Latin, Romance languages, ’the’s and ’a’s (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Latin, Romance languages, ’the’s and ’a’s
Tags: Etymology \| Romance Languages \| Latin
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sebngwa3
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26 November 2009 at 6:51am | IP Logged

Since Latin didn't have indefinite and definite articles, how did the Romance languages end up having them?
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MäcØSŸ
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Message 2 of 2

26 November 2009 at 7:17am | IP Logged

sebngwa3 wrote:

Since Latin didn't have indefinite and definite articles, how did the Romance languages end up
having them?

They evolved from the Latin number “unus” and the demonstrative pronoun “ille”.
For example:
corpus ille ----> il corpo (Italian) el cuerpo (Spanish) corpul (Romanian) o corpo
(Portuguese) le corps (French)
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