tu

Forms

tu (dative ție, îți, ți; accusative (pe) tine, te)^[2][3] Old texts have the dative ți ia and țu and the accusative tene;^[3][4][5] Moldavian has the dative ția.^[3][4][5] The old language also had emphatic forms such as țieși and tineși.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tū (“you (singular)”).^[4][6][3][1] Wiktionary takes the Latin word from Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European *túh₂; de Vaan reconstructs the Proto-Indo-European nominative as *ti(H).^[1][7]

The pronoun survives in all four branches: Aromanian tu, Megleno-Romanian tu and Istro-Romanian tu;^[4][8][9] Aromanian also uses tine as a nominative.^[4][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian toi, Italian tu, French tu, Occitan tu, Catalan tu and Portuguese tu.^[4][10]

The accusative is ⟨tine⟩, old ⟨tene⟩, in Istro-Romanian tire;^[4][11] Byhan traces the Istro-Romanian form to Latin tē with the particle -ne.^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first records to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500 and to Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[3][5] From the start it was the pronoun of the person spoken to.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed: it is the pronoun used to address one person.^[2][3] Speakers are said to be per tu when they address each other this way, and the verb tutui “to call someone tu” was formed after French tutoyer.^[5][4]

The unstressed dative îți can stand for a possessive (îți văd mâna “I see your hand”), and in literary use it is attached to a noun (mausoleu-ți in Eminescu); it also serves as an ethic dative.^[4] Impersonally tu lists things that are present or missing: Tu școală, tu studii in DEX's example.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[5]
• 1881 – nici tu... nici tu in Creangă.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (nominative) you (singular), the person spoken to: Tu ce zici?^[2][3]
2. (dative ție, îți, ți) to you; often marking possession or an ethic dative: Spală-ți mâinile!^[2]
3. (accusative te, after prepositions tine) you; also in reflexive verbs: Unde te duci?^[2]
4. (vocative) Used to call out to someone: Tu, ascultă aici!^[2]

Word family

• tutui

Related words

• Aromanian tine
• Latin tū

Usage notes

In nici tu..., nici tu... “neither ... nor ..., not even” the word is a separate particle for Tiktin, Graur, MDA2 and the DLR, who take it from Bulgarian то (to) in phrases like нито (nito).^{[13][14][3][15]} DEX keeps it under the pronoun, and Iorgu Iordan rejected the Bulgarian explanation.^[2][14] DER also lists an interjection tu imitating a horn, a children's word.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1151
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1293
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. tu
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tu
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 165
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1034
9. ^ a b Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8963
11. ^ a b Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 360
12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tu 2
13. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. tu
14. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. tu
15. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tu