3 ms·

I wonder how it became "laranja" in Portuguese...

• gjm11 13y ago
  Kinda-obvious guess: definite article "la" rather than indefinite article. Apparent counter-evidence: the relevant Portuguese definite article is "a" rather than "la" as in Spanish. Counter-counter-evidence: at least one source (W V O Quine's "Quiddities") tells me that once upon a time the Portuguese definite article was "la" rather than "a". However, Quine was a philosopher rather than a historian of language, this particular book is a fairly frivolous one, and I don't know how far I can trust him. Counter-counter-counter-evidence: A few minutes of googling haven't found me any other evidence for Portuguese, or any other language spoken in Portugal, ever having had "la" as a definite article. Make of all that what you will. I'd be very surprised if it weren't derived from a definite article prefix, but exactly how it happened I would rather not guess.
  • thaumasiotes 13y ago
    As to the counter-counter-counter-evidence, the development of definite articles in Romance languages is well-understood (Latin didn't have them). They come from the adjective "ille, illa (, illud)" meaning "that" (imagine pointing at "that"). So we can immediately conclude that yes, there was an L in there at some point in the history of portuguese. It seems a little more likely that the adjective became an article with the degenerate form "la" and then degenerated further than that the adjective lost its only consonant and then turned into an article.
    • auxbuss 13y ago
      Point of pedantry, but you never need commas at the start and end of parentheses. So, (illud) == (, illud). Also, (illud) == (illud, ), etc.