The Romanian îns, ins ‘Person, Human Being’ and its Roots in Proto-Indo-European
The Romanian îns, ins ‘Person, Human Being’ and its Roots in Proto-Indo-European

Summary/Abstract: The Romanian noun ins, îns, meaning ‘person, human being’ has traditionally been explain through the Latin demonstrative pronoun ipse (-a, -um) ipsus, ‘that very, just that, self’, in spite of the phonetic difficulties. This paper offers a new perspective on the subject, relating the Romanian isogloss to the Proto-Indo-European form *haénsus ‘god, spirit, vital force’ as reconstructed by Mallory-Adams in their latest work. Recent studies of isolated Indo-European languages, such as Burushanski, may bring new and interesting perspectives in comparative linguistics.

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