118. (1) The definite article comes from unaccented ĭlle, which, being used as a proclitic, regularly lost its first syllable (§ [19]). Ille (✱ĭllī), ĭllum, ĭllī, ĭllos, ĭlla, ĭllas became respectively le (li), lo, li or lhi,[90] los, la, las. Le, lo, li, lhi, la frequently elided their vowel before another vowel (l’an, l’arma), becoming l or lh. Furthermore, le, lo, li, lhi, los, in the intertonic position after a vowel (vé lo páire), regularly lost their vowel (vẹl páire)[91]; and, by analogy, la and las were sometimes reduced to l and ls. We have, then, beside the full forms, the proclitics l, lh, and the enclitics l, lh, ls. Inasmuch as l might be vocalized before a dental,[92] the enclitics l and ls sometimes became u and us (a͡u portęr, e͡uz dias antix).
(2) The particles e and que, with the enclitic l, formed combinations ẹl and quẹl. Quẹl, being understood as qu’el, gave rise to a form ẹl.
(3) In the f. nom. sg. there is a form li or lhi, which is hard to explain. The most likely theory is that when the masculine quī took the place of the feminine quæ (see § [133]), the masculine ✱ĭllī came to be used beside ĭlla,[93] for the feminine. The Provençal feminine li (lhi) which resulted was strongly supported by the analogy of a feminine possessive mi, beside ma (see § [127]).[94]
(4) The regular forms are, therefore, the following:—
| MASCULINE | FEMININE | |||||||||
| Sg. | {nom.: | lẹ | li | l | ẹl | la | li | lhi | l | lh |
| {obj.: | lọ | l | u | ẹl | la | l | ||||
| Pl. | {nom.: | li | lhi | l | lh | las | ||||
| {obj.: | lọs | ls | us | las | ls | |||||
In many texts the objective forms lo, los, ls are used in the nominative.
1. The m. obj. sg. le, obj. pl. les, which occur in a few texts, are doubtless French. So is the enclitic form s for ls or us: de s, entre s, e s.
2. The enclitic forms combine as follows with the prepositions a, con, de, en, entre, iosta, per, sus, and with the conjunctions e, ni, o, que, si: al au als aus, col, del deu dels deus (des), enl el els eus, entrels, iostal, pel pels, sul suls; eil (= e lhi) el (= e lo), nils, oill (= o lhi), quel, sil. They combine freely with other words: eral (= era le), fals (= fa los), etc.
119. In some southwestern and some southeastern dialects we find forms sọ, sọs, sa, sas, coming from ĭpse.