acesta, acela [Re: Indo-Iranian]

>Wrong. This is the same thing as we saw in în-, îmi, etc.
>In Italian and Romanian the form was apocopated to 'st-,
>sta- (cf. Italian st-esso, sta-sera), and subsequently a
>prosthetic vowel was prefixed: ãst, asta, Moldavian ist.

ist & aist are not only in the Moldavian subdialect, they're
wide-spread in other subdialects, too, esp. in Transylvania.
(After all, the Moldavian subdialect is nothing else but an
extension of Transylvanian subdialects.) Here al 3 variants:

masc.

N (a)ist(a) (a)i$ti/(a)i$tia
G (a)istui(a) (a)istor(a)
D (a)istui(a) (a)istor(a)
A (a)ist(a) (a)i$ti/(a)i$tia

then est, which is rather rare:

N+A (a)est(a) (a)e$ti/(a)e$tia
G+D (a)estui (a)estor(a)

e.g. the locution "estimp" (est+timp) = "în acest timp",
that regionally means "this year!" (!)

>l > ãl- in some regions ala as well
>y > ai-
>y > ãi-
>le > ale- in some regions ãle-

>Addition of deictic element -a (as in acest-a, acel-a):

As well as cel, cei + cea, cele; and cest, ce$ti + ceasta,
cestea.

>100% Romance.
>
>Miguel Carrasquer Vidal

George