the vulgar latin (proto-romance) conjugation system - Page ON
the vulgar latin (proto-romance) conjugation system - Page ON
the vulgar latin (proto-romance) conjugation system - Page ON
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
THE VULGAR LATIN (PROTO-ROMANCE)<br />
C<strong>ON</strong>JUGATI<strong>ON</strong> SYSTEM<br />
1<br />
Hugh E. Wilkinson<br />
In my last paper on “The Latinity of Ibero-Romance” (Ronshu, Vol. 8)<br />
I explored <strong>the</strong> position of Spanish and Portuguese with relation to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
main Romance languages, with particular emphasis on <strong>the</strong> verbal <strong>system</strong>.<br />
This present paper is intended as a corollary, as it were, to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r, setting<br />
forth my conception of <strong>the</strong> verb <strong>conjugation</strong> <strong>system</strong> as it was found in<br />
Vulgar Latin (using this outmoded but convenient term to denote <strong>the</strong> Latin<br />
deduced as having been spoken in Imperial times, before <strong>the</strong> break-up of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Empire brought about <strong>the</strong> clear differentiation of <strong>the</strong> various branches<br />
of Romance). In my view, obtained from an examination of <strong>the</strong> Romance<br />
languages, <strong>the</strong> verb <strong>system</strong> of Vulgar Latin (VL) was remarkably<br />
homogeneous; this probably means, not that <strong>the</strong>re were not great local<br />
differences in <strong>the</strong> speech of <strong>the</strong> different parts of <strong>the</strong> Empire, but that <strong>the</strong><br />
Romance languages are derived in <strong>the</strong> main from a standard set by speakers<br />
of “correct spoken Latin” who tended to reject <strong>the</strong> innovations made by <strong>the</strong><br />
common people. It is a fact in <strong>the</strong> history of all languages that where <strong>the</strong>re<br />
is a standard language, especially a written standard, <strong>the</strong> process of change<br />
is arrested. However, <strong>the</strong>re were <strong>conjugation</strong>al variants even in <strong>the</strong><br />
“standard” VL, and popular forms occasionally broke through.<br />
In comparison with Classical Latin (CL), <strong>the</strong> tendency in VL was to<br />
simplify and standardise <strong>the</strong> <strong>conjugation</strong> <strong>system</strong>. Although CL had four<br />
clearly defined <strong>conjugation</strong>s (with a few anomalies like <strong>the</strong> “capio verbs”)<br />
<strong>the</strong>re was great irregularity in <strong>the</strong> formation of <strong>the</strong> perfect and <strong>the</strong> past<br />
participle (or supine). In VL <strong>the</strong> trend was towards producing a <strong>system</strong><br />
where a certain perfect and past participle type corresponded to a certain<br />
infinitive type. The result, with a few exceptions, was a new alignment as<br />
1
follows:<br />
Conjugation I: -are, -a(v)i, -atu;<br />
Conjugation II: -ēre, -ŭi, -ĭtu, later -ūtu in most areas;<br />
Conjugation III: a) -ĕre, -si, -tu/-su;<br />
b) -ĕre, -edi/-ŭi, -ĭtu/-ūtu;<br />
Conjugation IV: -ire, -i(v)i, -itu.<br />
(Conjugation IV was also later to include a new type formed by a<br />
coalescence with -scere verbs. I will discuss <strong>the</strong> -edi ending in <strong>the</strong> relevant<br />
section.)<br />
It is my intention here, on <strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>sis stated above, to offer<br />
an explanation of <strong>the</strong> processes by which <strong>the</strong>se changes came about. This<br />
cannot be an exhaustive study, but just sufficient to establish my <strong>the</strong>sis. We<br />
must not be content merely with observing that such and such verbs<br />
changed over to such and such <strong>conjugation</strong>s without trying to find a reason,<br />
though sometimes we may be defeated in our search. It is also important to<br />
differentiate between <strong>the</strong> changes which took place in <strong>the</strong> VL period and<br />
those which belong to <strong>the</strong> later history of <strong>the</strong> individual languages, even if<br />
<strong>the</strong> seeds of <strong>the</strong> later divergences had already been sown earlier. Misunder-<br />
standing can be caused by, for example, quoting a “VL *tenire” as <strong>the</strong><br />
ancestor of Fr. tenir, when all that is meant is that <strong>the</strong> change of <strong>conjugation</strong><br />
had taken place in pre-literary French, and <strong>the</strong>reby creating <strong>the</strong> impression<br />
that <strong>the</strong> differentiation occurred much earlier than it actually did. In point of<br />
fact, as I have already said, my conclusion is that <strong>the</strong>re was a relatively long<br />
period of common development throughout Romania, and that distinctions<br />
like <strong>the</strong> preference for -si perfects in <strong>the</strong> East and -edi perfects in <strong>the</strong> West<br />
are subsequent reflections of what was originally only a hesitation between<br />
<strong>the</strong> two types. I base this and similar conclusions on <strong>the</strong> appearance of <strong>the</strong><br />
alternative form in <strong>the</strong> earliest recorded stages of <strong>the</strong> various languages, and<br />
it is on <strong>the</strong> forms that point to a common VL ancestor that I will concentrate,<br />
2<br />
2
only paying <strong>the</strong> minimum of attention to <strong>the</strong> subsequent developments in<br />
<strong>the</strong> individual languages.<br />
Of <strong>the</strong>se languages, Sardinian and some of <strong>the</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn Italian dialects<br />
were <strong>the</strong> first to be isolated, and did not take part in later changes such as<br />
<strong>the</strong> substitution of -ūtu for -ĭtu (Lausberg, 914), or <strong>the</strong> merging of -ire and<br />
-scere verbs. (Their vowel <strong>system</strong> is also more archaic in preserving <strong>the</strong><br />
distinction between ĭ, ŭ and ē, ō.) And <strong>the</strong>y share a propensity for extending<br />
<strong>the</strong> -ĕre infinitive at <strong>the</strong> expense of -ēre and even -ire (Bourciez, 417;<br />
Lausberg, 789). Of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages, though modern Spanish and<br />
Portuguese, and to a lesser extent <strong>the</strong> oldest recorded forms of <strong>the</strong>se<br />
languages, show many points of divergence from <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Romance<br />
languages, it is my belief that <strong>the</strong>se languages can hardly have been isolated<br />
in earliest times, and that it is <strong>the</strong>refore most reasonable to believe that <strong>the</strong>y<br />
went through <strong>the</strong> same VL stages as, for example, French and Italian. (For<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r elaboration on this see my previous paper.)<br />
Having said this, let us now proceed to an examination of <strong>the</strong><br />
individual <strong>conjugation</strong>s.<br />
Conjugation I.<br />
In this <strong>conjugation</strong> <strong>the</strong> majority of verbs were denominatives which<br />
followed <strong>the</strong> regular pattern. There were, however, a certain number of<br />
primary verbs with a weak grade of stem vowel, giving -ŭi, -ĭtu in <strong>the</strong><br />
perfect and past participle; <strong>the</strong>se verbs, such as secare, sonare, tonare,<br />
vetare, crepare, lavare, some of <strong>the</strong>m originally belonging to <strong>the</strong> third<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>, thus sonĕre, tonĕre, lavĕre (cf. abluĕre), were all regularised<br />
in VL, but <strong>the</strong> old past participles sometimes remained as fossilised forms:<br />
Rum. sunet, tunet, crepet, Sard. boitu, impitta, krebidu, It. vuoto (from<br />
vocitu for vacatu, found in an inscription, see Fouché, 177, via a form<br />
3<br />
3
*vogitu), prestito, cretto, lievito (from *levitu), Fr. vide, prêt, emplette, OFr.<br />
pleit, esploit, Prov. voig, emplecha, esplech, Cat. buit, crètua, OCat. esplet,<br />
manleuta, Sp. (em)pleita, grieta, OSp. préstido, liebdo > leudo, OSp.<br />
(Arag.) bueyto, Ptg. empreita, empréstido, lêvedo, grêta. The only two<br />
verbs which remained irregular were dare and stare. Their perfects in VL<br />
were dedi and *stetui, with a certain amount of reciprocal influence: thus It.<br />
diedi and detti, after stetti, Rum. dedei (earlier dedi(u)) and detei after stetei<br />
(earlier steti(u)), Engad. det after stet (Lausberg, 825), but imperfect<br />
subjunctives dess and stess with <strong>the</strong> -edi forms (Lausberg, 892; but note<br />
that 3rd person det might have come from ded(i)t, thus providing a point of<br />
contact between <strong>the</strong> two types), OFriul. die. OProv. has est(i)ei after dei,<br />
with 3rd person estet/estec (cf. OCat. estec), det (as Engad. det; cf. OCat.<br />
1st pers. di, subj. des); in <strong>the</strong> modern patois this gives 1st person<br />
estère/estaguèri, with a Gascon form estouy, having <strong>the</strong> accented -ui ending<br />
generalised in Gascon. In OSp. and OPtg., estide, estede appear, but <strong>the</strong><br />
modern forms estuve, estive, toge<strong>the</strong>r with OCat. estic, show <strong>the</strong> influence<br />
of o<strong>the</strong>r perfect types tuve, tive, sic (from *sēdui, itself remodelled on <strong>the</strong><br />
general perfect type ending in -c); from dedi Sp. has di, Ptg. dei and OCat.<br />
di. OSard. has de(d)i, and stetti. OFr. has estui with matching p.p. estëu,<br />
and a new form estai (dare is not found in French, apart from <strong>the</strong> old future<br />
forms dara/dera and <strong>the</strong> fossilised p.p. form dé). Rumanian also has dădui,<br />
stătui, <strong>the</strong> latter presumably derived from <strong>the</strong> ending-accented stătuşi from<br />
*stetu(i)sti, and dădui formed by analogy with stătui. In Sard.,<br />
Campidanian has a past participle istediu, as well as istau.<br />
This <strong>conjugation</strong> did not lose words to o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s, and also<br />
gained remarkably few from <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s. These are purely<br />
isolated words and <strong>the</strong> reasons for <strong>the</strong> change are not clear: Sp., Ptg. torrar<br />
from torrere (Bourciez, 203), It. tremare for tremere, It. abburare, Sp.<br />
aburar (Ast. amburar) from amburere, Cat. torçar for tòrcer. They could<br />
all be new formations based on noun forms. Rum. ploua is newly formed<br />
4<br />
4
from <strong>the</strong> pres. indic. plouă, where -uă has developed phonetically from<br />
Latin -vit (cf. nouă from novem) and <strong>the</strong> etymological infinitive would have<br />
become anomalous; scuipa, for earlier scu(i)pi, from conspuere via<br />
*conspuire, is more difficult to explain.<br />
In certain areas of eastern Romania, namely Rumanian, Apulian and<br />
Lucanian, an infix-<strong>conjugation</strong> is found using <strong>the</strong> suffix *-idio (from Greek<br />
-izo) in <strong>the</strong> forms originally accented on <strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> root, thus Rum.<br />
lucra/lucrez, Ap.-Luc. nivicare/nivicheia (Lausberg, 801). Traces are also<br />
found elsewhere, in Vegliot sperayo, OVenet. vendegea, <strong>the</strong> south Tyrol<br />
and Corsica (Bourciez, 207), while Engadinian and Sursilvan have a<br />
corresponding use of <strong>the</strong> suffix -esco. (Compare also <strong>the</strong> endings -eie/-oie,<br />
-eisse/-oisse found in <strong>the</strong> subjunctive of eastern and south-eastern dialects<br />
of OFr., with similar forms sometimes appearing in <strong>the</strong> indicative; o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
such forms also appear in <strong>the</strong> north; Fouché, 19.) The o<strong>the</strong>r languages have<br />
<strong>the</strong> suffix throughout as a derivative-forming element, and even Rumanian<br />
has boteza < baptizare, but it is not certain whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y ever went through<br />
<strong>the</strong> stage of having an infix-<strong>conjugation</strong>, though we can find verbs of<br />
similar meaning with and without <strong>the</strong> infix, such as It. ventare/venteggiare,<br />
Sp. ventar/ventear, where Rumanian has one verb, svânta/svântez.<br />
Certain languages later replaced <strong>the</strong> -avi perfect by -edi or -etui ones,<br />
on <strong>the</strong> analogy of dare, stare. Thus Prov. cantei, Cat. cantí using -edi (cf.<br />
OProv. dei, OCat. di from dedi; canté from canta(v)i was also found in<br />
OCat.), Engad. chantet using -etui. It. also has dialectal andiedi, and OSp.<br />
has forms like andido (now anduvo), entridieron, while in OFr. <strong>the</strong>re was<br />
great confusion between <strong>the</strong> -ai and -i perfects.<br />
a) Presumed VL forms.<br />
Conjugation II.<br />
5<br />
5
In this <strong>conjugation</strong> <strong>the</strong> regular type in CL is that of monere, monui,<br />
monitu, with <strong>the</strong> variations tenere, tenui, tentu and movere, movi (=<br />
*mowwi), motu (from *moweto-). O<strong>the</strong>r types include a handful of<br />
denominatives, like delere, delevi, deletu and implere, implevi, impletu;<br />
verbs with -si perfects like ardere, ridere, mulgere, manere; some with<br />
reduplicated perfects such as mordere, spondere, and some with leng<strong>the</strong>ned<br />
vowel in <strong>the</strong> perfect, such as videre, sedere. In VL it was mainly only <strong>the</strong><br />
verbs of <strong>the</strong> regular type that remained in this <strong>conjugation</strong>. Such verbs are:<br />
tenere, habere, calere, debere, movere, dolere, iacere, licere, nocere,<br />
parere, placere, mucere, tacere, docere (partly crossed with ducĕre), valere,<br />
solere, olere. They were also joined by certain o<strong>the</strong>r common verbs:<br />
*potere, *volere, which had -ui perfects; sapere, which developed <strong>the</strong><br />
forms sapui and sapitu in late Latin, and capere which followed <strong>the</strong><br />
analogy of sapere (capui is recorded in <strong>the</strong> 3rd c.). Finally cadere, which<br />
seems to have formed a -ui perfect from an earlier -edi in <strong>the</strong> same way as<br />
credere and was perhaps attracted semantically to sedere, iacere. Here<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is also ano<strong>the</strong>r factor involved; being an intransitive verb, cadere had<br />
no p.p. *casus, and <strong>the</strong> supine casum and future part. casurus had fallen out<br />
of use, so <strong>the</strong>re was no stem on which to form a -si perfect as o<strong>the</strong>r verbs in<br />
<strong>the</strong> 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong> did, and so alternative devices were resorted to.<br />
In general <strong>the</strong> verbs with -si and reduplicated perfects went over to <strong>the</strong><br />
-ĕre <strong>conjugation</strong>. Such verbs are: ardere (but note Fr. ardoir, appearing<br />
alongside and perhaps before ardre and difficult to account for), adaugere,<br />
mulgere (everywhere confused with mungĕre), ridere, tergere, torquere,<br />
mordere, pendere (a cognate pendĕre also existed), respondere, tondere<br />
(confused with tundĕre). CL sorbēre, -ui, -itu also gave way to late Latin<br />
sorbĕre, -psi, -ptu. In some cases, such as tergere, fervere, <strong>the</strong>re was<br />
already hesitation in CL, while 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong> forms are attested in late<br />
Latin for tondere, miscere, respondere, augere, ridere. The verbs with CL<br />
6<br />
6
-si perfects were naturally attracted to <strong>the</strong> more numerous -ĕre verbs of this<br />
class, while <strong>the</strong> reduplicating verbs formed new perfects in -si or -idi > -edi<br />
(morsi, tunsi and respondidi are attested) and joined <strong>the</strong>ir fellows in <strong>the</strong><br />
