When I get a dictionary, I always make sure it includes the origins of the words. Origins of words, you know, can give you great insight into their meanings and usages. Unfortunately most English dictionaries, and certainly everyone I ever owned, does not give the origins of foreign words. That leads me to something I have wondered for some time now.
Where does the definite article “La”, meaning “the”, in Romance languages, come from? Because think about it. Almost every Romance language has “La”, and Romance languages all are derived from Latin. The only thing is, Latin doesn’t have a definite or indefinite article. So exactly what Latin word could “La” be derived from then?
Also, if anyone knows where I could check the origins of Romance and other languages, either on-line or in book form, please feel free to share that information.
Read The Story of Language by Mario Pei. It’s a canonical (if somewhat outdated) work on the subject. If I recall, the “el/la – il/la – le/la” all come from Latin ille , “this”.
You’re right about the original of “La”, but Mario Pei is not exactly “canonical” among serious linguists. His books have been condemned for boatloads of factual errors, oversimplications, and urban legends. He’s essentially the Bill Bryson of 50 years ago.
Point well made. IANALinguist, but even I could see a few of the serious errors in his work. Notwithstanding, it’s still a decent read for someone who’s curious in the field.
I’ve tried searching for good websites on this subject, and have found that it can be horrendously difficult. For example, Googling on “Early Spanish Language” gets you pages and pages of links on teaching Spanish to young children.
But I’ve always been intrigued by how close certain phrases in Romance languages can sound to one another, even when the languages in question don’t seem that similar. For example in Spanish you have:
La otra = The other (Fem)
El otro = The other (Masc)
and in French you have
L’autre = The other (Masc and Fem)
I don’t think of French and Spanish as being that similar, mainly because of the peculiarities of pronunciation that French has picked up over the centuries, but those expressions really do sound very similar.
Simple loss of initial L in in those cases. L was suceptible to being dropped in Portuguese, as N was suceptible to becoming attached to preceeding vowels and causing them to become nasals, as in “mão” - “hand” (corresp. to Sp. “mano”).
L and N also tend to drop in other words in Portuguese, such as “pessoa” - person (Corresp. to Sp. “persona”), and “céu” - sky (corresp. to Sp. “cielo”).
