ea

Forms

ea f (third-person singular, plural ele, masculine equivalent el)^[1] Genitive and dative ei, unstressed dative îi, i; accusative (pe) ea, unstressed o; plural ele.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illa (“that (feminine)”), the feminine of the demonstrative ille (“that”), which became a personal pronoun in all the Romance languages.^[4][3][1] Latin -ll- developed regularly before an unstressed -a.^[4]

The pronoun survives in Aromanian ea and Megleno-Romanian ea;^[3][4] DER gives Istro-Romanian io and DELR iå.^[3][4]

The other forms have their own sources: DER derives the plural ⟨ele⟩ from illae and the accusative ⟨o⟩ from illam;^[3][4] DELR explains the dative ⟨ei⟩ as a Late Latin innovation illaeī, made on the model of the masculine illūī.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the genitive ei in a Slavonic charter of 1480; in Romanian texts the pronoun appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500.^[4][5] MDA2 dates el and ea to a document of before 1521.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun replaces a feminine noun, a woman or a thing, already mentioned.^[2] Colloquially ea also means “the wife”.^[2][6] The genitive ei, often after al, a, ai, ale, expresses possession (casa ei “her house”), and the accusative o has a neuter use in phrases such as a pățit-o “he got into trouble”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1480 – the genitive ei in a Slavonic charter.^[4][5]
• c. 1500 – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4]
• before 1521 – in a document published by Hurmuzaki, MDA2's first record.^[6]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (nominative) she; also it, for a feminine noun: Ea citește.^[2]
2. (colloquial) The wife.^[2][6]
3. (genitive ei) her, hers: Casa ei e mare.^[2]
4. (dative ei, îi, i) to her: I-am dat o carte.^[2]
5. (accusative o, after prepositions ea) her: O văd. “I see her.”^[2]

Related words

• el
• Latin illa

Usage notes

DEX, MDA2, Tiktin and DLR treat ea under el, with which it forms one paradigm.^[2][6][5][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 345
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ea
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. el
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. el
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 794
7. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. el