third <strong>conjugation</strong>. Miscere joined <strong>the</strong> -escere verbs. We can also assume<br />
that fervĕre carried <strong>the</strong> day on <strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> It. and Rum. forms (in Rum.<br />
it has joined <strong>the</strong> -si, -tu class). Of <strong>the</strong> -evi, -etu verbs probably only implere<br />
remained as a popular verb (where delere appears, mostly with -ire forms, it<br />
should probably be regarded as a learned borrowing), and <strong>the</strong>re is lack of<br />
unanimity in its treatment. (See below.)<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> remaining verbs, remanere, videre and sedere stayed in <strong>the</strong> 2nd<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>; it has been suggested that this is because <strong>the</strong>y were stative<br />
verbs, like most of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs. Timere tended to follow <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs of<br />
<strong>the</strong> 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong>, and I will treat it <strong>the</strong>re.<br />
There still remains one more group of words, which are represented<br />
by -ire forms in <strong>the</strong> Romance languages. To this group belong florere,<br />
languere and putrere and also abolere, abhorrere, which appear as learned<br />
borrowings in Romance, though <strong>the</strong> latter shows signs of being an older<br />
word which became <strong>latin</strong>ised in <strong>the</strong> west, cf. Rum. urî
situation when -ēre, -escere and -ire forms all had an independent existence.<br />
Thus lucere appears as lucére, rilúcere in It. and allúgere in Sard., but with<br />
-ire forms in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages; in Rum. luci has <strong>the</strong> infix, while Fr.<br />
luisir/luire has alternative -si, -tu forms following <strong>the</strong> analogy of cuire,<br />
duire. For implere, Rum., It. and <strong>the</strong> consensus of <strong>the</strong> Iberian forms point<br />
to -ēre (so OIt. compiére in <strong>the</strong> rhyme), while It. also has empire with infix<br />
and émpiere, and OFr. and Cat. have -ir forms without infix. Splendere<br />
appears in It. as learned (ri)splendere and in Sp., Ptg. as learned esplender<br />
but <strong>the</strong>se latter also have <strong>the</strong> forms resplandir (Ast.) and resplandecer,<br />
while OFr. and Prov. have resplandir with and without infix, with an<br />
alternative infinitive resplandre in Prov., and <strong>the</strong> perfect resplandiet and<br />
past participle resplandu in OFr. Merere provides an interesting case. OFr.<br />
and Prov. have merir without infix, and with <strong>the</strong> -ui perfect of merere in<br />
Prov. merc, while Cat. has mereixer with infix throughout like <strong>the</strong> Sp., Ptg.<br />
merecer, Sard. mereskere (but OCat. also had merir). This is reminiscent of<br />
OFr. paroistre, Prov. pareisser, Cat. pareixer alongside pareir, parer and<br />
Sp., Ptg. parecer, while It. has apparire with both infix and parere forms.<br />
In most of <strong>the</strong> Romance languages <strong>the</strong> -escere verbs did not survive as a<br />
separate type, but were merged with <strong>the</strong> corresponding -ire verbs; in Sp.,<br />
Ptg., however, merecer and parecer attracted o<strong>the</strong>r -ere verbs, producing<br />
Sp. acaecer (originally with simple perfect acayó), pertenecer, Ptg.<br />
esquecer, pertencer, OSp., OPtg. remanecer, remaecer etc. (These -ecer<br />
verbs are not to be confused with those which developed out of <strong>the</strong> OSp.,<br />
OPtg. -ir verbs with infix; I shall discuss <strong>the</strong>se when I come to <strong>the</strong> 4th<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>.) Putere is universally represented by verbs with -ire forms,<br />
but without infix in <strong>the</strong> older stages of <strong>the</strong> languages; here we are justified<br />
in supposing <strong>the</strong> creation of a Latin form *putire beside putescere<br />
(putiscere is also found) on <strong>the</strong> basis of o<strong>the</strong>r pairs in -ire, -escere, and we<br />
may also see a similar formation in *lucire beside lucere and *implire<br />
beside implere (note that Sard. has both pudire and pudeskere).<br />
8<br />
8
For <strong>the</strong> remaining verbs it is difficult to find a reason for <strong>the</strong> change in<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>. Gaudere has joined <strong>the</strong> -ire <strong>conjugation</strong> in western Romania,<br />
perhaps on <strong>the</strong> analogy of audire, but in It. it remains as godere, and it does<br />
not occur in Rum. Paenitere has -ire forms (as *pentire) in Fr., Prov., Cat.,<br />
Sp., OGal. and It. (but with OIt. (ri)pentére, south It. péntere), but OSp.<br />
(Berceo) has rependir and Ptg. has repender; <strong>the</strong> latter could be a later<br />
formation from -ir (cf. Ptg. sofrer, morrer and many o<strong>the</strong>r such forms in<br />
Gal.), but <strong>the</strong> old past participle repeso (in Sp. repiso), on <strong>the</strong> analogy of<br />
prender/preso seems to indicate that repender is an early form. Moreover<br />
Prov. has peneder and penedre (also empentir), and Cat. has penedir and<br />
old pinedre. It is possible that we are dealing with two forms, an early<br />
*pentere, which was attracted to sentire, mentire, and a later learned<br />
borrowing in which t was changed to d in West Romance (cf. OFr.<br />
penance), and that <strong>the</strong>se two forms interacted on each o<strong>the</strong>r. Monere also<br />
appears in both -ere and -ire forms; perhaps <strong>the</strong>re was confusion with<br />
munire, as seen in <strong>the</strong> use of municionis and monitionis as alternatives in<br />
<strong>the</strong> same late Latin document and in <strong>the</strong> mediaeval Latin confusion of<br />
praemonere and praemunire; cf. OFr. amonir as a variant of munir, and<br />
comunimentum next to comonir in an OCat. document.<br />
It will be seen from this that <strong>the</strong>re was no fundamental shift from -ere<br />
to -ire in VL times, but ra<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> subsequent history of <strong>the</strong> individual<br />
languages.<br />
The original past participle in -ĭtu corresponding to <strong>the</strong> perfect in -ui<br />
was preserved in Sard. and south It. dialects, but elsewhere it only<br />
remained in a fossilised form. In most areas it was replaced by -utu in <strong>the</strong><br />
VL period on <strong>the</strong> analogy of <strong>the</strong> verbs in -uere, which also had perfects in<br />
-ui. As this -utu had also replaced -ĭtu in verbs of <strong>the</strong> -edi class, probably<br />
on <strong>the</strong> analogy of battedi/battutu (see below), or else because -ĭtu and -utu<br />
were felt to be interchangeable, this led to <strong>the</strong> introduction of -edi perfects<br />
9<br />
9
into verbs of <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong> also in some of <strong>the</strong> Romance languages.<br />
b) Romance development.<br />
1. Infinitive type.<br />
All <strong>the</strong> Romance languages except Sp. and Ptg., where <strong>the</strong>re are only<br />
scant traces remaining of <strong>the</strong> -ĕre <strong>conjugation</strong>, have to a greater or lesser<br />
extent recorded a drift from <strong>the</strong> -ēre to <strong>the</strong> -ĕre <strong>conjugation</strong>. This has gone<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>st in modern Sard., where <strong>the</strong> -ēre <strong>conjugation</strong> no longer exists<br />
(though <strong>the</strong> indications are that <strong>the</strong> endings of OSard. forms such as avere<br />
must have been pronounced -ēre), and where -ere verbs such as tennere,<br />
offerrere (or was this earlier an -ire verb?) have attracted to <strong>the</strong>mselves<br />
bennere, aperrere, koperrere and morrere, from <strong>the</strong> -ire <strong>conjugation</strong>. The<br />
same absorption of -ēre and -ire has happened in south Italy (Sicilian<br />
vénniri, séntiri) and Corsica (góde, móre). (Bourciez, 417; cf. Fr. dialect -re<br />
for -ir, Fouché, 114.)<br />
In <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages one widespread change to -ĕre involves <strong>the</strong><br />
verbs in -cēre. Rum., It., Fr., Prov., Cat. all show double forms, so <strong>the</strong><br />
confusion may date from early times, and may have helped conversely to<br />
change <strong>the</strong> -cĕre verbs to -cér in Sp. and Ptg. Fr. has plaisir/plaire,<br />
nuisir/nuire etc., <strong>the</strong> latter forms dating from <strong>the</strong> 12th c.; It. has piacére,<br />
tacére, lucére but lécere, nuócere (old nocére), rilúcere; Rum. has<br />
plăcea/place, tăcea/tace; Prov. has plazer/plaire, nozer/noire; OCat. has<br />
plaher, jaher, soon replaced by plaure, jaure > jeure, and also lleure (with<br />
<strong>the</strong> noun lleer), noure. The impulse for this change came from <strong>the</strong> fact that<br />
in <strong>the</strong>ir futures <strong>the</strong>se verbs resembled <strong>the</strong> common verbs dicere, facere,<br />
ducere. In Fr., Prov., OCat. <strong>the</strong> etymological future forms, such as plaira,<br />
plaira, playra, are derived from *plager-at, just as dira comes from<br />
10<br />
10
*diger-at with voicing in <strong>the</strong> proparoxytone infinitive (cf. *vogitu for vocitu<br />
above). In Cat. <strong>the</strong> change of ce to u also meant that <strong>the</strong>re was a large<br />
degree of similarity between <strong>the</strong> -cere, -dere and -vere verbs, amongst<br />
which those in -ĕre preponderated.<br />
Ano<strong>the</strong>r, but less widespread, change involves <strong>the</strong> verbs in -vēre,<br />
which followed <strong>the</strong> example of *escrivere, vivere, *plovere. It. has muóvere<br />
after pióvere, Prov. has deure, moure beside dever, mover, while Cat. has<br />
only <strong>the</strong> forms deure, moure, and also haure > heure beside haver. Eastern<br />
dialects of OFr. have muevre after pluevre (Fouché, 43). In <strong>the</strong> -dēre verbs,<br />
Prov. has seire, veire, beside sezer, vezer, and in Cat. seure, veure early<br />
supplanted seher, veher. For cadere Cat. has only caure (apart from cader<br />
in <strong>the</strong> Provençalised Hom. d’Org.), but an early future cayra is recorded, as<br />
is also veyra from veher. These could be interpreted as coming from<br />
*cahera, *vehera, ra<strong>the</strong>r than *cad’ra, *ved’ra, as <strong>the</strong> normal development<br />
of -d’r- is -ur-, as seen in eura from hedera and in <strong>the</strong> futures of <strong>the</strong> -dĕre<br />
verbs, such as creurà, riurà, raurà, where no o<strong>the</strong>r forms are recorded.<br />
Prov. also has a future caira, in this case from *cad’ra. In both languages<br />
<strong>the</strong> new infinitives can be explained on <strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> identity of <strong>the</strong><br />
futures with those of <strong>the</strong> -dĕre verbs. Nor<strong>the</strong>rn dialects of OFr. also have<br />
forms veir, seir, cheir (disyllabic), and Prov. has vezir, sezir; in <strong>the</strong> case of<br />
Fr. <strong>the</strong>y can be explained as coming from <strong>the</strong> perfect cheit. The compound<br />
assidēre has been merged with assidĕre, producing OFr. assire, Prov. assire,<br />
OCat. asiure, It. assidere besides forms based on <strong>the</strong> simple verbs. (Is this<br />
also a possible origin for Sp. asir ?)<br />
The o<strong>the</strong>r changes belong purely to <strong>the</strong> history of <strong>the</strong> individual<br />
languages. Rumanian, where <strong>the</strong> change from -edi to -ui perfects in verbs of<br />
<strong>the</strong> vendere class broke down <strong>the</strong> essential distinction between <strong>the</strong> 2nd and<br />
3rd <strong>conjugation</strong>s, has <strong>the</strong> variants (besides plăcea/place etc.) Ńinea/Ńine,<br />
rămânea/rămâne, apărea/apare, umplea/umple, încăpea/încape. (It also has<br />
11<br />
11
a new form voi beside vrea, created on <strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> 1st person voi<br />
(*voleo).)<br />
Italian has capere, corresponding in form and meaning to <strong>the</strong> cognates<br />
in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages, and also capire with a change of meaning, formed<br />
on <strong>the</strong> analogy of rapire. For olere, only <strong>the</strong> dialect form olire is found (cf.<br />
OSic. piacire, dolire, avire and north It. infinitives in -ir, Bourciez, 417).<br />
The change to apparire has already been mentioned; dialectal apparere is<br />
also found.<br />
Rhaeto-Rom. follows <strong>the</strong> VL pattern. Compare Engad. savair,<br />
plaschair, taschair, (a)vair, pudair, vulair, vzair, rumagnair with<br />
respúonder, mórder, túonder, múndscher (Surs. múlscher) which come<br />
from VL -ĕre forms. Friulian fluctuates, with old plasê, vedê, as (a)vê, volê,<br />
podê, now plási, viódi as rispuíndi, mólzi.<br />
In Fr., apart from <strong>the</strong> words already mentioned, <strong>the</strong>re are some cases<br />
of transfer to <strong>the</strong> -re infinitive, seemingly based on <strong>the</strong> future forms: so we<br />
have ardoir/ardre (see above), remanoir/remaindre, semonoir/semondre,<br />
douloir/doudre. Tenere gives tenir by analogy with venir (rarely tenoir);<br />
<strong>the</strong>se two verbs interacted on each o<strong>the</strong>r in most languages. Apart from this<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is one phonological change; <strong>the</strong> verbs in -cēre give -sir because of <strong>the</strong><br />
Fr. change of -iei- to -i-, thus OFr. plaisir, taisir, gesir, leisir, moisir, nuisir<br />
(we may also see luisir as coming from lucere ra<strong>the</strong>r than *lucire, though<br />
this is less likely).<br />
In Prov. we can find comparable parallel forms remaner/remandre,<br />
somoner/somondre. Tenere gives both tener and tenir. Many o<strong>the</strong>r verbs<br />
have also developed -ir infinitives; <strong>the</strong>re are <strong>the</strong> vezir, sezir, gauzir, merir,<br />
emplir and penedir mentioned above, and besides <strong>the</strong>se somonir, remanir,<br />
jazir, taizir, cabir, indicating a general tendency to divide this <strong>conjugation</strong><br />
between <strong>the</strong> -re and -ir <strong>conjugation</strong>s. Never<strong>the</strong>less <strong>the</strong> -er type still remains<br />
in <strong>the</strong> modern patois: avé, poudé, voulé, valé.<br />
In Cat., as we have seen, <strong>the</strong> verbs in -cere, -vere, -dere have all<br />
12<br />
12
moved over to <strong>the</strong> -re type. Tenere gives tenir/tener/ten(d)re, merere old<br />
merir beside mereixer; remanere gives romandre/romanir with no trace of<br />
*romaner. Implere gives omplir. There are now just ten infinitives in -er<br />
surviving: haver, poder, voler, saber, caber, caler, doler, valer, soler, parer<br />
(a-, com-), and <strong>the</strong>se verbs also have -re forms such as heure, cabre, caldre,<br />
doldre, valdre, as well as new -er forms created on <strong>the</strong> perfect stem, such as<br />
poguer, tinguer, volguer.<br />
In all <strong>the</strong> areas above mentioned it can be seen that <strong>the</strong> -ēre<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong> was a very weak type which tended to lose ground to <strong>the</strong><br />
stronger -ĕre or -ire types. In Sp. and Ptg. (and also Macedo-Rum.),<br />
however, it gained ground at <strong>the</strong> expense of <strong>the</strong> -ĕre verbs. I will leave a<br />
discussion of this till we come to <strong>the</strong> 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong>. Of <strong>the</strong> verbs that<br />
remained in <strong>the</strong> -ēre class in VL, that is, excluding forms like ridĕre,<br />
respondĕre etc., which I take to be <strong>the</strong> ancestors of <strong>the</strong> Sp. and Ptg. forms<br />
equally with those of <strong>the</strong> rest of <strong>the</strong> Romance languages (cf. responduntur<br />
in <strong>the</strong> Pereg. Silv.), nearly all show no change in Sp. and Ptg., but <strong>the</strong>re are<br />
