Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “alma”, inCorpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
alma in Géza Bárczi,László Országh,et al., editors,A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN.
alma in Nóra Ittzés, editor,A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031(work in progress; publisheda–ez as of 2024).
"alma", 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)
“alma”, inWilliam Smith, editor (1854, 1857),A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
Before feminine nouns beginning with stressed/ˈa/ likealma, the singular definite article takes the form ofel (otherwise reserved for masculine nouns) instead of the usualla:el alma. This includes the contracted formsal anddel (instead ofa la andde la, respectively):al alma,del alma.
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 alma oruna alma. 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 alma,una buena alma.
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 alma única,un(a) alma buena.
In the plural, the usual feminine plural articles and determiners (las,unas, etc.) are always used.
