köken: From earlier 'l, a reduced form of lo. The initial i- is a svarabhakti vowel added in order to make the pronunciation easier. Proof of this is De scriptura nigra (a work in Old Lombard) only employing il to mean “the”, and el to mean “he/him”. Also, works in 1400’s Tuscan showing both “il” and “el”, yet with no forms such as “de Roma” instead of “di Roma” appearing, prove that il does not…
e ’l fiorentino spirito bizzarro in sé medesmo si volvea co’ denti. Quivi il lasciammo, che più non ne narro;
A zero suffix, with several functions: · a form of the subjunctive/imperative suffix -j in the second-person singular definite short forms of most verbs · at the end of the short form of the second-person singular indefinite subjunctive/imperative (more common than the long-form ending in -ál/-él)
köken: From Old Danish thē, from Old Norse þeir, from Proto-Germanic *þai. Usage of this word as a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun is a semantic loan from English they.
the (singular feminine definite article, suffixed to feminine nouns/adjectives to mean “the”) · the (plural neuter definite article, suffixed to neuter nouns/adjectives to mean “the”)