# Romanian o



## 0stsee

Hello!

It's been a long time since I learned Romanian, but I still have an unanswered question which just occurred to me:

The word *o* in Romanian, does it have Latin origins or not?
I'm wondering because it doesn't look similar to _una_ or _la _in other Romance languages.

Multsumesc!!


Ostsee


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## SerinusCanaria3075

_*O*_ comes from Latin "unam". Thus we have this indefinite feminine form:

Spanish/Italian: una
French: une

Strangely Portuguese has "o" as a male definite form while "un" (Romanian, Spanish) came from _unus_.



> I'm wondering because it doesn't look similar to _una_ or _*la* _in other Romance languages.


_La_ is definite. Romanian is the only Romance language which uses the definite article at the end therefore "la" = -a.


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## OldAvatar

Nice explanation, Serinus. But I'm afraid that the Romanian definite article has got lesser to do with Latin "*la*". It is more related to Slavic feminine form, which ends with termination "*a*".
Regarding the Romanian "*o*", it is more related to feminin pronoun *ea *than to Romance *una*.


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## SerinusCanaria3075

OldAvatar said:


> Regarding, the Romanian "*o*", it is more related with feminin pronoun *ea *than with Romance *una*.


Actually, _*o*_ seems like it came out of the blue (sort of) since it doesn't look anything like _una[m]_ while _n*is*te_ (ne scio), _un_ (unum), _unui _(unius), _unei_ (unae) and _unor_ (unorum) all have some resemblance to their Latin origins.

It's something that caught my attention too (the *o*).

(Thanks for the info on the Slavic termination)


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## OldAvatar

Well. I do have a supposition, but I can't guarantee for it. It may have something to do with Hungarian influence. We've got *îl* for masc. and *o* for feminine accusative and dative. Since *îl* comes from *el* and *o* comes from *ea* and considering that Hungarian influence changes *a* into *o*, it is possible to have some sort of relation with Hungarian accents.


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## jazyk

> Strangely Portuguese has "o" as a male definite form while "un" (Romanian, Spanish) came from _unus_.


I don't think it's strange. If illa evolved to a, the feminine article, it wouldn't be surprising if it masculine article were o. Lupus - lob*o*, lupa - lob*a*; illa - *a*, ille - *o.*


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## robbie_SWE

OldAvatar said:


> Nice explanation, Serinus. But I'm afraid that the Romanian definite article has got lesser to do with Latin "*la*". It is more related with Slavic feminine form, which ends with termination "*a*".
> Regarding the Romanian "*o*", it is more related with feminin pronoun *ea *than with Romance *una*.


 
That's actually something still discussed about by many linguists. According to the Wikipedia article about Romanian grammar, the definite articles in Romanian are indeed of Latin origin. Take a look and let us open a new thread about it, so that we can discuss it more freely (without stepping on any moderator's toes ). 

 robbie


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## 0stsee

SerinusCanaria3075 said:


> _*O*_ comes from Latin "unam". Thus we have this indefinite feminine form:
> 
> Spanish/Italian: una
> French: une
> 
> Strangely Portuguese has "o" as a male definite form while "un" (Romanian, Spanish) came from _unus_.
> 
> 
> _La_ is definite. Romanian is the only Romance language which uses the definite article at the end therefore "la" = -a.


 
I compared *o *and *la* because *o *also functions as object pronoun.

*O vezi pe Alina?*
*La ves a Alina?*

Saludos,


Ostsee


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## OldAvatar

An interesting transformation takes place in regions where both Hungarian and Romanian are frequently spoken.
For example, Romanians from Transylvania and, more recently, even from Moldova use *o* instead of *a* when they're using the *perfect compus* (composed perfect) tense:

* A* mers la şcoală. *O* mers la şcolă.

Perhaps similar mechanism worked out for the other _*o*_. It could have been an _*a*_ in ancient times but it got changed into _*o*_.


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