some few changes. Monere has given muñir in Sp., monir and premunir in<br />
Ptg., as discussed above. Tenere gives Sp. tener, Ptg. ter but also Arag., Gal.<br />
tenir. Implere gives Sp. henchir, but Arag. empler (as against inplire in <strong>the</strong><br />
Glos. Em.), Ast., Gal., Ptg. encher. Remanere gives OSp. romaner/romanir<br />
and OPtg. remãer. Gaudere gives Gal. gouir, Ptg. gouvir/gouver. Nocere<br />
gives OSp. nozir, Gal. nocer/nocir, OPtg. nozer/nozir. For cadere modern<br />
Ptg. has cair, but OPtg. has caer, conjugated fully as an -er verb, as does<br />
Spanish. Here again, I will postpone a discussion of <strong>the</strong> distribution among<br />
<strong>the</strong> -er and -ir types in Sp. and Ptg. till we come to <strong>the</strong> 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong>. In<br />
all <strong>the</strong>se cases we can assume a VL and early Iberian -ēre which was<br />
changed in <strong>the</strong> later history of <strong>the</strong> languages.<br />
2. Perfect types.<br />
13<br />
13
The -ui type has survived everywhere (in Rhaeto-Rom. only in forms<br />
from -etui and in fui (Lausberg, 896, 905 etc.), but cf. also <strong>the</strong> imperfect<br />
subj. forms avess, savess, vuless etc., which, like dess and stess, may in this<br />
case have originally been formed from <strong>the</strong> perfect stem, with loss of -u-,<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> present stem, though <strong>the</strong> subjunctives of <strong>the</strong> -si perfects were<br />
clearly re-formed on <strong>the</strong> present stem, cf. old perfect dis and subjunctive<br />
dschess), but has undergone many changes, which are best considered<br />
language by language, though one common tendency is observable, namely<br />
to absorb or assimilate <strong>the</strong> -u- to <strong>the</strong> preceding consonant. In Rum. this has<br />
taken place in <strong>the</strong> case of stetei, detei, mentioned above, but as far as <strong>the</strong><br />
2nd <strong>conjugation</strong> is concerned a new type has been created with <strong>the</strong> accent<br />
on <strong>the</strong> u. The origin is perhaps to be found in forms like habúimus, VL<br />
habúerunt, but this presupposes a different treatment from <strong>the</strong> rest of<br />
Romania: <strong>the</strong> analogy of fui, *fusti, *fut etc. and *-ammus, -arunt, *-immus,<br />
-irunt from -avimus, -averunt, -ivimus, -iverunt would also help, not to<br />
speak of <strong>the</strong> accented -u- of <strong>the</strong> past participle. All <strong>the</strong> verbs in this<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong> have -ui perfects, except rămânea, which has rămăsei (old<br />
rămaşi(u)). This includes văzui from vedea, for which a VL *vidui can be<br />
assumed, as it is required as a basis for forms in o<strong>the</strong>r languages too. Vedea,<br />
cădea and şedea have z in <strong>the</strong>ir perfects, ei<strong>the</strong>r from <strong>the</strong> forms with a yod in<br />
<strong>the</strong> present paradigm or as reminiscences of an earlier vidi, *cadiedi, sedi,<br />
though this last is unattested in Romance. (D before i gives z in Rum.)<br />
In OSard. this type is well in evidence, as seen in appi, potti, tenni,<br />
modern deppesi, with assimilation of <strong>the</strong> u, and also in bolvit/voluerun,<br />
paruit, piaqui, jagui and o<strong>the</strong>r forms to be inferred from <strong>the</strong> p.ps.; -si forms<br />
were also sometimes created, as bolsi, parsit, tensit. From remanere we<br />
have remasit, and from videre vidit. In <strong>the</strong> modern dialects, <strong>the</strong> perfects,<br />
where <strong>the</strong>y are found, are formed in -esi (-isi) or -ei (Wagner, p. 337). (It is<br />
not certain whe<strong>the</strong>r this -ei comes from -ai or from -edi.)<br />
In Rhaeto-Rom. also <strong>the</strong> syn<strong>the</strong>tic perfect is little used (only in <strong>the</strong><br />
14<br />
14
Engadine), and ends in -et from -etui, thus Upper Engad. vzet, taschet. As<br />
mentioned above, <strong>the</strong> original -ui, with loss of u before <strong>the</strong> accent, would<br />
seem to survive in <strong>the</strong> imperfect subjunctive, though, to all intents and<br />
purposes, this has been formed on <strong>the</strong> present stem. Traces of old strong<br />
forms are also found, reformed with -s-, so pous (*potere), vous (*volere),<br />
stous (*estopere, from est opus). There is also an ob (habere) found in Old<br />
Friulian.<br />
In It. <strong>the</strong> -ui perfect survives only on a greatly reduced scale. Existing<br />
forms are: tenni, ebbi (analogy of debui ? — dial. abbi, appi), dolvi and<br />
dolsi, giacqui, nocqui, parvi and parsi (analogy of corsi), piacqui, tacqui,<br />
caddi, seppi (analogy of ebbi, *recepui ? — dial. sappi), volli and volsi<br />
(dialects), with old potti, dibbi/debbe, sedde, possette, valli, valve, and<br />
OAbruz. cappissero, continuing capui. In <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r cases <strong>the</strong> -si or -edi<br />
perfects have taken over: mossi (muovere, analogy of scrissi, vissi), calse,<br />
valsi (analogy of sciolsi, colsi etc.), sedei, dovei, godei, potei.<br />
Empiere/empire only has empii, but compiè from compiere is found in<br />
Dante. The change to -si perfects might also have been assisted by <strong>the</strong><br />
resemblance between <strong>the</strong> respective -(ĭ)tu and -tu participles, if <strong>the</strong> roots of<br />
<strong>the</strong> change stretch back that far; <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms movesti, paresti,<br />
dolesti etc., it should be noted, go back to <strong>the</strong> original -uisti forms.<br />
Likewise <strong>the</strong> change to -ei (an analogical form which replaced etymological<br />
-iedi) comes from <strong>the</strong> identity of <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms of <strong>the</strong> -ui and<br />
-edi types; in <strong>the</strong> -ui verbs <strong>the</strong> u was lost before an accented ending and <strong>the</strong><br />
consonant was not doubled, giving cadesti, avesti, tacesti, paresti, movesti,<br />
dolesti, valesti, dovesti, potesti etc. These last forms dovesti, potesti and <strong>the</strong><br />
like provided <strong>the</strong> basis for new forms dovei, potei etc., replacing OIt. dibbi,<br />
potti. Likewise, after <strong>the</strong>se ending-accented forms, taken as being formed<br />
from <strong>the</strong> present stem, had led to similar new formations in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r strong<br />
perfects, <strong>the</strong> correspondence between movesti, paresti, valesti and vivesti,<br />
corresti, togliesti would fur<strong>the</strong>r help to encourage <strong>the</strong> spread of <strong>the</strong> -si<br />
15<br />
15
perfect. One more type which has shown a great extension in It. is <strong>the</strong> -etti<br />
type. Not only does this provide an alternative to -ei forms, but it is found<br />
replacing o<strong>the</strong>r types, thus vedetti, tacetti. Compare <strong>the</strong> similar extension in<br />
Rhaeto-Rom.<br />
On <strong>the</strong> question of <strong>the</strong> perfect it is also worth noting that south It. still<br />
preserves <strong>the</strong> old accent in <strong>the</strong> 1st person plural, as ébbimo, matching<br />
OSard. appimus. (So also díssimo, cf. ORum. zisemu, Bourciez, 210, 423,<br />
479.)<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> remaining verbs in It., those that changed to -ire have perfects<br />
formed accordingly. Rimanere has rimasi. Sedere shows no signs of -si<br />
forms as found in Fr. and Prov.; however, assidere has assisi, and <strong>the</strong> noun<br />
sesso is found, as are similar forms elsewhere. As <strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> rare form<br />
sedde and <strong>the</strong> weak sedei I presume VL *sēdui, which accords with <strong>the</strong><br />
forms found in Rum., Prov., Cat., Sp., Ptg., showing <strong>the</strong> commmonly found<br />
addition of -u- to a perfect with leng<strong>the</strong>ned vowel (note <strong>the</strong> Catalan Latin<br />
form residui). For videre, It. vidi would seem to go back directly to Latin<br />
vidi; however, Fouché (155), in order to explain <strong>the</strong> past participles It.<br />
veduto, Fr. vu < vëu (cf. also Rum. văzut. Prov. vezut etc.), supposes a form<br />
*vidui, which <strong>the</strong>n changed back to vidi, and quotes a popular It. vidde<br />
(154); <strong>the</strong> Rum. form, as has been seen, also presupposes *vidui. On <strong>the</strong><br />
o<strong>the</strong>r hand <strong>the</strong>re is no trace of this in Prov., Cat., Sp., Ptg.; <strong>the</strong> vic found in<br />
Prov. is not significant as this -c is also added to -ire perfects. Similarly <strong>the</strong><br />
final vowel in Sp. vio, Ptg. viu (as also that in Sp. hubo etc. where Ptg. has<br />
-e) can be better explained on <strong>the</strong> analogy of partió, partiu.<br />
In Fr. many of <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects underwent drastic sound changes, which<br />
Fouché (155) attributes to anticipation of <strong>the</strong> -u-, to account for <strong>the</strong> loss of<br />
<strong>the</strong> final consonant of <strong>the</strong> stem (I am not sure that he is right here; it seems<br />
to me <strong>the</strong> same result would be obtained if one supposes <strong>the</strong> consonant,<br />
having become a voiced fricative, was assimilated to <strong>the</strong> following -u-).<br />
16<br />
16
The results in OFr., as concerns <strong>the</strong> verbs in this category, are mui (moveir),<br />
oi (aveir), dui (deveir), estut (estoveir), jui (gesir), lut (leisir), nui (nuisir;<br />
also nuis on <strong>the</strong> analogy of cuis, duis, from cuire, duire, cf. luis for luisis),<br />
ploi (plaisir), toi (taisir), soi (saveir), poi (poeir). Fouché also gives a very<br />
credible explanation of <strong>the</strong> treatment of <strong>the</strong> root vowels in <strong>the</strong>ir evolution<br />
from Latin (my assumption would give <strong>the</strong> same result). Cadere has a<br />
different history. French, besides having forms derived from *cadedi, as do<br />
Prov., Sp., Ptg., shares with Prov. and Cat. what are apparently hybrid<br />
forms from *cadedui: OFr. dechëurent (Pope, 1022; I am following<br />
Bourciez in <strong>the</strong> placing of <strong>the</strong> diaeresis), Prov. cazec, OCat. caic earlier<br />
cadec, caec. The same formation is also shown in <strong>the</strong> past participles OFr.<br />
chëu, Prov. cazegut, Cat. caigut. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, <strong>the</strong> same correspondence<br />
appears in <strong>the</strong> verbs parere, currere: OFr. parui, parëu, corui, corëu, Prov.,<br />
Cat. parec, paregut, correc, corregut (does <strong>the</strong> same phenomenon underlie<br />
<strong>the</strong> difference in It. between parvi, corvi, dolvi, valve and volli, valli ?). It<br />
seems to me that here we have <strong>the</strong> starting point for <strong>the</strong> Fr. “weak -ui”<br />
perfects, as found in chalut, dolui, olui, valui, solui, East Fr. somonui, MFr.<br />
voulus. The phonological process of change to produce parui, corrui etc. is<br />
obscure, but <strong>the</strong> fact that Latin words in this class accented as válui did not<br />
just switch <strong>the</strong>ir accent and suddenly become pronounced as *valúi in <strong>the</strong><br />
Latin of Gaul is shown by <strong>the</strong> survival in OFr., especially in <strong>the</strong> dialects, of<br />
forms accented as válui. Firstly, <strong>the</strong>re is voil from volui; besides this, solt<br />
and dout from soluit and doluit are found (Fouché, 162), and forms like<br />
valist could come direct from a -ui perfect or from a weak perfect reformed<br />
to avoid ambiguity with <strong>the</strong> present. Then <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>ast dialects have<br />
forms tinve (tenui) and vowist (voluisset), which suggests that here volui<br />
became *volve, showing that it was possible for a strong -ui perfect to<br />
develop even in stems ending in liquids and nasals, though it seems likely<br />
that, because of <strong>the</strong> difficulty of pronouncing válui in two syllables, a<br />
glide-vowel developed, which affected all <strong>the</strong> l and r stems in French. That<br />
17<br />
17
this tendency may also have once had wider currency outside French is<br />
suggested by <strong>the</strong> existence of OCat. calec, valec, tenec alongside calc, valc,<br />
tenc.<br />
As in It., -si perfects were also developed by some of <strong>the</strong>se verbs:<br />
chalsist, valsisse, volsisse (-s- found especially in <strong>the</strong> ending-accented<br />
forms), somons. The first three Fouché (144) suggests go back to VL,<br />
formed on <strong>the</strong> basis of past participles in -(i)tu; this explanation, as we have<br />
seen, could apply equally to <strong>the</strong> It. forms. Somons is formed on <strong>the</strong> analogy<br />
of words like remes (remaneir), which keeps its inherited -si perfect. Fr.<br />
and Prov. are remarkable for creating a -si perfect for sedere: Fr. sis beside<br />
a rare sut, Prov. sis beside sec, perhaps derived from <strong>the</strong> compound assis,<br />
which may go back to a VL *assisi, as risi, *occisi. Tenir has followed<br />
venir and created tin from *teni; <strong>the</strong> form tinve quoted above, however,<br />
shows that tenui also survived in France. Fouché (155) opines that vin came<br />
from an earlier *vēnui which lost its -u-, and this change induced <strong>the</strong><br />
change from tenui to tin; similarly, that vi, as It. vidi, mentioned above,<br />
came from *vidui > vidi.<br />
Jouir, emplir, merir have perfects in accordance with <strong>the</strong>ir infinitives.<br />
If Latin implevi survived, it would have become *implivi in West Romance;<br />
or it may have been merged with <strong>the</strong> -edi perfects. In ei<strong>the</strong>r case <strong>the</strong> result<br />
would be empli in Fr.<br />
In standard OFr. <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms of <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects have <strong>the</strong><br />
accented vowel u: ëus, dëus, pöus etc., which have come from -uisti forms<br />
with rounding of i to u [y]. In <strong>the</strong> north-east <strong>the</strong>re was no rounding and <strong>the</strong><br />
forms are awis, dewis, powis. In <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> last word, forms like podis,<br />
pois are also found, suggesting that <strong>the</strong>re was also in France, as in Italy and<br />
elsewhere, a tendency to drop <strong>the</strong> -u- before <strong>the</strong> accented ending (volis from<br />
voluisti could equally point to this).<br />
In Prov., and in Cat., <strong>the</strong> *-wwi forms which developed in <strong>the</strong> -ui<br />
18<br />
18
perfects changed to *-gui, giving -c in final position. Thus we have Prov.<br />
aic/ac (aver), calc (caler), dec (dever), dolc (doler), jac (jazer), lec/lic<br />
(lezer), merc (merir), moc (mover), noc (nozer), olc (oler), plac (plazer),<br />
poc (poder), sec (sezer), valc (valer), volc (voler), tinc/tenc (tener/tenir).<br />
Cazec and parec have been mentioned above. It will be seen that <strong>the</strong> forms<br />
*dic etc. (by metaphony) expected in <strong>the</strong> 1st person have been levelled to<br />
<strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r persons. Dec, lec, sec (*sēdui), cazec, parec have<br />
close e, whereas <strong>the</strong> o’s of moc, noc, poc are open; this is in accordance<br />
with <strong>the</strong>ir etymology. Tazer has tais (*taxi), but probably tac also existed.<br />
Soler is defective. The remaining -ui perfects are from verbs in -pere, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>se produced forms without -g-: saup (saber), caup (caber). Remaner has<br />
remas, and following it somoner has somos (no -ui forms found). O<strong>the</strong>r -si<br />
perfects are sis, assis, as mentioned above. Vezer has vi. The -ui perfects<br />
later produced weak forms agui, degui, pogui, tengui, volgui, saubi etc.<br />
