The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today).
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The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today). It was formed in Middle French during the late Middle Ages.
However, many Romance adverbs and prepositions come from even older combinations - and some of are hardly identifiable as such anymore.
Click my two new graphics to explore the origin of words such as ‘adelante’, ‘encore’, and ‘dedans’.
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The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today). It was formed in Middle French during the late Middle Ages.
However, many Romance adverbs and prepositions come from even older combinations - and some of are hardly identifiable as such anymore.
Click my two new graphics to explore the origin of words such as ‘adelante’, ‘encore’, and ‘dedans’.
And isn't ‘au’ itself a contraction of ‘à’ and ‘le’? So 5 words!
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And isn't ‘au’ itself a contraction of ‘à’ and ‘le’? So 5 words!
@TobyBartels Yes and no: when 'aujourd'hui' was formed, 'au' couldn't be divided into two words anyore, just like 'hui' couldn't be divided anymore, even though it came from Latin 'hō diē'.
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@TobyBartels Yes and no: when 'aujourd'hui' was formed, 'au' couldn't be divided into two words anyore, just like 'hui' couldn't be divided anymore, even though it came from Latin 'hō diē'.
6 words! On the day of this day. But I take your point that when the final combination happened there were only 4 words.
I knew that French did this sort of thing in the modern period after the spelling was fixed, such as ‘qu'est-ce que’ (what is this that), which might well be written ‘quèsque’ (what) if it were a new word. So it shouldn't be surprising that they were doing this back in the day.
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6 words! On the day of this day. But I take your point that when the final combination happened there were only 4 words.
I knew that French did this sort of thing in the modern period after the spelling was fixed, such as ‘qu'est-ce que’ (what is this that), which might well be written ‘quèsque’ (what) if it were a new word. So it shouldn't be surprising that they were doing this back in the day.
@TobyBartels Exactly: what we observe in modern languages must have been going on in ancient languages as well.
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The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today). It was formed in Middle French during the late Middle Ages.
However, many Romance adverbs and prepositions come from even older combinations - and some of are hardly identifiable as such anymore.
Click my two new graphics to explore the origin of words such as ‘adelante’, ‘encore’, and ‘dedans’.
@yvanspijk
Merci! -
The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today). It was formed in Middle French during the late Middle Ages.
However, many Romance adverbs and prepositions come from even older combinations - and some of are hardly identifiable as such anymore.
Click my two new graphics to explore the origin of words such as ‘adelante’, ‘encore’, and ‘dedans’.
@yvanspijk “from within” in French in 2526 A.D.: “de dededans”
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
