cari

Forms

cari^[1]

• The same form serves for masculine and feminine and for the plural.^[2] The genitive–dative is generally a cui;^[2] a cărúi is rarer, from the Aspropotamos region, and a curór is a form Papahagi labels northern.^[2]
• Other spellings: care (Cunia's second form);^[3] CARE in Papahagi's and Pascu's dictionaries;^[2][4] care in Mihăileanu's dictionary;^[5] cari in the Romanian-based spelling of DIARO;^[6] care and cari in the glossary to P. Papahagi's folk tales.^[7]
• Pascu lists the variants acare and cae in Nikolaidis and cai in Dalametra, P. Papahagi, Mihăileanu and Obedenaru.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind”).^[2][4][1] Pascu takes the genitive–dative a cui from cui, the dative of quī (“who, which”).^[4] In Latin, quālis is formed from the relative stem of quī with the suffix -ālis;^[8] de Vaan reconstructs it as Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂-li-.^[9]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian care, Megleno-Romanian cari and Istro-Romanian cǫre.^[10] Elsewhere in Romance it gave Italian quale, French quel, Spanish cual and Portuguese qual, everywhere a relative and interrogative pronoun.^[11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu's sources for the pronoun include Boiagi's grammar of 1813, the oldest dated work he cites for it.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word asked "of what kind?"; in Aromanian, as in Romanian, it became the plain relative pronoun "who, which, that" and the interrogative "which?, who?".^[4][2][10] Papahagi quotes the phrase cari di carí ("each trying to outdo the other"), as in cari di carí s' avínă ("each vying to hunt").^[12]

Timeline

• 1813 – recorded in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[4]
• 1901 – care as a relative pronoun in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin qualis.^[4]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (relative) Who, which, that.^[3][2][1]
2. (interrogative) Which?, who?^[3][2][1]

Related words

• Romanian care

Usage notes

Cunia also lists cari as an adverb and conjunction, a variant of cara (“if, when”),^[13] and Papahagi likewise refers that use to cára.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 345
3. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 235
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 58
5. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 94
6. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 180
7. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 558
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 248
13. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 236