The situation in Cat. is very similar: OCat. hac (haver), calc (caler),<br />
dec (deure), dolc (doler), jac (jaure/jeure), llec (lleure), moc (moure), noc<br />
(noure), olc (oler), plac (plaure), poc (poder), sec (seure), solc (soler), valc<br />
(valer), volc (voler), tinc (tener/tenir). Caic, parec have already been<br />
mentioned. The -pere verbs give sap (saber), cap (caber). Of <strong>the</strong> remaining<br />
verbs, romandre has romas, and veure viu or veí > vi (*videdi, cf.<br />
videderunt in <strong>the</strong> Itala, Grandgent, 426). As in Prov., weak forms later<br />
appeared, giving haguí, deguí, poguí, tinguí, volguí, sabí/sapiguí etc.<br />
Romas also gave way to romanguí, and vi to vegí or veguí.<br />
In Sp. and Ptg. <strong>the</strong> number of -ui perfects is greatly reduced, but some<br />
are still found. In OSp. <strong>the</strong>re are tove/tuve (tener; also dial. tive/teve), sove<br />
(seer; dial. sive/seve), ove (haber), yogue (yacer), plogue (placer), cope<br />
(caber), sope (saber), pude (poder); of <strong>the</strong>se, tuve, hube, cupe, supe, pude<br />
still remain. Of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r verbs, mover, deber, caler, doler, oler, soler,<br />
valer, nozir, following <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms, created new -edi<br />
19<br />
19
perfects, which eventually coalesced with those of <strong>the</strong> -ivi type. In <strong>the</strong> case<br />
of caer, its -edi perfect is probably inherited from VL. Henchir is<br />
conjugated as an -ire verb. Of <strong>the</strong> remainder, remanere produces OSp.<br />
remase, and videre vi. Parecer, which replaced *parer, had a perfect form<br />
paresco in OSp., coming from *parescuit as nasco from *nascuit, and <strong>the</strong>re<br />
is a similar remasco from remanere.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms, though Castilian had oviste<br />
as ove, <strong>the</strong>re is reason to believe that forms like abierat, sapieret, naisceset<br />
in <strong>the</strong> Glos. Sil. may reflect an earlier, or equally early, state of things,<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than being reformations. That is, Spanish also may have lost <strong>the</strong> -u-<br />
before <strong>the</strong> accent, at any rate in some areas. This would fur<strong>the</strong>r facilitate<br />
<strong>the</strong> change to a weak <strong>conjugation</strong>, as in It. (see Fouché, 156). However,<br />
Castilian, at least, seems to have anticipated <strong>the</strong> -u-, as Fouché says Fr. did,<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than meta<strong>the</strong>sised it; compare tove with Ptg. tive. Also, if sope, sopo<br />
came from *saupui, *saupuit, with early anticipation of <strong>the</strong> -u-, this would<br />
offer one explanation for <strong>the</strong> p and <strong>the</strong> final o (note that Latin -aup-<br />
behaves as -alp-, with <strong>the</strong> surd preserved in <strong>the</strong> consonant group), as<br />
compared with Ptg. soube (*saupi, *saupit, perhaps with later meta<strong>the</strong>sis).<br />
Therefore <strong>the</strong> o of Cast. oviste may be inherited ra<strong>the</strong>r than formed on <strong>the</strong><br />
analogy of ove.<br />
In Ptg. <strong>the</strong> position is much <strong>the</strong> same as in Sp., but <strong>the</strong>re are a few<br />
more relics of an earlier state of affairs. In <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects, parallel to Sp.,<br />
you have tive (ter), sive (seer), houve (haver), jougue, later jouve (jazer),<br />
prougue, later prouve (prazer), coube (caber), soube (saber), pude (poder);<br />
as in <strong>the</strong> Sp. dialects, tive, sive show metaphony (inherited in <strong>the</strong> case of<br />
sive from *sēdui, analogical in tive) and have not anticipated <strong>the</strong> -u-; coube,<br />
soube have -b- from a single p, where <strong>the</strong> Sp. forms reflect ei<strong>the</strong>r a double<br />
p, perhaps from <strong>the</strong> present subjunctive, or else a consonant cluster, as<br />
indicated above. Besides <strong>the</strong>se forms, Ptg. preserves o<strong>the</strong>r traces in old<br />
dolverom, valvera, valvesse, valver from doer, valer. Apart from this, <strong>the</strong><br />
20<br />
20
changes are as in Sp.: mover, dever, caer (calere), doer, soer, valer,<br />
lezer/lazer, nozer/nozir changed to -edi perfects (does old diverão show<br />
signs of having followed <strong>the</strong> pattern of tive ?), and OPtg. caer (cadere)<br />
similarly had cai with 3rd person caeu. Encher, gouvir follow <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
infinitive types, -edi and -ivi. Remanere gives OPtg. remas, and videre vi.<br />
3. Past Participle types.<br />
The original participle in -ĭtu is, as we have seen, only preserved as<br />
such in Sard. and south It. dialects. Thus Sard. has tentu/tennidu, appidu,<br />
pottidu, deppidu, settidu, partu/parfidu, balfidu, boffiu, dolfidu, romasitu<br />
(those in -idu all formed on <strong>the</strong> perfect stem), moviu, and even<br />
bidu/bittu/bidiu (videre) and also fossilised placitu, malaidu; alluttu seems<br />
to have come from a strong *alluctu. South It. has such forms as muóppitu,<br />
sáppitu (Lausberg, 914), <strong>ON</strong>eap. mòsseto, Neap. appárzeto (Fouché, 177),<br />
likewise from <strong>the</strong> perfect stem, though <strong>the</strong> -ui perfect *muoppi is not<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rwise attested.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages <strong>the</strong> participle is derived from -utu, which<br />
supplanted -ĭtu in VL times, and whose origin we have already traced.<br />
However, traces of -ĭtu have remained fossilized in nouns or adjectives (or<br />
adjectival participles) or o<strong>the</strong>r derivative forms, especially those in -itor,<br />
-itoriu. In this last case one can compare CL future participles in -iturus<br />
formed on <strong>the</strong> present stem, such as bibiturus, nasciturus, moriturus,<br />
caniturus, ruiturus.<br />
In Rum. <strong>the</strong>re are no remains of <strong>the</strong> simple -ĭtu past participle in this<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>, but <strong>the</strong> adjectival participles in -ător must go back originally<br />
to -itoriu, which appears generally in Romance, added to <strong>the</strong> present stem,<br />
and <strong>the</strong> form of <strong>the</strong> preceding consonant, as in tăcător, văzător, căzător,<br />
must be a later development as in <strong>the</strong> gerunds tăcând, văzând, căzând,<br />
21<br />
21
where -ând is <strong>the</strong> normal development of Latin -endo (cf. also <strong>the</strong><br />
subjunctives tacă, vază, cază). O<strong>the</strong>r such forms are încăpător, and dator<br />
from debitoriu, where <strong>the</strong> simple verb debere has disappeared.<br />
In Italian, remaining forms are malato/malattia, debito (re-formed, cf.<br />
OIt. devito, detta), piato, movitoso (and OIt. motta, also muta, this perhaps<br />
from Fr.), merto, plus <strong>the</strong> forms in -itore, -itoio, such as debitore, tenitore,<br />
caditoio, giacitoio. It also has learned forms such as solito, tacito, lecito,<br />
monito. (Piato is from *plagitu, cf. vuoto, frale for <strong>the</strong> loss of g.) North It.<br />
dialects have dolto, volto (Fouché, 177); <strong>the</strong> south ones have many -eto/-itu<br />
forms such as those we have already looked at. O<strong>the</strong>r survivals are dotto<br />
(doctu), voto. For Rhaeto-Rom. I have found a Surs. noun deivet.<br />
In Fr. <strong>the</strong>re are a certain number of forms remaining, such as dette,<br />
meute (if this is an etymological form, it is evidence for <strong>the</strong> antiquity of <strong>the</strong><br />
diphthongisation of ŏ, preceding <strong>the</strong> loss of post-tonic ĭ, which in turn<br />
precedes voicing of medial t), malade, plaid, gîte, voeu. The past participles<br />
nuit, luit (beside OFr. nöu/nëu, luisi) could conceivably go back to nocitu,<br />
*luctu, but are probably ra<strong>the</strong>r new formations on <strong>the</strong> analogy of cuit, duit.<br />
OFr. has ano<strong>the</strong>r duit (doctu) with matching infinitive and perfect duire,<br />
duist, following <strong>the</strong> forms from ducere, with which docere seems to have<br />
crossed paths. Agent nouns like teneur go back originally to -itore (which<br />
was extended in VL to all verbs in <strong>the</strong> 2nd and 3rd <strong>conjugation</strong>s), but<br />
during <strong>the</strong> early development of Fr., in order to keep this as a distinct living<br />
suffix, <strong>the</strong> vowel i was preserved as a neutral vowel; thus <strong>the</strong> ending fell in<br />
with -atore, giving -eur for all <strong>conjugation</strong>s in modern Fr. (hence also <strong>the</strong><br />
spelling bibator in <strong>the</strong> Gl. Reich.).<br />
In Prov. <strong>the</strong>re are similar forms deute, mouta, malaute, plait/plach, vot<br />
and lesda (licita). As Fr. duit, dozer (docere) has dueit/duech/dog. Agent<br />
nouns like tenedor have preserved <strong>the</strong> e of <strong>the</strong> termination for <strong>the</strong> same<br />
reason as in Fr.<br />
The equivalent words in Cat. are deute, mota, malaute, plet, boda and<br />
22<br />
22
lesda, now lleuda, with -edor nouns like movedor and <strong>the</strong> adjective movedis.<br />
Sp. has deuda, muebda, pleito (borrowed?)/plazo, malato (borrowed?),<br />
boda, lezda, ducho/old duecho (doctu), coto (cautu), foto (fautu) and<br />
deudor, tenedor, movedor etc.; Ptg. dívida, pleito/preito/prazo, old malato,<br />
boda, old doito (doctu), couto, afouto, queda (*cadita), old seeda (*sedita),<br />
jázeda (iacita), lezdo (OGal.), devedor, movedor, old teedor etc.<br />
Where -ĭtu was replaced by -utu <strong>the</strong> latter has held its ground<br />
everywhere except in Sp., Ptg., where it was later replaced by -īdo, because<br />
of <strong>the</strong> similarity between <strong>the</strong> -er and -ir paradigms, and because <strong>the</strong>re was<br />
no recognisable -ui perfect type. Rum. consistently has -ut, as in Ńinut, putut,<br />
plăcut, zăcut, tăcut, căzut, văzut, şezut, avut, părut, durut, vrut, umplut,<br />
încăput. Lower Engad. has forms like savü, plaschü, taschü, pudü, tgnü,<br />
and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Rhaeto-Romance dialects have similar forms; Friulian has<br />
plasut, vidut > viodut. It. has tenuto, potuto, piaciuto, taciuto, giaciuto,<br />
nociuto, caduto, veduto, seduto, avuto, old paruto beside parso (as perfect<br />
parsi), doluto, valuto (and valso), voluto, empiuto, saputo, dovuto; Fr. tenu,<br />
pu, plu, tu, old gëu, lëu, nöu/nëu, chëu, doulu, soulu, <strong>the</strong>n vu, eu, valu,<br />
voulu, su, dû, mû; Prov., with introduction of -g- from <strong>the</strong> perfect, tengut,<br />
pogut, plagut, (tazer makes taizit from inf. taizir, but probably also used<br />
tagut), jagut, legut, nogut, cazut/cazegut, vezut/veut/vegut, segut, mergut (as<br />
perfect merc), agut, earlier avut, dolgut, valgut, volgut, saubut/sauput (as<br />
perfect), modern caupu (ditto), degut, mogut. Fr. and Prov. also have chaeit,<br />
cazech, with <strong>the</strong> -ectu ending of collectu (see below). Cat. similarly has<br />
tengut/tingut, pogut, plagut, jagut, segut, old llegut, nogut, caut/caigut,<br />
haut/hagut, dolgut, solgut, valgut, volgut, sabut, cabut, degut, mogut. On<br />
<strong>the</strong> correspondence between OFr. chëu, parëu, Prov., Cat. cazegut, caigut,<br />
paregut etc. see above under <strong>the</strong> perfect. Sp. has avudo, tenudo, sabudo,<br />
cabudo, movudo, doludo, cayudo (Gl. Sil. kadutu) etc., Ptg. avudo, teudo,<br />
sabudo, cabudo, devudo, movudo, veudo, caudo (*cadutu) etc. Williams<br />
23<br />
23
states (From Latin to Portuguese) that all -er verbs in Ptg. had <strong>the</strong> past<br />
participle in -udo, apart from those with strong past participles; <strong>the</strong> -udo<br />
ending lasted into <strong>the</strong> 15th c., and some fossilized forms, teudo, conteudo,<br />
manteudo, still remain. In Sp. it was not so long lasting, <strong>the</strong> Cid already<br />
having -ido forms beside -udo, but -udo is still found through <strong>the</strong> 13th and<br />
14th c.; after that its use waned, and it had completely disappeared by <strong>the</strong><br />
16th c. (Bourciez, 365). (The -uto formation seems not to have penetrated<br />
into Mozarabic, which has ronpito, miššita.)<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> strong past participles, rema(n)su remained everywhere: Rum.<br />
rămas, It. rimaso (later rimasto by analogy with posto), OEngad. armes, Fr.<br />
remes, Prov. remas (and remasut), Cat. romas, Sp., Ptg. not recorded but to<br />
be presumed from <strong>the</strong> perfects remase, remas. Fr. somons, Prov.<br />
somos/somost are formed on <strong>the</strong> analogy of <strong>the</strong> similar forms from<br />
respondre, which in turn followed repondre. A similar semosi is found in<br />
Old Genoese.<br />
Sedere generally has <strong>the</strong> past participle in -utu, including Prov., Cat.<br />
(as)segut, OSp. seudo and a rare form su and dial. assëu in OFr. (Fouché,<br />
190), but <strong>the</strong> usual participle in OFr. is sis, which may, like <strong>the</strong> perfect, be<br />
derived from a compound form *assisu (as risu, occisu), which gives It.<br />
assiso, Fr., Prov. assis. Videre, besides <strong>the</strong> -utu participle, found in Rum.,<br />
It., Rh.-Rom., Fr., Prov., Ptg., had a form *visĭtu (originally formed on<br />
visere, perhaps), giving It., Sp., Ptg. visto, Prov., Cat. vist, Sard. vistu, and<br />
<strong>the</strong> Fr. adverb vite from OFr. viste (*visĭta). Old visu survives in OIt. and It.<br />
dialects, OFriul., OFr., Prov. and Engad. (Lausberg, 917), generally in a<br />
passive construction meaning ‘it seems’. It is also found universally as a<br />
noun, sometimes with <strong>the</strong> sense of ‘face’, cf. Fr. vis-à-vis. Compare also <strong>the</strong><br />
fossilised forms It. avviso, Sp., Ptg. aviso, Fr., Prov., Cat. avis.<br />
Conjugation III.<br />
24<br />
24
This was <strong>the</strong> most heterogeneous one in CL, containing verbs with<br />
perfects in -si, -vi, -ivi, -ui, reduplication, leng<strong>the</strong>ned vowel, or simple<br />
addition of <strong>the</strong> personal endings to <strong>the</strong> present stem, and past participles in<br />
-tu, -su, -ītu, -ĭtu, -utu. The present stems of some verbs had an n infix<br />
added to <strong>the</strong> root, o<strong>the</strong>rs were augmented with -sc- or reduplication; <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>conjugation</strong> also included verbs with stems ending in -u-, and <strong>the</strong> “capio<br />
verbs” which resembled those of <strong>the</strong> 4th <strong>conjugation</strong> in some of <strong>the</strong>ir forms.<br />
In VL most of <strong>the</strong> anomalous forms disappeared, and new groupings<br />
were made, largely according to <strong>the</strong> final consonant of <strong>the</strong> present stem,<br />
which determined <strong>the</strong> new perfect and past participle types. The most<br />
convenient way of discussing this <strong>conjugation</strong>, accordingly, is to take each<br />
of <strong>the</strong>se new types in turn, including among <strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong> new acquisitions from<br />
<strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>.<br />
The new types thus formed are firstly velar and labial stems with<br />
perfects in -si and past participles in -tu, or, in <strong>the</strong> case of some velars, -su.<br />
Then dental stems with ei<strong>the</strong>r -si, -su, or -edi, -ĭtu/-utu, <strong>the</strong> latter originating<br />
with <strong>the</strong> compounds of dare, where <strong>the</strong> e of dedi replaced <strong>the</strong> i of -didi and<br />
received <strong>the</strong> accent. (The forms in <strong>the</strong> modern languages require an original<br />
open e. Authorities have not been in agreement that <strong>the</strong> -(d)edi forms<br />
underlie <strong>the</strong> weak <strong>conjugation</strong>s of <strong>the</strong> reflexes of <strong>the</strong> Latin -ere verbs, but<br />
