cã

Forms

cã^[1]

• Other spellings: che in Wiktionary;^[1] CĂ, also CÎ, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[2][3] că in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[4] κα in the Greek script of Nikolaidis.^[5]
• Cunia writes cãtse (also cã tse) for “why” and “because”.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quod (“that; because”).^[7][2][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the vowel by the change of o to ă in other unstressed monosyllables.^[8] Nikolaidis hesitated between quia (“because”) and quod.^[5] The Latin conjunction is the neuter of the relative pronoun quī (“who, which”);^[9] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *kʷod and Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, and explains the sense “because” by the accusative of respect.^[1]

It is shared with Romanian că, Megleno-Romanian că and Istro-Romanian ke;^[10][8] in Megleno it also means “if”.^[10][11] Capidan derives the Megleno word from *qua, a reduced form of quia, instead.^[12] Pușcariu adds that Italian che, French que, Spanish que and Portuguese que may go back to the same Latin word.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “because, that” stayed: in Aromanian the word introduces what someone says, knows or feels (“that”) and gives a reason (“because, for”).^[2][13] With tse it asks for a reason (că ţe nu gréști? “why don't you speak?”) and answers it.^[2][13] It forms conjunctional phrases with other words, such as cánda că “as if”, cu túti că “although” and poáte că “perhaps”;^[2] Pascu lists percă, prică and dipricä “than” among the compounds built on it.^[7]

Timeline

• 1901 – că “since, because” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1909 – κα “because” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[5]
• 1963 – că “that; because; why?” in Papahagi's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. that, introducing what is said, known or felt.^[2][14][15]
2. because, since, for.^{[1][2][13][4]}
3. With tse: why?, and in the answer, because.^[2][13]

Related words

• Romanian că

Usage notes

It is not the same word as ca “as, like; about”, which Papahagi and Pascu derive from Latin quam (“how; than”).^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 253
3. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 286
4. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 79
5. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 181
6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 241
7. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 59
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 21
11. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1902), Megleno-românii: studiu etnografico-filologic I, București: Academia Română (with a glossary), p. 63
12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 53
13. ^ a b c d Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
14. ^ Bara, Mariana (2024), Dictsiunarlu ti cathi dzuuã, online at dixionline.net
15. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 190
16. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 234
17. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 55