Etymologically
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cãntu

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Pronunciation

  • [ˈkɨn.tu], [ˈkən.tu][1]

Forms

cãntu (third-person singular cãntã, participle cãntatã)[1]

  • First conjugation: aorist cãntai, imperfect cãntam, participle cãntatã, long infinitive cãntari or cãntare.[2] Katsanis and Dinas give cîntu, class I, with the aorist cintai and the participle cintatu.[3]
  • Other spellings: CÎ'NTU (cintái, cintáre) in Papahagi's dictionary, which also has CĂ'NTU;[4][5] cântu in DIARO;[6] cántă in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[7] κᾶντου (kantu) in Nikolaidis's Greek script.[8] Pascu's sources write the long infinitive cîntare, cântare and, in Dalametra, cîndare.[9]
  • Regional forms: kuntu in Weigand's texts;[10] cănt° among the Fărșerots;[11] kant in the Ohrid–Struga region.[12]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”),[4][9][1][3] a derivative of canō (“to sing”);[13] Nikolaidis names both Latin verbs.[8] De Vaan traces canō to Proto-Italic *kan-e- and Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”).[13]

The verb is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian cânta, Megleno-Romanian cǫnt and Istro-Romanian cântå.[14][15][16] In the west it gave Italian cantare, French chanter, Spanish cantar and Portuguese cantar, and the Albanian verb for to sing, këndoj, has the same source.[17][12] DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance verb with the same sense.[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is the long infinitive cântare in Boiagi's grammar of 1813, as cited by Pascu.[9] Kavalliotis's word list of 1770 has only the derivative Κάντεκου “song”.[19]

Semantic evolution

Beside to sing, the verb means to play an instrument (cîntă cu fluiára, “he plays the flute”) and to lament the dead.[4][2] From singing a charm it came to mean to bewitch, which Cunia gives as a separate verb,[2] and Pascu records the participle cîntat for bewitched.[9] It also means to read, aloud or not: Mihăileanu has scie s' cântă și să scrie (“he can read and write”),[7] Papahagi quotes nu putui s' căntu cártea (“I could not read the letter”),[5] and the Fărșerots say cănt° cartea for reading a letter.[11] Megleno-Romanian has the reading sense too.[15] DIARO adds the commemoration of the dead in church, when the priest reads their names.[20][21]

Timeline

  • 1813 – cântare in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[9]
  • 1894 – kuntu “sing; read aloud” in Weigand's glossary.[10]
  • 1901 – cántă “sing, read” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[7]
  • 1909 – κᾶντου in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To sing.[2][4][1]
  2. To play (a musical instrument).[2][4]
  3. To lament (a dead person).[2][4]
  4. To charm, to cast a spell on.[2][4][1]
  5. To read, especially aloud.[5][7][10]
  6. To commemorate (the dead) in church.[21]
  7. To talk nonsense.[4]
  • cãntari
  • cãntare
  • cãntat
  • cãntãtor
  • cãntic
  • discãntu
  • ncãntu
  • Romanian cânta
  • Megleno-Romanian cǫnt

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 255
  3. ^ a b Κατσάνης, Νικόλαος; Ντίνας, Κωνσταντίνος (1990), Γραμματική της κοινής κουτσοβλαχικής, Θεσσαλονίκη: Αρχείο Κουτσοβλαχικών Μελετών, p. 137
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 360
  5. ^ a b c Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 266
  6. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 212
  7. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 91
  8. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 195
  9. ^ a b c d e 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, 65
  10. ^ a b c Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 312
  11. ^ a b Nevaci, Manuela (2011), Graiul aromânilor fărșeroți din Dobrogea, revised ed., București: Editura Universitară, p. 212
  12. ^ a b Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 136
  13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  15. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 76
  16. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  17. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  18. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  19. ^ Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 115
  20. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 255
  21. ^ a b Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 279