<strong>the</strong> evidence heavily favours this conclusion, if we make allowance for<br />
analogical changes in each area. The most conclusive evidence is <strong>the</strong> fact<br />
that forms with -ie- appear in <strong>the</strong> earlier stages of <strong>the</strong> languages that<br />
diphthongise Latin open e. In most areas <strong>the</strong> second d was lost by a natural<br />
phonetic development; in <strong>the</strong> case of It., -iedi was reformed as -ei under <strong>the</strong><br />
influence of <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms, which were based on <strong>the</strong> present<br />
stem.) In <strong>the</strong> modern languages many verbs hesitate between <strong>the</strong> two types,<br />
and this hesitation seems to go back to VL times. Abscondere, for example,<br />
has three perfect forms in late Latin: abscondi, abscondidi and absconsi,<br />
25<br />
25
and two participles, absconditus and absconsus. The next class have -ui,<br />
-(ĭ)tu/-utu, and form a strong enough group not to have been attracted into<br />
<strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>; some of <strong>the</strong>m have stems in l and r, and <strong>the</strong>se verbs<br />
also have forms in -si, -tu/-su. (In <strong>the</strong> case of certain o<strong>the</strong>r verbs too, <strong>the</strong><br />
Romance forms point to more than one VL form.) Finally <strong>the</strong>re are a<br />
handful of common verbs which need to be treated separately, and o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
which changed to <strong>the</strong> 2nd or 4th <strong>conjugation</strong>s.<br />
Firstly I will append a list of <strong>the</strong> verbs I will discuss, according to<br />
<strong>the</strong>se types:<br />
1. Velars and labials in -si, -tu/-su.<br />
a) CL perfect in -si, infinitive in -ĕre: cingere, fingere, iungere, lingere,<br />
ningere, pingere, plangere, exsting(u)ere, (con-)stringere, tingere,<br />
ung(u)ere, coq(u)ere, dicere, (ad-, tra-)ducere, despicere (sus-), affligere,<br />
intellegere, regere, dirigere, (ad-)erigere, excorrigere, (ex-)porrigere,<br />
surgere, sugere, *destrugere, *tragere (+-ui), frigere, figere, mergere,<br />
spargere, scribere, vivere (+-ui), sumere, premere (+-ui).<br />
b) CL infinitive in -ĕre, o<strong>the</strong>r forms in <strong>the</strong> perfect: impingere (ex-),<br />
pungere, (at-)tangere, attingere (per-), frangere (+ -ui), infringere,<br />
*ringere, vincere (+ -ui), legere (+ -ui), e(x)ligere (+ -ui), (ex-)colligere,<br />
*exseligere, parcere (+ -ui), subicere, traicere (+ -ui), redimere (+ -ui),<br />
rumpere (+ -ui).<br />
c) CL infinitive in -ēre: adaugere, mulgere (crossed with mungĕre), tergere<br />
(ex-, abs-), torq(u)ere, (ab)sorbere (+ absorbire in even later Latin), in part<br />
paenitere, which must also largely have become *pentire.<br />
2. Dentals in -si, -su.<br />
26<br />
26
a) CL infinitive in -ĕre: claudere, concludere, mittere, radere, rodere,<br />
*aucidere, assidere (+ *assedēre), pertundere, prehendere, excutere,<br />
succutere.<br />
b) CL infinitive in -ēre: ardere, ridere, mordere, respondere.<br />
3. Dentals in -ĭdi, -ĭtu (CL), VL -edi, -ĭtu/-utu.<br />
inaddere, credere (+ -ui), perdere, reddere/*rendere, tradere, vendere.<br />
4. Dentals which hesitate between VL -si and -edi (various CL types).<br />
(pro)cedere, discedere, findere, abscondere, tendere, accendere, incendere,<br />
defendere, descendere, expandere, fundere, tondere (crossed with tundere),<br />
pendere, splendere (learned, + -escere, -ire), *exconscindere.<br />
5. VL perfects in -ui.<br />
a)Verbs in -mere: fremere, gemere, timere, tremere, (+ premere, redimere).<br />
b)Verbs in -cipere, -ripere: concipere, decipere, incipere, percipere,<br />
recipere, suscipere, eripere.<br />
c) CL -uere verbs: (at-)tribuere, battuere, fut(t)uere, consuere.<br />
d) O<strong>the</strong>r (various CL types): bibere, fervere, *plovere, lambere, *sequere,<br />
vertere, contingere, cognoscere, crescere, pascere, *expergiscere,<br />
*irascere, *nascere, miscere, texere, vivere (+ -si), colere, molere, tollere<br />
(+ -si), currere (+ -si), cernere, sternere, (+ frangere, vincere, legere,<br />
eligere,*tragere, credere, traicere, parcere, rumpere). To <strong>the</strong>se can be<br />
added solvere, volvere, which had CL -vi but probably only -si in VL,<br />
though some of <strong>the</strong> Romance languages show -ui forms.<br />
6. O<strong>the</strong>r verbs.<br />
ponere, quaerere, conquirere, facere, conficere (pro-), comedere, *essere.<br />
27<br />
27
7. Transfers to o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s.<br />
a) To -ēre: cadere, sapere, capere, *potere, *volere.<br />
b) To -ire: cupere, fodere, fugere, parere, rapere, *morere, *patere,<br />
*offerere, *sufferere, conspuere, petere, fallere, *fiere, conti(n)gere.<br />
Although all <strong>the</strong>se verbs are neatly classified here, <strong>the</strong> actual state of<br />
affairs was not so neat. As might be expected from <strong>the</strong> subsequent history<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Romance languages, with <strong>the</strong>ir interaction between various perfect<br />
and past participle types, <strong>the</strong>re is evidence of variety in VL, some of which<br />
is not reflected in <strong>the</strong> modern languages. My scheme, <strong>the</strong>n, represents what<br />
may be called <strong>the</strong> dominant type, or sometimes types, for each verb, as<br />
determined, probably, by those who were considered <strong>the</strong> most cultivated<br />
speakers.<br />
The first category of velars (CL -xi, -ctu) is fairly numerous and<br />
consequently stable. It attracted to itself verbs of <strong>the</strong> -si, -su and<br />
reduplicating or leng<strong>the</strong>ned vowel classes, including those of <strong>the</strong> 2nd<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>. (In late Latin <strong>the</strong> forms lexi, elexi, collexi, tanxi, attinxi,<br />
impinxi, punxi, panxi, parsi, and with <strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong> labials sorpsi, rupsi, are<br />
recorded.) However, some of <strong>the</strong>se verbs also retained a past participle in<br />
-su, thus setting a precedent for <strong>the</strong> later creation of new past participles in<br />
-su. In VL <strong>the</strong> verbs with an n infix in <strong>the</strong> present generally extended it<br />
throughout, thus fingere, finctus (in Commodian), but forms without n, e.g.<br />
fractu, strictu, are also preserved.<br />
The labials are few in number, but scribere has generally been<br />
preserved as a strong verb, at least in part.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> dentals, those that originally had past participles or<br />
supines in -su but not perfects in -si, probably started by forming -edi<br />
perfects (cf. cadere above); for example, we have late Latin forms such as<br />
28<br />
28
descendidit, respondidi, prendidistis, impendidi, prandidi, pandiderunt,<br />
tendiderint, incendederit recorded (Bourciez, 91, Grandgent, 426). These<br />
forms <strong>the</strong>n interacted on each o<strong>the</strong>r, producing on <strong>the</strong> one hand -ĭtu<br />
participles, and on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r -si perfects. Thus we have late Latin forms<br />
absconsi, extensi, persi, occisi, morsi, tunsi, difusi recorded, and from a<br />
later period presi in <strong>the</strong> Lex Salica. The Romance languages <strong>the</strong>n settled for<br />
one or o<strong>the</strong>r of <strong>the</strong> combinations -si, -su or -edi, -ĭtu/-utu, as a general rule.<br />
It is not always clear whe<strong>the</strong>r forms like <strong>the</strong> respondidi, prendidistis<br />
above continued uninterrupted alongside -si forms in languages like Fr., Sp.,<br />
Ptg., for example, or whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y were analogically reintroduced later.<br />
Similarly -ui, -ĭtu and -edi, -ĭtu have got mixed. Many -ui verbs made<br />
-edi perfects because of <strong>the</strong> loss of -u- after double consonants, which<br />
meant that <strong>the</strong> stem-accented forms were now indistinguishable from those<br />
of <strong>the</strong> present, and <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms were similar to <strong>the</strong> -edi ones,<br />
from which <strong>the</strong> -ed- had been dropped in imitation of original forms<br />
without -ed- such as abscondisti, descendisti, pre(he)ndisti. In some verbs<br />
this change came early (as in batt(u)ere), in o<strong>the</strong>rs later, in fact in West<br />
Romance <strong>the</strong> -edi ending gradually encroached on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r perfects.<br />
In many cases <strong>the</strong> perfects with leng<strong>the</strong>ned vowel seem to have been<br />
changed to -ui perfects. Thus in late Latin we have forms like legueris (and<br />
after it reguit, Bourciez, 91), fecuit (Bourciez, 423), and <strong>the</strong> Romance<br />
languages require o<strong>the</strong>r forms such as *fregui, *-cepui (or *-cipui from <strong>the</strong><br />
present?), *rupui (erupuit is attested), *credui (from *credi for credidi by<br />
haplology?), *cognovui, *crevui, *pavui. Then on <strong>the</strong> model of o<strong>the</strong>r -ui<br />
perfects like molui, fremui, ferbui, new ones were formed like lambui,<br />
parcui, convertuit (found in <strong>the</strong> Vulgate and inscriptions), bibui, *plovuit,<br />
*currui, *premui, and on miscui and texui, which seems to have become<br />
*tescui in those areas where <strong>the</strong> reflexes of sc(e), sc(i) fell in with those of x,<br />
*nascui, *viscui (for *vixui) and o<strong>the</strong>rs.<br />
Certain o<strong>the</strong>r verbs, such as solvere, volvere, which developed new<br />
29<br />
29
past participles in -(i)tu, <strong>the</strong>n developed -si perfects to match <strong>the</strong> participles.<br />
(Absolsi is found in late Latin.) Finally <strong>the</strong>re remain o<strong>the</strong>r isolated verbs<br />
which do not fit into any class, and have largely remained “irregular” in all<br />
<strong>the</strong> Romance languages.<br />
The verbs that changed to -ēre have already been discussed. Of those<br />
that changed to -ire (many of <strong>the</strong>m from <strong>the</strong> “capio” class), some also still<br />
have -ere, whe<strong>the</strong>r inherited or reformed. It is easy to see why <strong>the</strong>se<br />
should have changed, and also petere, which had petivi, petitu, and *fiere<br />
(for fieri, actually attested in early Latin); in fact many -ire forms are<br />
found in early Latin, moriri, fodiri, fugire, cupiret (Fouché, 3). In <strong>the</strong> case<br />
of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs, *offerere, *sufferere were probably attracted to ferire, and<br />
fallere to salire. Conspuere (*exco(s)puere?) has a chequered history; <strong>the</strong><br />
modern languages point to *cospire/*escopire. It should also be<br />
mentioned here that many CL -ēre verbs turn up in <strong>the</strong> -ire <strong>conjugation</strong> in<br />
<strong>the</strong> Romance languages as learned borrowings; many of <strong>the</strong>se were later<br />
changed in Fr. to <strong>the</strong> -er <strong>conjugation</strong>. It. and Rum. also have many<br />
learned borrowings in ㅗere, ㅗe.<br />
1) Development of <strong>the</strong> infinitive type in <strong>the</strong> Romance languages.<br />
In standard Rum. <strong>the</strong> -ĕre type remains as ㅗe (and ㅗere as a noun),<br />
but in Macedo-Rum. <strong>the</strong>se have all been changed to <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong><br />
type -eare (Mac.-Rum. undzeare as compared with Rum. unge(re),<br />
Bourciez, 473). There are also some nouns in standard Rum. with a change<br />
of accent: vânzare, crezare, născare.<br />
There are practically no changes of <strong>conjugation</strong>; adauge has become<br />
adăuga; (ab)soarbe has given way to (ab)sorbi. Reddere and tradere have<br />
been re-formed on <strong>the</strong> simple verb, giving reda, trăda. Bibere has produced<br />
bea from *beauă; ploua has been reformed on <strong>the</strong> present plouă, as noted<br />
above. The changes to <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong> are as in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages,<br />
30<br />
30
cădea, încăpea, putea, vrea. The changes to <strong>the</strong> 4th also follow <strong>the</strong> standard<br />
pattern: from <strong>the</strong> “capio” verbs, fugi, răpi, muri, păŃi, and besides <strong>the</strong>m<br />
oferi (late borrowing?), suferi and peŃi. Conspuere went through an -ire<br />
form scu(i)pi to arrive at scuipa; VL*excopio, *excopiat could conceivably<br />
have given scuip, scuipă, with <strong>the</strong> u extended from <strong>the</strong> ending-accented<br />
forms. Note also cuceri beside cere.<br />
It. is equally conservative, having just a few (learned?) -ire forms<br />
alongside those in -ere, such as assorbere/-ire, cernere/-ire, fremere/-ire,<br />
gemere/-ire. (O<strong>the</strong>r changes are lambire, cucire (dial. cucere, cosere),<br />
concepire and percepire (beside dial. concipere, percipere). In <strong>the</strong>se cases<br />
dialectal or learned influence is at work, as in OIt. rimedire, now redimere,<br />
OVen. querire for chiedere.) There is some hesitation in <strong>the</strong> changes to <strong>the</strong><br />
4th <strong>conjugation</strong>, thus cupere, fuggire/fuggere, rapire/rapere, morire, patire,<br />
offrire, suffrire, petire/petere (dial.), fallire/fallere (dial.). Also *sequere<br />
has become seguire, as in certain o<strong>the</strong>r languages. (The -ere forms may<br />
have come from <strong>the</strong> south, where <strong>the</strong> -ire verbs have changed to -ere.)<br />
There are also certain seeming changes in <strong>conjugation</strong> due to<br />
contraction, e.g. fare, dire, bere etc. The first two, toge<strong>the</strong>r with (ad)durre,<br />
go back to VL forms *fagere, *digere, *dugere, as evidenced by <strong>the</strong> forms<br />
in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Romance languages, including Sard. (Camp. fairi from earlier<br />
fagere, attested in Greek characters, Wagner, p. 98).<br />
In Fr. <strong>the</strong> position is similar, though <strong>the</strong>re have also been a certain<br />
number of new analogical formations, as well as new learned words such as<br />
gémir (which largely replaced inherited g(i)embre > geindre), frémir. (We<br />
have already noted that in one case Fr. stands apart, in that an earlier Fr.<br />
form of ardere was ardoir, with <strong>the</strong> expected ardre possibly only coming<br />
later.) One group that changed to <strong>the</strong> -ēre type is <strong>the</strong> verbs with a -v-, which<br />
followed <strong>the</strong> pattern of devoir, mouvoir; so you have pleuvoir (OEFr.<br />
pluevre), recevoir (OFr. receivre) and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r verbs in -cevoir. New -ire<br />
forms are seen in vertir and querir, courir for earlier querre, courre, on <strong>the</strong><br />
31<br />
31
analogy of ferir, mourir; similarly cueillir, tolir for earlier cueudre, toldre<br />
on bolir/boillir. Of <strong>the</strong> verbs which changed to -ire in VL, OFr. has covir,<br />
foir (fodere), fuir, ravir, morir, offrir, soffrir, escopir, faillir. *Sequere<br />
remains as suivre, but <strong>the</strong>re were also infinitives in -ir in OFr.; in many<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r cases <strong>the</strong>re was fluctuation, some of it affecting <strong>the</strong> modern forms, as<br />
secouer, tisser (for secourre, tistre/tissir).<br />
Prov. practically follows <strong>the</strong> general VL pattern. Changes to -ir are<br />
vertir, querir beside querre, colhir beside Gasc. coelher, seguir beside<br />
segre; fremir is of learned introduction. Certain o<strong>the</strong>r verbs also show<br />
alternative infinitives in -ir, such as sorzir beside sorzer/sorger, fregir<br />
beside frire, esperir beside esp(e)reisser. From legere, or ra<strong>the</strong>r *leggere,<br />
