Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “ave”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
Borrowed with an unspelled /h/ fromPunic[script needed](ḥawe,“live!”,2sg. imp.), cognate toHebrewחוה(“Chava, the biblical Eve”), and asavō fromPunic[script needed](ḥawū,2pl. imp.), from Semitic root ḥ-w-y (live). The form might have been contaminated byEtymology 2, especially as the latter one's long vowel also ended up short viaiambic shortening; this would explain the reluctance to spell the aspirate, as well as its interpretation as a verb form. Attested since Plautus.
Note: around the 1st c. a.D., the current pronunciation remained the etymologicalIPA(key):/ha.vĕ/, with the long-vowel unaspirated form possible as a literary affectation, or as a poetic license.[1]
Outside of grammarians, the plural(h)avēte is attested only once in Apuleius, who is known for affecting archaisms. This suggests that this greeting didn't usually inflect for number, reflecting its originally being an interjection and not a verbal form; nevertheless, it was eventually widely interpreted as the latter.
The other verbal forms cited by grammarians are the future imperativeavētōtū,ille(“greetings to you, him”) etc., and the infinitive in the circumlocutionavēretēvolō (after the same use withvalēre and the very raresalvēre).
"ave", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Before feminine nouns beginning with stressed/ˈa/ likeave, the singular definite article takes the form ofel (otherwise reserved for masculine nouns) instead of the usualla:el ave. This includes the contracted formsal anddel (instead ofa la andde la, respectively):al ave,del ave.
This also applies to the indefinite article, which takes the form ofun, which is otherwise used with masculine nouns (although the standard feminine formuna also occurs):un ave oruna ave. The same is true with determinersalgún/alguna andningún/ninguna, as well as for numerals ending with 1 (e.g.,veintiún/veintiuna).
However, if another word intervenes between the article and the noun, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (la,una etc.) are used:la mejor ave,una buena ave.
In these cases,el andun are not masculine but feminine, deriving from Latinilla anduna, respectively, even though they are identical in form to the corresponding masculine singular articles. Thus, they areallomorphs of the feminine singular articlesla anduna.
The use of these allomorphs does not change the gender agreement of the adjectives modifying the feminine noun:el ave única,un(a) ave buena.
In the plural, the usual feminine plural articles and determiners (las,unas, etc.) are always used.
Ave is also the scientific term, while pájaro is used more in common speech for the smaller birds.
