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I went down that rabbit hole too prior to seeing your comment and I was pretty surprised that the french meaning seems to have evolved exactly the same way the
by pluc 4y ago
I went down that rabbit hole too prior to seeing your comment and I was pretty surprised that the french meaning seems to have evolved exactly the same way the english one did
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperluette#%C3%89tymologie https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperluette#%C3%89tymologie
> « et, per se, et » (« et, en soi, 'et' ») pronounced « ète-per sé-ète », would have transformed into « et, per lui, et »
- Bayart 4y agoI find the Occitan etymology more convincing, considering esperluette still sounds almost like perfect Occitan with a meaning that makes complete sense, and the phonemic changes from Gallo-Latin et, per se, et don't seem regular.
- prmoustache 4y agoYes this is one of the other theory which can have some weight. The reality is it could be a combination of the two. People from northern areas of what is now France would have initially using et, per se, et then et, per lui, et while the occitan speaking part would have used et, per lo, et and a merge would have taken place somewhere more recently.