<strong>the</strong> usual infinitive is legir, though léger and leire are found. Similarly regir<br />
and riejer from regere. E(x)ligere gives e(s)lire. Of <strong>the</strong> “capio” verbs and<br />
<strong>the</strong> like, Prov. has cobir, escodre/escodir, foire/fozer/fudir, fuire/fugir,<br />
ra(u)bir, erebre, morir, ofrir, sofrir/soferre, escopir, falir.<br />
In Cat. <strong>the</strong>re is a fur<strong>the</strong>r extension of <strong>the</strong> change to -ir, especially in<br />
<strong>the</strong> -gere verbs, though this is not universal. The verbs affected are: munyir,<br />
cenyir, junyir, renyir, tenyir, punyir, unyir (but also cínyer, júnyer, toge<strong>the</strong>r<br />
with fènyer and o<strong>the</strong>rs); fregir, afegir, llegir, elegir, espargir, surgir,<br />
destruir. In addition to <strong>the</strong>se <strong>the</strong>re are teixir, cosir, querre/querir,<br />
espandre/esbandir, escondre/-ir (<strong>the</strong>se last three having counterparts in<br />
Prov.), and <strong>the</strong>n, as elsewhere, co(i)llir, seguir, and, in <strong>the</strong> “capio” class,<br />
sacudir, fugir/fúger, morir, compadir, oferir, soferir/sofere, now sofrir,<br />
escopir, fal(l)ir.<br />
It is when we come to Sp. and Ptg. that we find real changes, and this<br />
surprisingly so, in view of <strong>the</strong> lack of any basic tendency to change, at least<br />
to <strong>the</strong> -ēre type, in <strong>the</strong> neighbouring languages. (I am assuming that <strong>the</strong> VL<br />
of Iberia also included forms like *ridĕre, *respondĕre etc.)<br />
There are only puny traces of <strong>the</strong> -ĕre infinitive left, in OSp., OGal. fer<br />
and OArag. dir, and in <strong>the</strong> futures Sp. haré, diré, OSp. aduré, and Ptg. farei,<br />
32<br />
32
direi, OPtg. adurei, trarei (but see also below). O<strong>the</strong>rwise all <strong>the</strong> verbs have<br />
newly formed -er or -ir infinitives, except in some Pyrenean dialects.<br />
There is no space here to go fully into <strong>the</strong> distribution among <strong>the</strong> two<br />
types (for more details see my earlier paper). In Sp. we can basically expect<br />
to find <strong>the</strong> infinitive in -er if <strong>the</strong> root vowel is (1) a, (2) e, often alternating<br />
with ie, or (3) o, often alternating with ue. Those with root vowel (1) e<br />
alternating with i, (2) i, and (3) u (including those that originally had o<br />
alternating with u) have <strong>the</strong> infinitive in -ir. The reasons leading to <strong>the</strong><br />
choice of -ir ra<strong>the</strong>r than -er are very complicated, but basically are derived<br />
from <strong>the</strong> interaction between verbs of <strong>the</strong> decir/dice type, with original root<br />
vowel i changing to e before a following i, and those of <strong>the</strong> vestir/viste type<br />
with original e alternating with ie which was changed to i in <strong>the</strong><br />
neighbourhood of an s (cf. avispa from earlier aviespa).<br />
In my last paper I showed that in Castilian <strong>the</strong> etymological reflexes of<br />
many of <strong>the</strong> -ĕre infinitives would produce highly anomalous forms such as<br />
*piérdel, *muérdel, thus hastening <strong>the</strong> demise of this type. I also speculated<br />
on how infinitives like dir, fer, *rir, *adúir would naturally become<br />
changed to decir, hacer, reir, aducir, by <strong>the</strong> process of remodelling on <strong>the</strong><br />
unaccented form of <strong>the</strong> root. This holds good for Castilian, but not<br />
necessarily for <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r dialects; however, <strong>the</strong> influence of Castilian was<br />
always strong. O<strong>the</strong>r infinitives that can be traced straight back to -ĕre<br />
forms are OSp. escorrir from *excorrigere (cf. Gal. escorrer/-ir), OSp.,<br />
OPtg., cuntir, contir from conti(n)gere, Sp. espurrir from *exporrigere,<br />
Arag. cullir from colligere (cf. Cast. coger, Ptg. colher), Ptg. decer/descer<br />
from discedere, Sp., Ptg. comer from comedere (and asir from assidere ?).<br />
For <strong>the</strong> elimination of anomalous forms, compare Fr. cueillir, querir, courir,<br />
for cueudre, querre, courre.<br />
It should be noted fur<strong>the</strong>r that <strong>the</strong> above scheme only holds good for<br />
<strong>the</strong> verbs inherited from VL, and not for <strong>the</strong> learned borrowings, which also<br />
show -ir verbs with root vowel e alternating with ie.<br />
33<br />
33
Those verbs of <strong>the</strong> -ir class that fit into <strong>the</strong> above scheme are: ceñir,<br />
decir, aducir, heñir, uncir, regir, erguir, escribir, estreñir, surgir, teñir,<br />
ungir, vivir, freir, OSp. descir, concluir (semilearned), rendir, pungir,<br />
contundir, OSp. espremir, now exprimir, beside premer, OSp. tremir beside<br />
tremer, OSp. reemir/reme(d)ir etc., now redimir, confundir, desleir, elegir<br />
(OSp. esleer/esleir), tullir, destruir, concebir (de-, (a)per-), recibir, reñir,<br />
plus <strong>the</strong> old -ēre verbs muñir (monere), henchir, mucir/muñir (mulgēre/<br />
mungĕre), tundir (tondēre/tundĕre), reir (VL ridĕre), nucir. There is only<br />
one -ir from -ere verb with e/ie alternation and that is hervir, but even here<br />
variants herver and hirvo occur. There are a few o<strong>the</strong>r cases of double<br />
infinitive forms: cerner/-ir, verter/-ir; erguir also has yergo etc., and to this<br />
<strong>the</strong>re also correspond dialect -er forms; similarly we find <strong>the</strong> Asturian<br />
variants joncer/juñir, rancer/riñir, mocer/-ir/mucir. Apart from this <strong>the</strong>re<br />
are a few verbs with root vowel a and infinitive in -ir: añadir, batir,<br />
esparcir, plañir; but <strong>the</strong>se all had infinitives in -er in old Castilian, cf.<br />
romaner/-ir in OCast. and modern manir. If estarcir goes back to extergere,<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is an old infinitive terzer to balance it. So far I have omitted to<br />
mention those verbs which commonly changed to -ire in Romance; <strong>the</strong>se<br />
are sacudir, huir, parir, morir, OSp. padir (now with infix, but OSp. had<br />
pades, padan), seguir, OSp ofrir (now with infix, but OSp. had uffre, ufrió),<br />
sufrir, pedir, OSp. fallir (now with infix, but OSp. had fallen), escupir/Ast.<br />
cuspir. Apart from <strong>the</strong>se verbs, <strong>the</strong> rest have -er infinitives in Sp., or have<br />
undergone learned reformation, e.g. gemir for OSp. emer. The position in<br />
Sp. is <strong>the</strong>refore very clear-cut. But note a tendency to -ir infinitives in Arag.,<br />
reminiscent of Cat., such as escondir, leir, texir, vincir, atrivir, and<br />
conversely OSp. co(n)fonder, render, toller, *receber (extrapolated from<br />
p.p. recebudo), for confundir, rendir, tullir, recibir, reflecting an earlier<br />
stage of development.<br />
In Ptg. (including Gal.) <strong>the</strong>re is a basic tendency towards -er (e.g. dizer,<br />
34<br />
34
escrever, viver, reger, erguer, eleger (OPtg. esleer), tolher, render, descer,<br />
receber (con-, (a)per-), gemer, espremer, tremer), but also some fluctuation.<br />
The pattern of change to -ir is similar to that seen in Cat., in that it basically<br />
affects <strong>the</strong> -gere verbs, perhaps for some reason connected with<br />
palatalisation. But in <strong>the</strong> case of Ptg. <strong>the</strong> old language has an -er infinitive,<br />
so we have doublets nozir/-er, mungir/monger, cingir/-er, aduzir/-er,<br />
fingir/-er, jungir/jonger, corrigir/correger, constringir/co(n)stranger,<br />
tingir/-er, ungir/onger, sumergir/somerger, espargir/-er, frangir/-er,<br />
ringir/ranger etc. O<strong>the</strong>r -ir forms are frigir, surgir, chouvir/choer (OGal.),<br />
cair/-er, confundir/co(n)fonder, remiir > remir, rir. The fact that this last<br />
has never shown any -er form seems to me to point strongly to an original<br />
*rir from ridĕre interpreted as riir (OPtg.), and <strong>the</strong>n contracted again to rir.<br />
Common Romance changes to -ire appear in Ptg. as: sacudir, fugir,<br />
parir, morrer, OPtg. padir (now with infix), seguir, OPtg. oferir (now with<br />
infix, but OPtg. ofeiro), sofrer/-ir (OGal.), pedir, falir (now with infix, but<br />
OPtg. fal), cuspir/old escupir. It will be seen that morrer is reformed on<br />
correr (<strong>the</strong> etymological OPtg. future morrei would be <strong>the</strong> starting point;<br />
esmorido and OPtg. moiro etc. preserve an older state of affairs); sofrer<br />
shows a tendency which is particularly strong in Galician, though it occurs<br />
in Ptg. too, to confuse <strong>the</strong> -ir and -er <strong>conjugation</strong>s. We will study this<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r below.<br />
*Essere appears in Sp. seré, Ptg. serei, which combine both *esser-ayo<br />
and *seder-ayo. The plain infinitive esser appears only in OArag.<br />
2) The Perfect.<br />
a) Perfect in -si.<br />
In Rum. this type is still well represented. In <strong>the</strong> first person <strong>the</strong><br />
modern language has a weak ending -sei, but in <strong>the</strong> earlier stages of <strong>the</strong><br />
35<br />
35
language <strong>the</strong> strong form -şi(u) still existed. In <strong>the</strong> velars <strong>the</strong>re exist, to<br />
quote <strong>the</strong> strong 3rd person forms, cinse, coapse, zise, duse, fripse, înŃelese<br />
(also weak forms as 1st pers. înŃelegui), ajunse, linse, ninse, depinse<br />
(pingere), înfipse, merse, sparse, împinse (impingere), împunse, atinse,<br />
frânse (as against Macedo-Rum. freadze), alese, culese, plânse, drese,<br />
strânse, supse, întinse (tingere), trase, unse, stinse, distruse (loanword from<br />
It.), adause/adaose, mulse, şterse, toarse. In <strong>the</strong> labials, scrise, (în)vise.<br />
(The perfects in -pse are formed after <strong>the</strong> participles in -pt.) O<strong>the</strong>r verbs,<br />
such as învinge, earlier învence, ru(m)pe, învoalbe (des-), and fierbe, have<br />
joined this type, but <strong>the</strong> old language has forms as 1st pers. învencui, fierbui<br />
and 3rd pers. rupe. Similarly, trece, from traicere, has trecui, but we cannot<br />
be sure what <strong>the</strong> original VL perfect was. (Some verbs in this and <strong>the</strong> next<br />
class are learned borrowings.)<br />
In <strong>the</strong> dentals you have închise, trimise, rase, roase, ucise, pătrunse,<br />
scoase, râse, purcese, arse. In addition, those that hesitated in VL between<br />
-si and -edi, mainly those that had no perfect suffix in CL, have -s- perfects<br />
in Rum.: ascunse, întinse (intendere), încinse, deştinse, depinse (dependere),<br />
împinse (impendere), prinse, răspunse, tunse, old pierse. It will be seen that<br />
in <strong>the</strong> stems ending in -nd- <strong>the</strong> n is extended to <strong>the</strong> perfect; on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
hand, Macedo-Rum. has forms without <strong>the</strong> n. It has been said that Eastern<br />
Romance favours -si perfects, but this reflects a later development in<br />
Western Romance, not an early split in VL, though <strong>the</strong> tendency may have<br />
shown itself early. One condition underlying this dichotomy is <strong>the</strong><br />
disappearance of <strong>the</strong> -edi type in Rum., to be discussed later.<br />
In It. <strong>the</strong> same VL velar forms are represented by (1st persons): cinsi,<br />
cossi (also cocqui, as nocqui), dissi, addussi, finsi, afflissi, frissi, giunsi,<br />
munsi, pinsi, piansi, ressi, eressi, (ad)ersi, corressi, accorsi, scorsi, porsi,<br />
sporsi, strinsi, sorsi, sussi, tinsi, trassi, unsi, stensi (dial.), distrussi, fissi,<br />
emersi, sparsi, spinsi, punsi, attinsi, fransi, lessi, elessi, colsi, scelsi, mulsi<br />
(dial.), tersi, torsi, also arrosi, if this is from adauxi (inf. arrogere; this verb<br />
36<br />
36
is similar in meaning to Rum. adauge). Vincere has also joined this type<br />
(with dialectal vicqui). Labials are scrissi, assorsi (old), assunsi, redensi,<br />
solsi, volsi; espressi is a learned borrowing, and (s)pressi is labelled ‘old or<br />
literary’. Vissi may directly represent CL vixi, or may, more probably, in <strong>the</strong><br />
light of <strong>the</strong> past participle and <strong>the</strong> forms in o<strong>the</strong>r languages, come from<br />
*vixui. In <strong>the</strong> dentals are found chiusi, misi, rasi, rosi, uccisi, contusi<br />
(learned), presi, scossi, risi, morsi, risposi, arsi. Of those that hesitated,<br />
some came down on <strong>the</strong> side of -si in It.: nascosi, scesi, scoscesi, accesi.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>rs still show hesitation: incendei/incesi, pendei/spesi/sospesi,<br />
difendei/difesi, tendei/tesi, fendei/fesi, fondei (old)/fusi etc. Tondere has<br />
only tondei. There was also a tendency, as in Western Romance, to produce<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r weak forms such as radei, met(t)ei, and conversely some original -edi<br />
perfects were later attracted into <strong>the</strong> -si class, so we have resi beside rendei,<br />
persi (first recorded in a Latin form) beside perdei, and even cresi in Dante.<br />
Besides this <strong>the</strong>re are many learned adoptions from CL, such as divisi, cessi<br />
(beside cedei), delusi, intrusi, invasi etc. Note that <strong>the</strong> ending-accented<br />
forms of <strong>the</strong> -si perfects were based on <strong>the</strong> present stem (cf. <strong>the</strong> 2nd<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>), with <strong>the</strong> result that <strong>the</strong>y coincided with those of <strong>the</strong> -edi<br />
perfects, which were based on <strong>the</strong> same stem, forming a link between <strong>the</strong><br />
two types.<br />
In Sard. <strong>the</strong> -si ending is strong, even in <strong>the</strong> modern language. In<br />
OSard., forms like misi, iskrissi, presi, indulsi, aiunsi, battussi (< adduxi),<br />
lessi, gollessi, ockisi, arreposi, intesi, vissi and o<strong>the</strong>rs are found (Wagner,<br />
passim), and <strong>the</strong> ending -esi/-isi was so common that in <strong>the</strong> modern<br />
language it has been extended to all verbs of all <strong>conjugation</strong>s, especially in<br />
Logudorian, which still uses this tense whereas <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r dialects have<br />
abandoned it for <strong>the</strong> analytical perfect.<br />
In Rhaeto-Rom., only scant traces of <strong>the</strong> -si perfects are found, but <strong>the</strong><br />
existence of o<strong>the</strong>rs can be inferred from <strong>the</strong> existence of strong participles<br />
in -tu, -su. Here we have <strong>the</strong> inherited OEngad. dis, trass, pus (ponere), and<br />
37<br />
37
(in <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>) <strong>the</strong> new formations vous (*volere), pous (*potere)<br />
and stous (*estopere, formed from est opus); also old Friulian respos,<br />
sprens/sprenz (*expremsit). All <strong>the</strong> verbs in this <strong>conjugation</strong> form <strong>the</strong><br />
imperfect subjunctive by adding -ess to <strong>the</strong> present stem, though in some<br />
cases an earlier -edi or -ui form may have underlain this.<br />
In OFr., as in <strong>the</strong> rest of Western Romance, <strong>the</strong> old pattern is largely<br />
preserved at first, but <strong>the</strong> -s- perfects soon gave way to weak perfects. Thus<br />
in OFr. we find velars: ceins, cuis, despis, dis, duis, feins, af(f)lis, fris, joins,<br />
peins, plains, aers, estreins, sors, teins, trais, oins, esteins, destruis, clofis,<br />
espars, empeins, poins, atains/ateins, frains, enfreins, lis, aois, mols, ters,<br />
tors. Labials: escris, ra(i)ens, (es)pr(i)ens, g(i)ens, cr(i)ens (tremere), sols,<br />
vols (for vivere, Fouché quotes a form vist, tracing it to vixit; see below for<br />
a discussion of this). Dentals: clos, conclus, mis, res, ocis, escos (excutere),<br />
socos, ris, mors, ars. Of those that hesitate, OFr. has pris, respos/respondi,<br />
escos (abscondere); <strong>the</strong> rest only had -edi perfects. These -s- perfects<br />
