Ethan wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:13 pm
Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:58 pm
Ethan wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:47 pmSpanish language is classified as "Italic", but it's conjunctions and articles, Y, el, il, le, la, lo, los, las, un, una, unos, unas
are not from Latin, where do they come from?
Those are all from Latin. "Y" comes from
et (just like Italian and Portuguese "e," Catalan "i," and French "et"), "el" from
ille, "la" from
illa, "uno" from
unus/a/um, and so on, obviously.
Latin does not use definite or indefinite articles.
Not formally, no. But it used determiners (like
illa) in a similar function.
מה, מי, מאה : τίνα, ένα, τίνος , μια, un . una , unos, unas,
Riiiight. Greek μια turned into Spanish
una, and the Latin
una just sat there looking lonely.
I learned Spanish as a youth because I lived in Mexico for nine years. Once I started taking Latin classes, it was incredible how much already knowing Spanish helped me with Latin. Both languages, for example, switch out the thematic vowels (
a for
e or
e for
a) to form the subjunctive mood from the indicative (example: Spanish "comes" = "you eat," indicative; Spanish "comas" = "you should eat," subjunctive). Having already mastered this little trick in Spanish, doing it in Latin was obvious and natural.
Also, I knew as soon as my professor brought out the demonstratives (
illa and its ilk) that they were the origins of the Spanish definite articles (like "la"), before ever consulting an etymological work on the topic. It was
obvious. Still is.