Talk:sânt

"Dated spelling of sunt."

I don't agree with this. Firstly, the difference between (sânt/sînt) and sunt is not one of spelling but of pronunciation, so marking it as a different "spelling" of sunt is in my eyes incorrect. The pronunciation behind (sânt/sînt) is hardly obsolete, one may even argue it's the predominant pronunciation outside formal contexts, though admittedly Romanian prescriptivists have won a lot of land on this front (so as to not call it progress). Regarding the writing, I am uncertain but by analogy it can be argued that sînt is the dated one and sânt the normal one because all words with î inside the word (not at the ends) have become dated in standard Romanian and replaced by their â counterparts. ^{@Robbie SWE} --Fytcha (talk) 18:11, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

The fact of the matter is that sânt is undoubtedly the least common form of fi ever used – sînt has always been the dominant one (N.B. in the Republic of Moldova it still is), while sunt is the prescribed form mostly due to historic and linguistic reasons. Regardless, sânt is not common today and was not common earlier either. Labelling it as dated is therefore correct, but I'd rather classify it as hypercorrect. If you want to read more about this subject, read this thread (AdiJapan was on point). Robbie SWE (talk) 18:45, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

The pronunciation is not obsolete, but the spelling certainly is. It has not been officially in use since the 1953 and, unlike the usage of "î", it doesn't have people who support its use. Bogdan (talk) 19:11, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

@Robbie SWE, Bogdan: Thanks for the input, especially thanks for the interesting thread.

One little point: If what is written in that thread is correct then a few of our etymology sections in conjugated forms of fi are incorrect. Relevant part:

"Cuvîntul sînt nu vine din indicativul latinesc sunt, așa cum umblă vorba printre nepricepuți, ci probabil din conjunctivul sint. Oricum, formele moștenite efectiv în limba română și înregistrate în scris au fost: sănt, sămt, sint, sem, săm, săntem, sîntem, sintem, seţi, set, siţi, sănteţi, sînteţi, sinteţi, sănt, sămt, sint. Observați? Nu există nici un sunt, suntem, sunteți. Aceste forme au fost inventate în secolul al XIX-lea de către latiniști. Inițial au fost folosite numai în scris, iar de pronunțat se pronunțau cu î (Eminescu scria și el sunt, după regula vremii, dar cu certitudine pronunța sînt, ceea ce se deduce simplu din rime). Pronunțarea sunt a apărut recent, undeva în jurul anului 1900, din neștiință sau din snobism, sub influența scrisului, așa cum azi unii pronunță eu în loc de ieu. Ca urmare forma justificată etimologic este sînt, nu sunt, atît în scris cît și în pronunție."

I am by no means qualified to have an opinion on this so I'm merely pointing it out. Fytcha (talk) 10:35, 29 October 2021 (UTC)