attracted a few o<strong>the</strong>rs from o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s: duist (docere), luis (lucere),<br />
nuis (nocere). Note also encursist beside corui.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> later stages of <strong>the</strong> language most of <strong>the</strong>se perfects became weak;<br />
those from infinitives in -indre formed perfects on <strong>the</strong> present stem, as<br />
ceignis, plaignis, atteignis, joignis, épreignis, craignis; those in -uis<br />
followed <strong>the</strong> weak forms of <strong>the</strong> perfect and produced cuisis, conduisis etc.;<br />
those in -us joined <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects, thus conclus as valus; those from o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
infinitives ending in -dre joined <strong>the</strong> -edi verbs, as mordis, tordis; écrire<br />
made écrivis on <strong>the</strong> present stem; o<strong>the</strong>r verbs simply died out. Those that<br />
remained as strong perfects are those ending in -is, as dis, mis, pris; in this<br />
case <strong>the</strong> weak forms like desis, mesis, presis came to lose intervocalic -s-<br />
on <strong>the</strong> analogy of fesis/feis, which go back to VL variants fecisti/*fegisti<br />
(see below), and after loss of pretonic e fell in with <strong>the</strong> strong forms, thus<br />
creating a perfect with a uniform strong accent.<br />
In OProv. <strong>the</strong> position is much <strong>the</strong> same as in OFr. The -s- forms<br />
38<br />
38
appear in velars, with -nx- generally reduced to -is-: ceis, dis, duis, feis,<br />
jois/jons, peis, plais, ers (erigere), ders, aders, pors, estreis, sors, teis, trais,<br />
ois, esteis, destruis, espars, empeis, espeis (expingere), pois/poins, tais<br />
(tangere), atais, ateis, frais, mols, pars (parcere), ters, tors. Labials:<br />
escris/escrius, crems, tems, rezems, prems, sols, vols. Dentals: claus,<br />
conclus, mis, ras, ros, aucis, escos (excutere), socos, fos (fodere), ris, mors<br />
(beside more usual mordei), ars. In <strong>the</strong> hesitating verbs, -s- forms are:<br />
pris/prendei, respos/respondei, escos/escondei (abscondere), tes beside<br />
more usual tendei, and aces/azeis/acendei from acendre (from encendre <strong>the</strong><br />
past participle ences leads one to suppose ences in <strong>the</strong> perfect too). Note<br />
also cors beside correc. Differences from Fr. are an -ui perfect coc from<br />
cozer (analogy of noc from nozer), and <strong>the</strong> weak -i perfects of <strong>the</strong> verbs<br />
with infinitives in -ir, e.g. fregir, afegir, regir, legir. Elire makes perfect<br />
elesquei, with a formation based on -scu- which is mainly found in <strong>the</strong> areas<br />
on both sides of <strong>the</strong> Pyrenees where <strong>the</strong> reflexes of sc(e), sc(i) fell in with<br />
those of x, but sometimes spread fur<strong>the</strong>r, notably in <strong>the</strong> case of *viscui (an<br />
altered form of *vixui, as noted above), which gives Prov. visquei, earlier<br />
visc, corresponding to OFr. vesqui (see below).<br />
patois.<br />
As in Fr., <strong>the</strong>se verbs have changed to weak perfects in <strong>the</strong> modern<br />
In OCat. <strong>the</strong> position seems to have been <strong>the</strong> same originally, but <strong>the</strong><br />
change to weak perfects came much sooner, so <strong>the</strong> number of -s forms<br />
recorded is correspondingly fewer. All that we have records of are: dix<br />
(dicere), (a)dux ((ad)ducere), empès (impingere), mis (mittere), clos,<br />
conclòs ((con)claudere), compòs (componere), concés (concedere), defès<br />
(defendere), (re)encès (incendere), pris (prehendere), ris (ridere), somrís<br />
(subridere), respús (respondere), entès (intendere), estès (extendere), oucís<br />
(*aucidere). From trahere <strong>the</strong>re is trasc, and from scribere escrisc,<br />
showing <strong>the</strong> same change as seen in visc (now visquí) from vivere and also<br />
39<br />
39
in Prov. visc/visquei, elesquei. To <strong>the</strong> 1st person forms mis, pris, respús<br />
correspond 3rd persons mes, pres, respòs. In addition to <strong>the</strong>se perfects <strong>the</strong><br />
more numerous participles in -s lead one to suppose that <strong>the</strong>re were once<br />
more perfects in -s, along <strong>the</strong> lines of those in Provençal.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>rwise <strong>the</strong> same tendency appeared as in Prov. coc, from *cocui<br />
formed as nocui, and ultimately produced a new type of weak perfect,<br />
peculiar to Prov. and Cat. (e.g. modern Prov. prenguère, with -èr- extended<br />
from <strong>the</strong> 3rd pers. pl., modern Cat. prenguí). This started in <strong>the</strong> velars, but<br />
was <strong>the</strong>n extended to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r stems because <strong>the</strong>se words already had -c in<br />
<strong>the</strong> 1st person present (analogically extended from <strong>the</strong> velars); thus a<br />
correspondence between planc(h) = both plango and *plangui brought with<br />
it entenc(h) = intend- + -go and -gui. (In this case <strong>the</strong>re is also an old form<br />
enteneren (= *intendederunt) in <strong>the</strong> Hom. d’Org., as well as a -si perfect;<br />
similar -edi forms are seen in old estené, fené, vení from estendre, fendre,<br />
vendre, and a Roussillonese preneren from prendre.) The results in OCat.<br />
are, in <strong>the</strong> velars: empenc(h) (impingere), estrenc(h) (stringere), planc(h)<br />
(plangere), coc (coq(u)ere), trac (*tragere). The modern language has<br />
planguí, coguí, traguí, and also diguí, duguí for dix, dux, but forms as<br />
estrenyí, empenyí for some of <strong>the</strong> verbs in -nyer; torcí has replaced torguí<br />
from tòrcer. Labials: escric, now escriguí/escriví. Dentals: cloc, encenc,<br />
entenc, fonc, ofenc, rac, ric, now cloguí, encenguí, entenguí, fonguí,<br />
ofenguí, raguí, riguí, also despenguí, estenguí, prenguí, responguí etc., with<br />
venguí from a later venc which replaced vení (vendere), and fenguí from<br />
fendre. O<strong>the</strong>r verbs such as ardre, mordre evidently follow <strong>the</strong> “plain” -edi<br />
type without -gu- seen in secondary metí from metre. The verbs with<br />
infinitives in -ir form <strong>the</strong>ir perfects accordingly.<br />
In OSp. <strong>the</strong>re are equally few traces of -si perfects, but here again we<br />
can assume from <strong>the</strong> existence of strong past participles that <strong>the</strong>se are just<br />
<strong>the</strong> last survivors of what was once a more extensive group. Those that are<br />
40<br />
40
ecorded are, velars (3rd person): cinxo, coxo, dixo, aduxo, tinxo, trexo (see<br />
below), destruxo/destruso, tanxo/tanso, fraysit (in a Latinising text). Labial:<br />
escripso. Dentals: miso, raxo, riso/rixo, and, from <strong>the</strong> hesitating class,<br />
preso/priso, respuso, despiso, espiso. Trexo is <strong>the</strong> etymological reflex of<br />
trax-, but <strong>the</strong> more common form is troxo, and besides this <strong>the</strong>re is traxo,<br />
reformed with <strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> present, and, in dialects, trogo and trasco<br />
showing <strong>the</strong> same *tragu- and *trascu- formations as in Cat. Troxo<br />
represents *trax-uit, with anticipation or meta<strong>the</strong>sis of <strong>the</strong> -u-, but this form<br />
must also have fallen toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> form developed from traduxit,<br />
corresponding to <strong>the</strong> infinitive trocir and past participle form trocha.<br />
Though <strong>the</strong> -si perfects are so little recorded in OSp., <strong>the</strong>y must have been a<br />
flourishing class at one stage, as new forms peculiar to Ibero-Romance<br />
were produced, such as fuxo (fugere), repiso (re-paenitere). We also find<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r Old Aragonese forms similar to trasco, thus fusco, aduscomos,<br />
conquisco, remasco, following OSp. visco (see also <strong>the</strong> -ui forms below).<br />
All <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r verbs only appear with -edi (merged with -ii) perfects, and <strong>the</strong><br />
above verbs also subsequently changed to that class, with <strong>the</strong> exception of<br />
dijo, adujo, trajo.<br />
In OPtg. <strong>the</strong> position is similar; <strong>the</strong> strong perfects that are not found<br />
can reasonably be presumed from <strong>the</strong> strong participles. Those found are,<br />
velars: disse/dixe, adusse/aduxe, ersi, trougue (trouve)/trouxe/treixer (not<br />
found in <strong>the</strong> perfect itself), <strong>the</strong>se last forms showing <strong>the</strong> same development<br />
as in OSp. Dentals: arse, pris (3 pres), apris (3 apres), respos. Of <strong>the</strong>se,<br />
disse and trouxe (combining traduxit ?) survive, o<strong>the</strong>rwise all <strong>the</strong> verbs<br />
have joined <strong>the</strong> appropriate weak <strong>conjugation</strong>s, -edi or -ii according to <strong>the</strong><br />
infinitive.<br />
In conclusion it may be said that Rum., It., Fr., Prov. agree to a<br />
remarkable extent on <strong>the</strong> -si perfects, and in Cat., Sp., Ptg., though <strong>the</strong>re is<br />
less evidence of <strong>the</strong> -si perfect, yet <strong>the</strong>re is enough to give reasonable<br />
grounds for believing that <strong>the</strong> situation <strong>the</strong>re was originally essentially <strong>the</strong><br />
41<br />
41
same.<br />
b) Perfects in -edi and -ui.<br />
It is most convenient to treat <strong>the</strong>se two types toge<strong>the</strong>r, because of <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
interaction on each o<strong>the</strong>r, as explained above, but first let us look at <strong>the</strong><br />
originals, and those that followed <strong>the</strong> original patterns without being<br />
affected by <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r type.<br />
The original -edi verbs are, of course, <strong>the</strong> compounds of dare, <strong>the</strong><br />
perfects of which originally ended in -didi, but are later attested with <strong>the</strong><br />
-dedi ending, thus perdedi, reddedit (though this tells us nothing about <strong>the</strong><br />
quality of <strong>the</strong> e): (in)addere, abscondere, credere, perdere, reddere, tradere,<br />
vendere. Of <strong>the</strong>se, abscondere had three perfects, abscondi, abscondidi and<br />
absconsi, in late Latin (Väänänen, 336, 338); as we have seen, absconsi<br />
seems to have prevailed. Inaddere is only represented in Ibero-Romance.<br />
Reddere also developed a form *rendere, on prendere. In Rum. it was<br />
reformed as reda. Tradere survived in OIt. tradere, OSp., OPtg. traer, but<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rwise was reintroduced in <strong>the</strong> learned form *tradire, which <strong>the</strong>n<br />
developed popular forms (but Rum. trăda).<br />
The Romance derivatives of <strong>the</strong> perfect forms, <strong>the</strong>n, are: It. credei,<br />
perdei, rendei, vendei, old tradei (also popular or dialectal foms in -diedi);<br />
OFr. crei, perdi, rendi, vendi; OProv. escondei (rare), crezei, perdei, rendei,<br />
vendei; OCat. creren, perdí, redí, vení, escondí; OSp. enadí, escondí, creí,<br />
perdí, rendí, vendí, tra(h)í; OPtg. ẽadi, escondi (as-), crei, perdi, rendi, vendi,<br />
tra(h)i.<br />
I have not been able to verify <strong>the</strong> earliest position in Rh.-Rom. and<br />
Sard. In modern Rh.-Rom. <strong>the</strong> perfect, where it appears, in Engad., seems<br />
only to have -etui forms, as vendet (Lausberg, 896), bavet (bibere) with <strong>the</strong><br />
-et appearing, as -ett-, in all <strong>the</strong> persons; but <strong>the</strong> imperfect subjunctive<br />
42<br />
42
forms, such as vendess, bavess, seem to represent <strong>the</strong> earlier -edi type (cf.<br />
dess, stess from dedissem, *stedissem). In fact <strong>the</strong> -et may have started in<br />
<strong>the</strong> 3rd pers. sing. and come, as I have said earlier, from ded(i)t;<br />
extrapo<strong>latin</strong>g from various extant forms, one can judge that <strong>the</strong> original<br />
personal endings may have been -eg/-eck (from -edi, with palatalisation?),<br />
-est/-ist, -et, -eschen/-ischen(s), -isches, -enn, all pointing to -edi forms. For<br />
OSard., Wagner quotes creterun and vendisti (with participles pérditu,<br />
vénditu, créttitu), and also, from dare, dedi/dei and derun, and says that in<br />
Old Camp. <strong>the</strong> perfects of <strong>the</strong> II and III (-ire and -ere) <strong>conjugation</strong>s were in<br />
-ii. So I presume vendisti represents vendi(d)isti. The similarity will be seen<br />
between <strong>the</strong> -ui and -edi types; in fact, creterun is patently an -ui form, =<br />
cretterun (with doubled consonant as in appi from habui), cf. modern<br />
crettesi and p.p. créttitu with tt.<br />
Besides <strong>the</strong> -edi forms, It., as Engad., has -etti forms as vendetti,<br />
credetti. In <strong>the</strong> case of credere, <strong>the</strong>re is evidence in many languages for a<br />
form *credui, which has a long history dating back to a concredui in<br />
Plautus: Rum. crezui, OIt. creddi, OFr. crui, OProv. crezec (< *crededui),<br />
and so also OCat. credec/crezec > crec, OSp. crove, OPtg. crive/crevi,<br />
OSard. cretti. What <strong>the</strong> original impulse for this change was is not clear, but<br />
it is noteworthy that credere differs from its fellows perdere, reddere,<br />
vendere in having an open first syllable, and <strong>the</strong>refore would not be felt to<br />
belong naturally to <strong>the</strong> same class; <strong>the</strong> same thing seems to have happened<br />
in <strong>the</strong> case of cadere, which probably first created *cadidi for cecidi, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>n *cadui (with a subsequent blend of <strong>the</strong> two in Fr., Prov. and Cat., cf.<br />
cazec, ca(d)ec as crezec, credec/crezec). A form *credi < credi(d)i could<br />
account, in Rum., for <strong>the</strong> z of crezui, as being a reminiscence of an earlier<br />
*crezi, in <strong>the</strong> same way as văzui can be explained as a reminiscence of an<br />
earlier *vizi; in that case <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects would be formed on <strong>the</strong> past<br />
participles crezut, văzut, as făcui was formed on făcut to replace earlier<br />
43<br />
43
feci(u). This would date <strong>the</strong> change fairly late in Rum., compared with an<br />
early change elsewhere. In any case, <strong>the</strong> -edi type has disappeared in Rum.,<br />
giving not only crezui, but also pierdui, vândui for <strong>the</strong>se verbs. It is not<br />
certain how long <strong>the</strong> original forms survived, but it appears that <strong>the</strong>re was<br />
no analogical extension of -edi in Rum., so that *vendedi, *perdedi would<br />
become anomalous and thus more liable to replacement by new forms<br />
based on <strong>the</strong> past participles in -utu.<br />
Early extensions of -edi are seen in late Latin descendidi, respondidi,<br />
ascendiderat, prendidistis, with -edi forms descendedi, respondedi,<br />
adtendedit, ostendedi, battedi (to take forms belonging to <strong>the</strong> common VL<br />
period only). Of <strong>the</strong>se respondidi and prendidi were early challenged by<br />
*resposi (backed up by similarity to *reposi from reponere) and presi, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>se latter forms appear so consistently in Romance that it may be doubted<br />
whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>re is in fact any continuity between respondidi, prendidi and <strong>the</strong><br />
-edi forms in modern Romance. Descendidi has a continuous history, and<br />
was <strong>the</strong> forerunner of o<strong>the</strong>r changes in -ndere verbs, such as incendidi (Lex<br />
Sal. incendederit; incidentally not surviving in Fr.), *defendidi, *expandidi,<br />
*(sus-)pendidi, *(in-, at-)tendidi, *findidi, *fundidi, *splendidi, *tondidi,<br />
