al

Forms

al m or n sg (feminine singular a, masculine plural ai, feminine/neuter plural ale)^[1] The 16th-century Psaltirea Scheiană still has fuller forms such as ală său and ală loru beside al tău, a lui and a mă (modern a mea).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), in its accusative forms illum and illam, used as an article standing before the noun.^[3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu traces it through the stage of the pronoun el, ea, which has the same source.^[6][7] The initial ⟨a-⟩ in place of ⟨ie-⟩ comes from its unstressed use, as in arici from ēricius.^[3]

DELR explains that the article was at first the article of the head noun, which is why it agrees with that noun; because it appeared only in some constructions, before a possessive, a genitive or an ordinal numeral, it was reinterpreted as a marker of these.^[3] The south-Danubian branches have an invariable form: Aromanian a, Megleno-Romanian a and Istro-Romanian a.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1425, a document cited in Mihăilă's dictionary of old Romanian.^[3][8] In Romanian texts MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (1563–1583) as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The invariable a of the northern Daco-Romanian dialects is more recent: the oldest northern texts still show agreement.^[3] The article also forms the ordinal numerals from the second on (al doilea, a doua), and with a possessive it makes noun phrases of its own: ai săi “his family”, ale sale “his affairs”, de-ale gurii “food”.^[5][9] Used without the thing possessed, ai + a genitive meant “the sons of”, and Ciorănescu notes that this produced many family names, especially in Bukovina.^[6] Combined with the genitival de it gave the popular alde (1672), and Dosoftei coined alsău “property, characteristic” (1683).^[3]

Timeline

• 1425 – a document cited by Mihăilă, the first record.^[3][8]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1672 – ăi de, the source of alde, in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1683 – alsău “characteristic” in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1688 – A mea este lumea “the world is mine” in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 49:13).^[8]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary explains a as the sign of the genitive.^[10]

Meanings

Article

1. The possessive or genitival article, meaning “of”, used before a possessive pronoun or a noun in the genitive when the word before it has no enclitic article: o casă a vecinului “a house of the neighbour's”, un coleg al meu “a colleague of mine”.^[4][1][8]
2. Before ordinal numerals from the second on: al doilea, a treia.^[4][5]
3. With a possessive and no noun: ai mei “my family”, ale tale “your affairs”;^[5] de-ale gurii “food”.^[5]

Word family

• alde

Related words

• el
• cel
• Latin ille

Usage notes

In the north of the country and in the south-Danubian dialects the article is an invariable a.^[3] The same spelling is also a demonstrative, al or ăl “that, the one”, which dictionaries treat under ăl.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 247
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. al
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 24
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 32
6. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. al
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 6
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. al
9. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. al
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 298