers,
Carl?
--------------------------------
Carl,
I?m afraid I don?t know the book you are referring to, but I can give you
something else.
------------
Vulgar Latin (if generalised) distinguished two genders: masculine, feminine
(+ a residual neuter), two numbers and three cases, then two (loss of
gen./dat.):
m.sg. nom. <ille> gen./dat. <illúi, illî> acc. <illu>
m.pl. nom. <illi> gen./dat. <illoru> acc. <illos>
f.sg. nom. <illa> gen./dat. <illáei> acc. <illa>
f.pl. nom. <illae, -as>; gen./dat. <illoru>; acc. <illas>
------------
Development in Italian:
C = consoant
V = vowel
() = secondary developments such as suppletion, analogy etc.
-------------------------------
m.sg.
<ille> + V => <l?>
<illî> + C => <il> (lo)
<illî> + V => <l?>
<illu> + C => <lo> (il)
<illu> + V => <l?>
m.pl.
<illi> + C => <i>
<illi> + V => <gli>
-------------------------------
n.sg.
<illu>
-------------------------------
f.sg.
<illa> + C => <la>
<illa> + V => <la, l?>
f.pl.
<illae> + C => <le>
<illae> + V => <le>
--------------------------------
Hope it helps,
Dan
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