să

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sī (“if”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The vowel /ə/ comes from the Latin long /iː/ in an unstressed position, as in vecin from vīcīnus.^[3] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian si, Megleno-Romanian să and Istro-Romanian se.^[2][6] Its Romance cognates include Italian se, French si, Spanish si and Portuguese se.^[7]

In Latin the word meant only “if”; its use as the marker of the subjunctive is a Romanian development, and Wiktionary compares the particle Albanian të, which has the same function.^[1] Ciorănescu notes that the old conditional use died out in the 17th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, already has the word.^[8] Tiktin's first record is Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[3] In 16th-century texts the word still often means “if”: a manuscript translation of Leviticus has „Să veți hi îmblându în tocmealele meale … da-voi voao ploaie în vreame destoinică” “if you walk in my statutes … I will give you rain in due season”.^[3] Coresi's prints use it both ways: DER quotes să ești tu “if it is you”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin conditional sense lived on in the old language, but the word came to serve mainly as the sign of the subjunctive, with which it builds wishes, commands and the hortative “let us”.^[2][3][1] From there it took on the work of a subordinating conjunction introducing subject, object, purpose, result and condition clauses, and it combines with other words into conjunctional phrases such as fără să “without” and până să “before”.^[9] The conditional “if” survives only in set constructions with a past subjunctive.^[9][1] In informal speech it forms a future with the auxiliary o: o să vin “I will come”.^[1]

Timeline

• early 16th century – three times in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 16th century – “if” in a manuscript translation of Leviticus.^[3]
• 1581 – Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[5]
• 17th century – the conditional use dies out.^[2]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. The marker of the subjunctive, used alone to express a wish or a command: Să taci acum! “Be quiet now!”^[9][1]
2. “to, that”: introduces a subject, predicative, attributive or object clause: Vreau să plec. “I want to leave.”^[9][1]
3. “So that, in order to”: introduces a purpose clause: A venit să ne ajute. “He came to help us.”^[9][2]
4. “So (much) that”: introduces a result clause.^[9]
5. “if”: introduces a condition, with a past subjunctive: Să fi știut, veneam. “Had I known, I would have come.”^[9][1]
6. In conjunctional phrases: măcar să “even if”, numai să “provided that”, până să “before”, fără să “without”.^[9]

Related words

• Latin sī

Usage notes

Ca să can replace să in the purpose sense.^[2] In informal speech o să with the subjunctive is a common future tense.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. să
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. să
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 134
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 764
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 943
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 237
8. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 34:9
9. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 978