apenas si estuvo poblado

08:46 Mar 6, 2016 

Thank you for confirming my interpretation of the Spanish. I appreciate that immensely, but for my translation I chose 'only thinly settled at best'.

07:41 Mar 2, 2016 

I, too, wondered whether it was "si" or "sí". I thought this was an interesting question and an interesting discussion - don't know why someone wanted to make it non-PRO.

07:33 Mar 2, 2016 

...in some twenty countries del mundo hispano, it can be rather challenging, even for those who review the DRAE, to keep their fingers on the pulse of something as dynamic as the Spanish language, hence my comment about sociolinguists. Your comment that at one time this may have been the meaning is worth underscoring. It's worth mentioning as well that, at the very least, the DRAE entry, which may not be the final word on this (How often is it for KudoZ questions?), confirms that the phrase is in fact *apenas si* and is NOT what some may have thought, i.e., *apenas sí*. How this relates to usage across different "speech communities" however is the question. To me, resolving this would require not only prescriptive data (from dictionaries and grammars), but descriptive data as well. As for what might be taught in "Castilian grammar classes" (presumably at the K-12 level in a variety of relevant countries), I really couldn't say, but if English grammar classes in America might be any indication, not many lessons would be dedicated to such specific questions of phraseology. It's an area that may not receive much explicit instruction. Really nice exchange of ideas, Robert! Cheers :-)

04:57 Mar 2, 2016 

Obviously I'm not saying that this usage is the only one that could exist, and The idea of it simply being colloquial seems a non-starter, given the DRAE entry. However, I think the DRAE reference does point to a certain usage that might be generally accepted in academia (and possibly even taught in Castilian grammar classes), where instead of being viewed as a component of conditionality, it simply marks a difference in adverbial usage, much like the accent in "aún".

04:38 Mar 2, 2016 

...there isn't some variation at times with respect to the subjunctive. Second, nor am I totally convinced that a dictionary (even as "comprehensive" as el DRAE) can always be the final arbiter when it comes to questions of usage (which may be more the "thing" of sociolinguists). Third, I'm not so sure it's just colloquial; in fact, the seemingly academic nature of the text may suggest otherwise, which, of course, does not preclude its being used colloquially elsewhere, i.e., in contexts where less semantic precision (or lexical density) might actually be expected. Interesting question. :-)

03:58 Mar 2, 2016 

A friend just passed me the link, it hadn't occurred to me to look it up there!

apenas si
1. loc. adv. apenas (‖ casi no). U. para evitar la ambigüedad con otros usos del adverbio. Apenas si sale de casa.
http://dle.rae.es/?id=38BNs6H

I think that solves the mystery of the mysterious "si". :-)

03:40 Mar 2, 2016 

The only problem with your point is that, from what I've been told, this is a colloquial locution which would really be out of place in an academic context.
In addition, wouldn't "estuvo" tend to be subjunctive or conditional for that ellipsis theory to work?

02:11 Mar 2, 2016 

...be consistent with highly nuanced academic writing.

01:57 Mar 2, 2016 

That's an interesting point you made about ellipsis. It hadn't occurred to me that that could be the original meaning.

21:24 Mar 1, 2016 

...si [es que] estuvo poblado. An example of ellipsis perhaps? It would also be consistent with the unaccented si for if.