io

Forms

io^[1]

• Personal pronoun of the first person singular, masculine and feminine, nominative and accusative; the genitive and dative go under mini, the short form is mi.^[2]
• Other spellings and variants: iou and eu in Wiktionary;^[1] ÏO, EŬ and the northern ÍÏOŬ in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3][4] iou and eu in Weigand's glossary, who notes that in the north it is replaced by mine;^[5] έου (éu) and jou in Nikolaidis, who places the pair in Samarina;^[6] eu in Kavalliotis's word list, in its editor's reading.^[7]
• Pascu gives iou and io with eŭ, the dative a n'ia, n'i, and the accusative me, mi and mine.^[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin eo (“I”), the Late Latin form of Latin egō (“I”),^[1][8][9] the etymon DDA also gives.^[4] Candrea and Densusianu call the loss of the g unexplained.^[9] The object forms have their own Latin sources: Pascu derives the dative from mihi, the accusative me from mē and mine from mēne.^[8]

The pronoun is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian eu (popularly pronounced io), Megleno-Romanian io and Istro-Romanian io.^{[10][11][12][13]} Its Romance relatives are Italian io, Spanish yo, Portuguese eu and French je.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where the form its editor reads eu translates Modern Greek εγώ (egó, “I”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun keeps its Latin sense, the speaker;^[2] Cunia uses it for both the nominative and the accusative.^[2] DDA quotes tine io nu mi-ascultáșï "you did not listen to me".^[3]

Timeline

• 1770 – eu (Meyer's reading) “I” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[7]
• 1813 – eŭ in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[8]
• 1894 – iou and eu in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• 1905 – io in P. Papahagi's tales, as cited by Pascu.^[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. I;^[2][1][3] (accusative) me.^[2][1][3]

Related words

• mini
• Romanian eu
• Megleno-Romanian io

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 561
3. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 577
4. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 444
5. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 308
6. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 163
7. ^ a b c 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. 46
8. ^ 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, 104
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
10. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 156
12. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 234
13. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula