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--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "jsjonesmiami" <jsjonesmiami@...> wrote: > > --- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Mark G" <codename_gimmick@> > wrote: > > Is there any evidence that some Romance languages retained the > > third person pronouns "is" and "ea?" I know I've seen Italian > > dialects that have the feminine pronoun "ea," but looking at > > their masculine counterparts, it typically looks like that may > > just be a mutated version of "illa" that lost the lateral. > > I've never heard of any natlang retaining is/ea (this question comes > up somewhere once in a blue moon), but my knowledge of dialects and > minority languages is just about nil. > > > I'm aware that Spanish contains demonstrative pronouns "eso" and > > "ésto"-- perhaps "eso" is a derivation from "is"? It seems to > > fit the vowel shift of unstressed 'i' to 'e'. > > Ese/esa/eso is supposed to come from ipse/ipsa/ipsum and > este/esta/esto from iste/ista/istud. Incidentally, the common change > of 'i' to 'e' is based on length rather than stress, with different > complications in each language. > Oh, I understand that the sound changes were based on length, but I wasn't quite so clear on how VL 'i' became 'e' in certain cases. I'm actually reading about this right now in Martin & Harris, though, so I suppose it'll all come clearer here soon. > > What I'm curious to see, though, are 'is' and 'ea' used as they > > were used in CL... even better, are there any conlangs that > > retain these usages? > > I have a fantasy language Rubaga that uses is/ea as both definite > articles and 3rd person pronouns (IIRC -- I haven't worked on it in > some time). It's based on CL for certain nefarious reasons rather > than VL. > Hahahah, I understand-- I've thought about retaining several features of CL in my current(/first) conlang as much for efficiency as for the intrigue! Thanks very much for your perspective on this, Jeff! > Jeff >