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This suffixation coincided with diphthongisation, turning the stressed -i into a glide. In Banat, however, an alternate suffixed form developed also, in which the stressed syllable remained the same; these forms coexisted, occupying different nuances (see usage notes).
Și aceastea zicând, abiia opriră pre mulțime să nu facă lui jrătvă.
And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto him. (Acts 14:18)
1848 July, Costache Negruzzi, “Scrisoarea XXIV (Un vis.) [Letter 24 (A dream.)]”, in Păcatele tinerețelor [The sins of youth], Iași, published 1857, page 334:
Абі̆а аm пᲈtᲈt tіndе mъnа ка sъ sᲈn.
Abia am putut tinde mâna ca să sun.
I could hardly extend my hand to ring.
1923, Ioan Slavici, chapter 4, in Cel din urmă armaș, Bucharest: Cultura Națională, page 153:
Iorgu abia-și mai putù stăpâni rîsul.
Iorgu could hardly contain his laughter anymore.
1987 February 12, Marin Sorescu, “Descoperiri prea mari [Discoveries too great]”, in Tribuna, year 31, number 7, Cluj-Napoca, page 5; collected in Ecuatorul și polii [The Equator and the poles], Timișoara: Facla, 1989, →ISBN, page 84:
Pe-o piatră de hotar vezi un gîndac. Pe multele-i picioare-abia se ține.
On a boundary stone you see a bug. On its many legs it can hardly stand.
Abia ai loc să te-ntorci înăuntrul ei, abia poți zări ceva în dârele de lumină de pe ferestrele de sus, și abia poți respira fumul gros, mirosind a tămâie și ceară, ce umple golul dintre pereții de piatră brută.
You scarcely have any room inside it to turn, you can scarcely see anything in the streaks of light coming though the upper windows, and you can scarcely breathe the thick smoke, smelling of frankincense and wax, which fills the void between the bare stone walls.
Virtuțile socialiste nu au trecere, pentru că la noi limbajul virtuții este exclusiv bisericesc și abia dacă are conținut moral[…], darămite unul politic.
Socialist virtues have no currency, given that here the language of virtue is exclusively ecclesiastic and barely has any moral substance, let alone a political one.
(chiefly with count words)only, just(no more than)
Când amu Isac era sfârșit blgveniia lui Iacov, și Iacov abiia era ieșit afară dinaintea lui Isac tătâni-său, vine Isav acelui frate de la vânat.
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. (Genesis 27:30)
1838 March 5, Grigore Alexandrescu, “Вᲈлпѣ, Калᲈл ші Лᲈпᲈл [Vulpea, Calul și Lupul, The Fox, the Horse and the Wolf]”, in Florian Aaron, editor, Романіа [Romania], Bucharest, page 220:
О вᲈлпе де ані̆ мікъ,ꙟнсъ де мінте маре, Ші каре месеріа абіа ш’о ꙟнчепᲈсе[…]
O vulpe de ani mică, însă de minte mare Și care meseria abia și-o începuse
A fox young of years, but great of wit, And which had only just begun its profession
1889 December 31, Ion Luca Caragiale(unsigned), “Sfintele serbători [The holy feasts]”, in Era Nouă [The New Age], year 1, number 13, Iași, page 4:
Dar stăpănii unde sunt? La ceasul acesta ei stau a lene in paturile lor. Unii abia se trezesc, alții abia sĕ culcă.
But where are their masters? At this hour they languish in their beds. Some are just waking up, others are just going to bed.
1963, Mircea Eliade, chapter 8, in Pe strada Mântuleasa… [On Mântuleasa Street…], Paris: Caietele Inorogului:
Anca Vogel îl privi încruntată și stinse nervos țigara abia începută.
Anca Vogel frowned at him and irritably extinguished the only just lit cigarette.
Dacă încearcă cineva să ne calce pe bătătură, să știi că prima dată îți zbor creierii și abia dup-aia o să văd care-i treaba.
If someone tries to push our buttons, I’ll have you know that first I’ll blow your brains out and only then I’ll figure out what the matter is.
Usage notes
Sentences using abia in the temporal sense of “only just” can be followed by a correlative sentence introduced with the conjunction că that describes an event immediate to that of the first sentence: Abia se terminase unul, că începu altul.(“One had just ended, when another one began.”)
The same sense may see abia followed by ce in the manner of its synonym numai and a few other temporal adverbs.
When modifying a verb (in any compatible sense), abia may uncommonly be followed by că, to no change in meaning.
Where it can be translated as “barely”, abia can for emphasis be followed by the conjunction dacă.
The Banat dialect traditionally preserved a sense distinction between the ubiquitous pronunciation /aˈbja/, which was reserved for the sense “with difficulty”, and the alternative pronunciation /aˈbi.a/, used for the sense “in small measure”.[1] This differentiation is not widely known and might well be extinct.
Din prototipul abì, conservat în Mehedințĭ, s’a format la Românĭ nu numaĭ prin diftongire abĭà „à peine“, dar tot-o-dată și abía „a peu près, presque“ prin acățarea emfaticului a. Termenul se întrebuințéză până astăḑĭ în Banat, alăturĭ cu abĭà și fără a se confunda cu acesta, deși ambele cuvinte se asémĕnă atât de mult, fie prin son, fie prin sens.[…]„abiuța și abía, cu tonul pe í, însemnéză: de tot puțin; de ex.: apa e abiuța saŭ abía, adecă abĭa călduță“ (S. Liuba, Banat, com. Maĭdan).
From the original abi, preserved in Mehedinți, was formed not only /aˈbja/ (“hardly”), but also /aˈbi.a/ (“almost, in small measure”) through the epenthesis of emphatic a. The latter is used in Banat until our times, together with the former and without being confused for it, even though both words resemble each other so much, be it through sound or meaning.“abiuța and /aˈbi.a/, with stress on the i, mean: a little bit, for example: the water is just a little warm” (S. Liuba, Banat, Brădișoru de Jos, formerly Maidan).