ci
English
Aka (Central Africa)
Balinese
Bambara
Noun
cí
- commission, errand
- message, order
- mission, task, assignment
- ò cí bɛ́ í kàn
- it is your duty
- work, labor (especially agricultural)
- cí kɛ́
- to work in the fields
- usefulness, utility
- cí tɛ́ nìn ná
- that's useless
Verb
cì
- to hit
- fíyɛn bɛ́ cì
- the wind is blowing
- fàli cì
- to hit an donkey
- to break
- à y'á kùn cì
- He knocked him unconscious
- to destroy
- to split, divide, cut
- dɔ́gɔ cì
- to split wood
- to burst, explode with a loud noise
- màrifa cì
- to fire off a round (with a gun)
- to trace, tattoo
- bála cì
- to plot an area of a field to be hoed
- tùgu cì
- to vaccinate in the arm
Corsican
Etymology
Ultimately from either Latin hīc (“here”) or hinc (“from here”). Akin to Italian ci; see there for more. Compare Sicilian cci.
See also
References
Dalmatian
Etymology
From Latin quem. Compare Portuguese quem, Romanian cine, Spanish quien, Romansch che, Sardinian chíne.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃi/
Esperanto
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [t͡si]
- Audio:
(file) - Hyphenation: ci
Pronoun
ci (accusative cin, possessive cia)
- (rare) thou, you (second-person informal singular pronoun)
- 1905, Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof, Fundamento de Esperanto:
- Mi legas. — Ci skribas (anstataŭ “ci” oni uzas ordinare “vi”).
- I read. — Thou writest (instead of “ci” one ordinarily uses “vi”.)
- 1899, Felikso Zamenhof, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Ekamis la konato / Kaj reciproke ŝi; / Post paso de monato / Ŝanĝiĝis »Vi« per »ci«.
- Her acquaintance fell in love / and reciprocally she; / after the passage of a month / "You" changed into "thee".
- 1907, Henri Vallienne, Kastelo de Prelongo, ch. 6:
- Cia sintenado estos vere fiera, li moke murmuretis en ŝian orelon, kiam ci estos vekinta la tutan loĝantaron.
- Thine attitude shall be truly proud, he mockingly whispered into her ear, when thou shalt have awakened the whole population.
Usage notes
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; Zamenhof advised against using 'ci' as early as the Dua Libro de l' Lingvo Internacia, published in 1888. Many Esperantists don't even understand it. Some authors have used 'ci' 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.
French
Etymology
Inherited from Late Latin ecce hīc.
Derived terms
References
- chapter CI, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Hausa
Etymology
From Proto-Chadic, ultimately from Proto-Afroasiatic *taʔ- (“to eat, especially something soft, to close lips, especially loosely”). Compare Akkadian 𒋫𒀪𒌑 (ta-ʔu-u2 /ta'u/, “to eat”), Mehri tewō (“eat”), Arabic تَأْتَأَ (taʔtaʔa, “to stammer, to stutter, to reduplicate sounds, to mumble or move lips”), and with varying Berber forms Tamahaq ⵜⵜ (tǝtt), Tarifit ⵜⵜ (tǝtt), Central Atlas Tamazight ⵜⵛ (tc), and Kabyle teṭṭ (pharyngeal-coloring found as well in the Arabic variant تَعْتَعَ (taʕtaʕa), and in that sense possible further connections to طَعِمَ (ṭaʕima, “to taste”) and عَضَّ (ʕaḍḍa, “to bite”)).
Ido
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tsi/
Indonesian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈt͡ʃi]
- Hyphenation: ci
Etymology 1
From Xiamen Hokkien 錢/钱 (chîⁿ, “mace”).
Noun
ci (first-person possessive ciku, second-person possessive cimu, third-person possessive cinya)
- (obsolete) weight unit: 1/10 tahil (for opium).
Etymology 2
From Sundanese ᮎᮤ (ci), ultimately from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.
Noun
ci (first-person possessive ciku, second-person possessive cimu, third-person possessive cinya)
- river (large stream which drains a landmass)
Noun
ci (first-person possessive ciku, second-person possessive cimu, third-person possessive cinya)
Further reading
- “ci” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (most common outside of Tuscany) /ˈt͡ʃi/*
- Rhymes: -i
- Hyphenation: cì
See also
Further reading
- ci2 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Etymology 2
Uncertain. Rohlfs[1] and Von Wartburg[2] favoured/favored Late Latin ecce hīc. Maiden[3] casts doubt on this etymology, pointing out that Italian ci is an unstressed 'weak' form, while Latin hic otherwise survives in Italian only in stressed forms (reinforced by Latin ecce or eccum) such as ciò, qua, and qui. (It should also be noted that all of the latter trigger syntactic doubling in a following word, thanks to their original final /k/, while ci does not.)[4] Maiden proposes instead an origin in Latin hince, variant of hinc (“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 Latin hīce, a variant of hīc (“here”). In any case, the Italian term is certainly cognate with Neapolitan ce, Sicilian cci and Sassarese zi, all three of which share similar adverbial senses, with the latter two also having pronominal senses.
