“ci” inBalinese–Indonesian Dictionary[Kamus Bahasa Bali–Indonesia], Denpasar, Indonesia: The Linguistic Center of Bali Province [Balai Bahasa Provinsi Bali].
Some people believe that this word was used in the past and then became archaic, but this is not true. Actually, this word has never been in common usage; as written by Zamenhof as early as 1888, when theDua Libro de l' Lingvo Internacia, was published. Many Esperantists do not even understand it. Some authors have usedci to portray archaic language, for translations, and for stylistic effects. This usage is criticized by other writers.
Ludwig L. Zamenhof,Dua Libro de l' Lingvo Internacia; Ludwig L. Zamenhof,Lingvaj Respondoj; Bertilo Wennergren,Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko (PMEG); Bernard Golden,La Gazeto #11, June 15, 1987; Zlatko Tisjlar,Frekvencmorfemaro de Parolata Esperanto.
FromProto-Chadic, ultimately fromProto-Afroasiatic*taʔ-(“to eat, especially something soft, to close lips, especially loosely”). CompareAkkadian𒋫𒀪𒌑(ta-ʾu-u₂/taʾu/,“to eat”),Mehritewō(“eat”),Arabicتَأْتَأَ(taʔtaʔa,“to stammer, to stutter, to reduplicate sounds, to mumble or move lips”), and with varying Berber formsTamahaqⵜⵜ(tǝtt),Tarifitⵜⵜ(tǝtt),Central Atlas Tamazightⵜⵛ(tc), andKabyleteṭṭ (pharyngeal-coloring found as well in the Arabic variantتَعْتَعَ(taʕtaʕa), and in that sense possible further connections toطَعِمَ(ṭaʕima,“to taste”) andعَضَّ(ʕaḍḍa,“to bite”)).
Uncertain. Rohlfs[1] and Von Wartburg[2] favoured/favored Late Latinecce hīc. Maiden[3] casts doubt on this etymology, pointing out that Italianci is an unstressed 'weak' form, while Latinhic otherwise survives in Italian only in stressed forms (reinforced by Latinecce oreccum) such asciò,qua, andqui. (It should also be noted that all of the latter trigger syntactic doubling in a following word, thanks to their original final /k/, whileci does not.)[4] Maiden proposes instead an origin in Latinhince, variant ofhinc(“hence, from here”), pointing out that in parts of southern Italy there exists a 1PL pronoun'nci (cf. also'nce). Treccani,[5] on the other hand, proposes an origin in Latinhīce, a variant ofhīc(“here”). In any case, the Italian term is certainly cognate withNeapolitance,Siciliancci andSassaresezi, all three of which share similar adverbial senses, with the latter two also having pronominal senses.
Third person pronominal forms used as formal terms of address to refer to second person subjects (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
2
Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
ci is solely used to join verbs/sentences and not nouns, for whichtò is used. Additionally, whenci is used, the subject of each verb must be specified.
D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “ci”, inGweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “ci”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
