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“The”, the definite article

The word “the” is a part of speech called a “determiner”, specifically an article. This class in english includes: “a(n)”, “the”, “no”, “some”. These words combine with a noun to create a noun phrase: “the man”, “a man”, “some men”, “no man” is an island.

Originally, in Old English (O.E.) the definite article, se (which in Modern English is the), agreed with the noun’s plurality and grammatical gender. What this means is the word changed depending on what word it was stuck with, like how Spanish has the male and female forms la and el. However, like many languages including Latin, Old English also possesed a “case” system. This means that concepts like “subject” and “direct object” were marked on words with sounds. In Modern English, this system still exists for pronouns: “I” is nominative (must be a subject). Thus one cannot say: “He saw I” but must use the accusative case of I, which is me: “He saw me”

After the breakdown of the Old English gender system (note how Modern English nouns don’t have grammatical gender), all of the case’s starting letter, th, infiltrated the “default” nominative form se, producing the. All the other forms died out with the death of the case system in English.

The Old English se comes from the proto-Indo-European (PIE) form *so which meant “this, that”. The definite article in modern romance languages are like so:

• French: le, la 
• Spanish, Catalan: el, la
• Italian: il, la
• Romanian: -l(a), -a [at the end of words]

These come from the demonstrative determiner, ille “that”. You can see how this became the modern romance forms, by the loss of the beginning/end sounds of the latin word ille. Note, as well, the feminine form of ille was illa which explains the feminine forms in the same manner.

Now to tie it all together. Have you noticed the curious fact? The, from O.E. se, from PIE *so “that”…and le, la from Latin ille “that”. The definite article in Romance languages AND English both come from stem words meaning “that”. In language change theory, in Latin this is explained by the loss of force behind ille…instead of meaning “THAT thing over there”, it just started meaning “any old thing”. This is attested in the historical record by alternative forms being employed in legal documents to replace ille, which demonstrates that ille itself was losing its force of meaning. Apparently, something similar happened in PIE->O.E.->Modern English.

Notes

• Romanian is particularly interesting in how closely it follows the original latin, see: wikipedia

References

• Lass, Roger, Old English, A Historical Linguistic Companion, Cambridge University Press, 1994.