Alternative forms
- -ci (enclitic)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃi/, (Sicily, Calabria) */t͡ʃi/
- Hyphenation: ci
Pronoun
ci
- us
- Loro ci conoscono ― They know us
- (reflexive) ourselves; each other
- Ci arrabbiamo ― We (ourselves) get angry
- Ci amiamo ― We love each other
- to us
- Lui ci ha detto questo ― He said this to us
- replaces the indefinite personal pronoun si (“one”) before reflexive si (“oneself”); one
- Ci si lava. ― One washes oneself.
- Ci si annoia quando non c'è niente da fare.
- One gets bored when there is nothing to do.
- it, to it
- Non ci credo. ― I do not believe it.
Usage notes
See also
Number | Person | Gender | Nominative | Reflexive | Accusative | Dative | Conjunctive | Disjunctive | Locative | Partitive |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | first | — | io | mi, m', -mi | me | me | — | |||
second | — | tu | ti, t', -ti | te | te | |||||
third | m | lui | si2, s', -si | lo, l', -lo | gli, -gli | glie, se2 | lui, sé | ci, c', vi, v' (formal) |
ne, n' | |
f | lei, Lei1 | la, La1, l', L'1, -la, -La1 | le3, Le1, -le3, -Le1 | lei, Lei1, sé | ||||||
Plural | first | — | noi | ci, c', -ci | ce | noi | — | |||
second | — | voi, Voi4 | vi, Vi4, v', V'4, -vi, -Vi4 | ve | voi, Voi4 | |||||
third | m | loro, Loro1 | si, s', -si | li, Li1, -li, -Li1 | gli, -gli, loro (formal), Loro1 |
glie, se | loro, Loro1, sé | ci, c', vi, v' (formal) |
ne, n' | |
f | le, Le1, -le, -Le1 | |||||||||
1 | 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. | |||||||||
3 | Often replaced by gli, -gli in informal language. | |||||||||
4 | Formal (capitalisation optional); in many regions, can refer to just one person (compare with French vous). |
Adverb
ci
- to there, here, there
- Synonym: vi (formal)
- Ci sono andato ― I have been there
- Ci siamo ― We're here
- Ci sono molte cose ― There are many things
- C'è un problema ― There is a problem
- forms part of many verbs:
- volerci ― to require/take
- abituarci ― to get used to it
- riuscirci ― to be able to do it
- entrarci ― to do with something
- contarci ― to count on it
- pensarci ― to think about it
- starci ― to agree / to be up for something
- farcela ― to manage to do something
- crederci ― to believe it
References
- Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1969. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti, vol. 3: Sintassi e formazione delle parole. Torino: Einaudi. §899.
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “hīc”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 4: G H I, page 425
- Maiden, Martin. 1995. A linguistic history of Italian. London: Longman. §9.1.1.
- ci in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
- ci1 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Kanuri
Latin
Malay
Etymology
From Sundanese ᮎᮤ (ci).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃi/
- Rhymes: -t͡ʃi, -i
Noun
ci (Jawi spelling چي, plural ci-ci, informal 1st possessive ciku, 2nd possessive cimu, 3rd possessive cinya)
- river (large stream which drains a landmass)
Further reading
- “ci” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
Mandarin
Romanization
ci
Usage notes
- Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Nupe
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃī/
Conjunction
ci
Usage notes
- ci is solely used to join verbs/sentences and not nouns, for which tò is used. Additionally, when ci is used, the subject of each verb must be specified.
See also
Old French
Etymology
From Late Latin ecce hīc.
Adverb
ci
- here (in this place)
- c. 1250, Marie de France, Guigemar:
- Va t'en de ci ! Lai me aveir pes.
- Go, leave this place! Let me have peace.
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ɕi/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -i
- Syllabification: ci
Alternative forms
- (stressed) tobie
Etymology 2
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ti.
Romanian
Etymology
From ce.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃi/
Conjunction
ci
- (adversative) but; so that; on the contrary, opposite
- Nici eu, ci el. ― Not I, but he.
See also
Sicilian
Alternative forms
- cci
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈtʃi]
- (unstressed) IPA(key): [tʃɪ]
Pronoun
ci
Usage notes
- Unlike in Italian, the Sicilian pronoun ci is not used for the first-person plural ('us'). The Sicilian equivalent is ni.
Tarantino
Tedim Chin
Etymology
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *tsii, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-tsji.
References
- Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip
Venetian
Usage notes
- Redoubled for reinforcement.
- Ci èlo ci?
- Who on earth is he?
- Ci èlo ci?
Walloon
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /si/
Welsh
Etymology
From Proto-Brythonic *ki, from Proto-Celtic *kū, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kiː/
- Rhymes: -iː
Derived terms
- ci poeth (“hotdog”)
- ciaidd (“savage, fierce”)
- corgi (“corgi”)
- cynaidd (“canine”)
- cynffongi (“sycophant, sponger”)
- cynol (“canine”)
- dwrgi (“otter”)
- gellgi (“a Welsh staghound”)
- gwenci (“weasel”)
- hyddgi (“staghound”)
- (literary) ciros (“dog roses”)
- rhos y cŵn (“dog roses, sweetbriers”)
- rhosyn y cŵn (“dogrose”)
- ufferngi (“hell-hound”)
Zhuang
Pronunciation
- (Standard Zhuang) IPA(key): /ɕi˨˦/
- Tone numbers: ci1
- Hyphenation: ci
Verb
ci (Sawndip form 𫩝, 1957–1982 spelling ci)