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Does anyone have a theory, or knowledge about the origin of the particle ли?

Why does it act as a question particle? Where did it come from, etc?

VCH250
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    from или? then there's a second question: where does или come from? )))) – Баян Купи-ка Sep 08 '16 at 20:35
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    @БаянКупи-ка Actually it's the other way round. или is и+ли. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 08 '16 at 23:31
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    It exists in many Slavic languages, so it comes from too dim and distant past. And theories... well, look into Vasmer dictionary: ли. – Matt Sep 09 '16 at 05:36
  • curiously Vasmer says укр. ли while there's no such particle in the Ukrainian, at least modern, just as there's no word или, it's even hard to compose a Ukrainian sentence with ли – Баян Купи-ка Sep 09 '16 at 08:26
  • @Nikolay Ershov, as Alex_ander says below it adds the sense "или не/нет" so ли could be a contraction of this long phrase, that is или – Баян Купи-ка Sep 09 '16 at 08:30
  • @БаянКупи-ка It could be if ли only ever occurred on its own or as part of или. Yet we have али and либо; the rest is Occam's razor. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 09 '16 at 08:52
  • @Nikolay Ershov OK, makes sense – Баян Купи-ка Sep 09 '16 at 08:58
  • @Nikolay Ershov-- I don't understand your last statement) What do you mean? – VCH250 Sep 09 '16 at 11:21
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    ли occurs as part of several other compound conjunctions beside или, meaning that the proposition that или is another such compound requires less assumptions than the proposition that ли is a pared-down или (нет). – Nikolay Ershov Sep 09 '16 at 11:26
  • Ukrainian has чи equivalent particle, however it is placed at the beginning of a clause rather than in the middle. – ttaaoossuuuu Sep 09 '16 at 12:33
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    Don't know if it's relevant, but there is also the Czech -li particle, which, as it seems to me, means 'if' or 'when': Chceš-li mír, chystej se na válku - 'If you want peace, prepare for war'; Žiješ-li v Římě, žij po římsku - 'Living in Rome, live the way Romans live'. – ach Sep 09 '16 at 13:53
  • Sometimes it's quite hard to understand ли since the idea of "whether" has more or less gone from English in North America. Only "if" is used. – VCH250 Sep 09 '16 at 14:49
  • @VCH250 you must be talking about vernacular, because https://www.google.com/#q=%22whether%22+site:washingtonpost.com admittedly not millions of results, but not few either and not once i've heard Americans say whether you like it or not – Баян Купи-ка Sep 09 '16 at 19:38
  • @ Баян Купи-ка I understand the word, but it really means the same as "if" for most people) —especially if one has to make a new sentence and not use a set phrase like "whether you like it or not" – VCH250 Sep 10 '16 at 11:21

2 Answers2

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It is cognate of English let, comes from PIE root lee̯- meaning allow, idle, lazy, inactive. English words "left", "leave", Russian лень "lazyness" are of the same root.

Compare PIE forms lee̯nos "quiet", lee̯u̯os "left"

Sergey Slepov
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Anixx
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(How it works in questions)

Whatever the origin of the particle is, it adds the sense "или не/нет" (whether or not). This could explain its function in embedded questions: it helps to simplify an expression by excluding the complete form of negated alternative.

Он не знал, придёт ли [= или не придёт, придёт или нет] сегодня его брат.

(He didn't know if his brother would come /or wouldn't come/ that night.)

In an actual question the sense "или... не" can be also (along with the mentioned simplification) used to express additional doubt about a judgment or about some its detail:

А знает ли он об этом [или всё-таки не знает]?

(But does he really know about it?)

А так ли это [или всё-таки не так]?

(Is it really so?)

Alex_ander
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