*-scindidi; some of <strong>the</strong>se words had no distinctive perfect stem in CL<br />
(intendi, suspendi, incendi, defendi, respondi), so <strong>the</strong>y took <strong>the</strong> -edi ending<br />
for clarity’s sake, though less frequently in <strong>the</strong> ending-accented forms,<br />
which were already marked clearly enough. Then such pairings as<br />
abcondidi, abscondisti and <strong>the</strong> like gave rise to perdidi, *perdisti and <strong>the</strong><br />
like, thus (in conjunction also with pairs like absconsi, abscondisti) paving<br />
<strong>the</strong> way for <strong>the</strong> present situation in It. As far as <strong>the</strong> modern languages go,<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is no trace of this extension in Rum., as has been noted, and It. also<br />
shows an inclination towards -si perfects, thus: ascesi, (di)scesi, scoscesi,<br />
difendei/-si (but only offesi), incendei/-si (but only accesi), spandei,<br />
pendei/sospesi, spesi, tendei/tesi, fendei/fesi, fondei (old)/fusi, splendei,<br />
44<br />
44
tondei (some of <strong>the</strong> -si forms may be learned ones, based on <strong>the</strong> past<br />
participles). The o<strong>the</strong>r languages have -edi perfects, except in <strong>the</strong> cases<br />
already mentioned above under <strong>the</strong> -si perfects.<br />
The original -ui perfects from <strong>the</strong> -uere verbs must have become quite<br />
few in number in VL, owing to phonetic change; that is to say, if <strong>the</strong><br />
perfects followed <strong>the</strong> same pattern as <strong>the</strong> present stems of *battere,<br />
*fut(t)ere, *co(n)sere, *co(n)spere, we should expect *batti, *futti, *cosi,<br />
*cospi, unless <strong>the</strong> -u- was consciously preserved as a sign of <strong>the</strong> perfect.<br />
This would leave, of <strong>the</strong> verbs that have survived into Romance, only<br />
tribuere and its compounds, <strong>the</strong> past participle forms acutu, imbutu, minutu,<br />
sternutu, rutu (Sard. ruttu), and perhaps echoes of statuere, exuere in forms<br />
belonging to stare, exire. (For pluere, already become plovere in Petronius,<br />
see below.)<br />
The o<strong>the</strong>r original -ui perfects in verbs which have survived are: timui,<br />
fremui, gemui, tremui, vomui, messui, texui, miscui, colui, molui, rapui,<br />
sapui, posui, but <strong>the</strong>se have not had a common development, and must be<br />
discussed separately. Here again <strong>the</strong> -u- would have been subject to<br />
phonetic loss in messui, while posui appears in late Latin as posi.<br />
The original -ui perfects that have survived in Romance are: attribui in<br />
OSp. atrove; gemui, timui, tremui, vomui in Rum. gemui, temui, vomui, OFr.<br />
gemui, cremui; colui, molui in OProv., OCat. colc, molc, OFr. molui; battui,<br />
futtui, consui, texui, miscui in Rum. batui, futui, cusui, Ńesui, mescui (see<br />
below); eripui in Prov. ereup. Sapui has already been discussed. It will be<br />
seen that <strong>the</strong>y are a very small group, and we shall find below that <strong>the</strong>y<br />
were later subject to -edi extension in many cases.<br />
However, <strong>the</strong>re were early analogical extensions which expanded this<br />
class somewhat. They came from <strong>the</strong> perfects which only added -i to <strong>the</strong><br />
present stem, with or without leng<strong>the</strong>ning of <strong>the</strong> root vowel, and which had<br />
past participles in -(i)tu like <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects, or from <strong>the</strong> perfects in -vi.<br />
45<br />
45
These latter followed <strong>the</strong> analogy of perfects like movi, cavi, which<br />
represented pronunciations *mowwi, *cawwi; one of <strong>the</strong>m, fervi, already<br />
had an alternative spelling ferbui in CL, while in late Latin expabui is found<br />
for expavi (from expavere; Grandgent, 428). The new forms created were:<br />
(a) bibui, *fregui, legui, *rupui (attested in compounds), *vi(n)cui (attested<br />
in compounds), lambui, parcui, *tollui, *-cepui, *secui, *credui (see above),<br />
*currui (also challenged by *cursi), and perhaps also *solvui, *volvui,<br />
*vertui (attested in compounds), *premui, *redemui, *contiguit (continguit<br />
is attested), *traiecui, *cernui, *sternui and quite possibly *expergui<br />
(*expergiscere); (b) *co(g)novui, *crevui, *pavui (pascere), *plovuit (from<br />
*plovit for pluit). There is also one o<strong>the</strong>r group which followed <strong>the</strong> analogy<br />
of miscui and *tescui (for texui): *irascui, *nascui, *pascui, *viscui (for<br />
*vixui); cf. also *elescui, *trascui and o<strong>the</strong>rs mentioned above as having<br />
developed in one area. In <strong>the</strong> same way an -escui type seems to have<br />
developed for <strong>the</strong> -escere verbs, giving *crescui and *parescui, *merescui<br />
in this area. This whole -ui- class was very probably more widespread in<br />
VL than would appear from <strong>the</strong> modern languages.<br />
Direct representatives of <strong>the</strong>se forms in <strong>the</strong> modern languages are:<br />
Rum. băui, începui, pricepui, crezui, trecui, cernui, aşternui, temui, scremui<br />
(*expremui), născui, with analogical crescui, cunoscui, păscui; It.<br />
bevvi/bebbi, ruppi, ORom. vicque (vincere), tolle (in Dante), OSic. recippe,<br />
conobbi, crebbi, dial. corvi, piovve, nacqui (influence of old giacqui, tacqui<br />
etc.), vissi (probably from *vixui ra<strong>the</strong>r than vixi, cf. <strong>the</strong> participle vissuto);<br />
OFr. bui, frut (*freguit, Pope, 1022), lui, reçui etc., sut (*secuit, Pope,<br />
1022), crui (credere), corui (see parui, above), cremui, gemui, premui,<br />
conui, crui (crescere), (re)poi (pascere), plut, and cf. also Lex Sal.<br />
diferbuerat (vist, quoted by Fouché, 145, probably represents *viscuit ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
than <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rwise unattested vixit); OProv. bec, enfrec (*infreguit; hapax<br />
leg.), elec, tolc, receup etc., crezec, correc, esp(e)rec (see parec, above),<br />
solc (solvere), volc (volvere), conuc, crec (crescere), pac, ploc, irasc, nasc,<br />
46<br />
46
visc; OCat. bec, tolc/tol (from toll(u)i ?), reb etc., crezec > crec (credere),<br />
correc (see parec, above), absolc (<strong>the</strong>re are no traces of a -si perfect), conec<br />
(with <strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> present but also early conogren), crec (and cresc),<br />
ploc, nasc, visc, meresc, (com)paresc; OSp. crovo (credere), conuvo, crovo<br />
(crescere), nasco, visco, paresco, cuntió (from contigit, perhaps via<br />
*contiguit which early lost its -g- and was interpreted as *contivit, thus<br />
producing a new infinitive contire); OPtg. crive (credere), and OGal. contiu.<br />
The only OSard. forms I have found in this class are vinki, cretti (credere)<br />
and perhaps elegirunt.<br />
In general <strong>the</strong>se verbs have developed -edi forms (and some -si forms),<br />
and we now need to explore <strong>the</strong>se.<br />
Firstly <strong>the</strong> perfects batt(u)i, futt(u)i, co(n)s(u)i, perhaps also texui,<br />
miscui, *currui, *vertui and o<strong>the</strong>rs from stems ending in two consonants,<br />
developed -edi forms at a very early stage, though <strong>the</strong>y may also have<br />
consciously retained <strong>the</strong> -u- from forms like battúimus, battúero. Battederit<br />
appears in <strong>the</strong> Lex Sal. The stems ending in a dental would easily be<br />
attracted to <strong>the</strong> -edi class. This set up a correspondence -edi, -utu, which<br />
was soon followed by <strong>the</strong> original -edi verbs. This in turn attracted o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
verbs with past participles in -utu (replacing earlier -ĭtu), especially if <strong>the</strong><br />
-ui perfect had lost its distinctiveness. In some cases <strong>the</strong> new perfects were<br />
formed from <strong>the</strong> earlier perfect stem containing -u-, in o<strong>the</strong>rs from <strong>the</strong><br />
present stem. Let us now turn once more to <strong>the</strong> individual languages.<br />
Rum., of course, does not show this type, having ei<strong>the</strong>r -ui forms as<br />
batui, futui, cusui, Ńesui or new -si forms created to match <strong>the</strong> past<br />
participles: rupse (cf. late Latin rupsi, Bourciez, 91; also old rupe), fierse,<br />
învinse (from învinge for older învence), învoalse, curse (with new<br />
infinitive curge, replacing cure/cură). New -ui forms are cunoscui, crescui,<br />
păscui. Plouă follows <strong>the</strong> infinitive type.<br />
It. has many -ei, -etti forms, some alternating with, some replacing <strong>the</strong><br />
47<br />
47
-ui forms, as bevei, rompei, OPied. venquè, piovè/piovette, vivei/-etti,<br />
(per)seguetti, solvei, evolvei; battei, fottei (but cucii with change of<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>, though old cucere presumably made cucei), tessei, mescei;<br />
fremei, gemei, temei, premei, redimei, old vomei in <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs; fervei,<br />
mietei, vertè, (s)cernei, pascei, ricevei/SIt. recepetti. -Si forms are seen in<br />
corsi, scersi, vinsi, redensi, tolsi, solsi, sciolsi, volsi, all formed in keeping<br />
with <strong>the</strong> past participles. Seguire, besides seguetti, has seguii following <strong>the</strong><br />
infinitive.<br />
OFr. has bati (with 3rd person batiet; similarly <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r verbs), foti,<br />
cosi, teissi, rompi, sevi, corret (in dialects where -rr- was maintained,<br />
Fouché, 133, 155 B.2), toli; venqui (now vainquis), irasqui, nasqui (now<br />
naquis), vesqui (now vécus), maintaining <strong>the</strong> original -u-. -Si forms are<br />
found, as noted above, in (1) <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs, as cr(i)ens, g(i)ens, pr(i)ens,<br />
ra(i)ens; (2) <strong>the</strong> -l(v)ere verbs, as sols, tols, volst (and note also encursist).<br />
These are formed on <strong>the</strong> past participles in -(ĭ)tu (but *redempsi, *premsi<br />
are probably earlier than *redemui, *premui, and also set <strong>the</strong> example for<br />
<strong>the</strong> change in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs); in <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs <strong>the</strong> -ui type also<br />
survived with a new participle in -utu. Verti, from vertir, probably also goes<br />
back to -edi.<br />
OProv. has batei, fotei, cosei, teissei, rompei, seguei (and segui from<br />
infinitive seguir); venquei, irasquei, nasquei, visquei/vesquei (besides older<br />
visc without <strong>the</strong> -edi ending), also pasquei (besides pac from *pavui),<br />
mesquei (miscere), elesquei, tesquei, with o<strong>the</strong>r forms in <strong>the</strong> modern<br />
dialects based on various stems, so couneguère/counousquère/counessèri,<br />
creiguère/cresquèri/creisseguère/creissèri, paresquèri. For <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs<br />
I find mostly -s forms quoted, crems, tems, prems, rezems (reems etc.), but<br />
<strong>the</strong> latter also has rezemei, which leads me to suspect that <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r verbs<br />
also had -ei forms, matching <strong>the</strong> participles in -ut, which <strong>the</strong>y all have.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>r -s forms are cors (besides correc), sols, vols (and volc).<br />
48<br />
48
In Cat. <strong>the</strong> strong forms quoted above have taken <strong>the</strong> weak -edi ending,<br />
making beguí, tolguí, rebí, creguí, correguí, absolguí etc. Besides <strong>the</strong>se we<br />
have batí, rompí, cosí (from new infinitive cosir), and similarly seguí, llegí,<br />
teixí, and evidence of OCat. solví, volví. Llegí may have replaced *legui or<br />
*lescui (cf. OCat. past participle lest as against elegut, and an old perfect<br />
leseren, which looks to me like a misreading of *lescren, cf. Prov. elesquei,<br />
lescut). Vencí is formed from <strong>the</strong> infinitive vèncer, earlier vençre (a perfect<br />
*venc formed from <strong>the</strong> *vincu- stem would have come into conflict with <strong>the</strong><br />
perfects of venir, vendre). In <strong>the</strong> -mere verbs, we have temí, tremí,<br />
(es)premí, remí. Of <strong>the</strong> -scere verbs, cognoscere has modern Cat. standard<br />
coneguí, with conesquí/coneixí. Visc developed to visqui, and similarly we<br />
have <strong>the</strong> modern forms cresquí (and creguí), nasquí, pasquí, irasquí,<br />
(a)paresquí, meresquí, and also creixí, naixí etc. I am uncertain whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />
teixir has followed eixir in having a perfect tisquí, as well as teixí, but I<br />
suspect it, in view of <strong>the</strong> Prov. tesquet.<br />
Sp. has batí (modern infinitive batir), hodí, cosí, herví, recibí (OSp.<br />
recebí; modern infinitive recibir) etc., bebí, llovió, rompí, vencí, seguí<br />
(infinitive seguir), leí, vertí, OSp. cuntió now aconteció (as an -ecer verb),<br />
conocí, crecí, pací, nací, mecí, tejí, viví, gemí (from gemir, replacing old<br />
emer), OSp. premí (infinitive premir, as well as OSp. premió from premer),<br />
temí, tremí, molí, corrí, cerní, tullí, solví, volví, all formed from <strong>the</strong> present<br />
stem with -edi endings, which appear with <strong>the</strong> diphthong -ie- in OSp. in<br />
ending-accented forms such as vençiemos, and are identified with <strong>the</strong> -ii<br />
endings in <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> verbs with infinitives in -ir. Ptg. has<br />
corresponding forms with -edi or -ii perfects according to <strong>the</strong> infinitive.<br />
In general it will be seen from <strong>the</strong> above that <strong>the</strong> -edi type was<br />
stronger, except in Rum., and partly in OFr., in both of which languages an<br />
accented -ui type appeared, and that <strong>the</strong> two coincided at <strong>the</strong> expense of <strong>the</strong><br />
old -ui type. (In Fr., as in Rum., <strong>the</strong>re was a certain extension of <strong>the</strong> -ui<br />
type, as seen in some modern forms, like vécus, fallut, backed up by <strong>the</strong><br />
49<br />
49
participle in -u.)<br />
c) Anomalous Perfects.<br />
Finally <strong>the</strong>re is one o<strong>the</strong>r group of verbs not yet discussed, those that<br />
do not fit into any of <strong>the</strong> above categories: ponere, quaerere (-quirere),<br />
facere (-ficere), comedere, *essere. Posui, from ponere, in general became<br />
posi, with long o as *resposi, but <strong>the</strong>re are some forms requiring a short o<br />
(Fouché, 145). The Romance forms are: Rum. pusei, old puşi(u) (with <strong>the</strong><br />
vowel of pune; also dial. punsei), OSard. posi, It. posi (also OIt. puose),<br />
OEngad. pus, OFriul. ponz, OFr. pus (also pos/pons, later pondi), OProv.<br />
pos, OCat. compòs (also ponc, later ponguí), Sp. puse, Ptg. pus.<br />
Quaerere had quaesi, first found in an inscription of A.D. 75 (Fouché,<br />
144). This must have been <strong>the</strong> original perfect, but it was replaced in CL by<br />
quesesivi, <strong>the</strong> perfect of quaesere, which was conjugated as an -essere verb,<br />
in accordance with its etymology. The Romance forms sometimes show<br />
confusion with <strong>the</strong> compound form *-quisi (cf. <strong>the</strong> similar confusion of<br />
claudere, -cludere); new forms with -ui are also found. Thus we have Rum.<br />
cerui, also old cerşii, perhaps from quaesivi with <strong>the</strong> -r- of <strong>the</strong> present<br />
inserted, and <strong>the</strong> combined form cerşui, Sard. kerui/kerfi/kersi, It.<br />
chiesi/chiedei/conquisi, OFr. quis/queri, OProv., OCat. quis, Sp. quise, Ptg.<br />
quis; note also OFr. querui, Prov. querec, OCat. requeregués as parui,<br />
parec, and OSp. conquisco.<br />
From facere <strong>the</strong> basic form feci survived, but VL created o<strong>the</strong>rs, as<br />
shown from <strong>the</strong> fecuit, feit recorded in inscriptions. Besides feci, <strong>the</strong><br />
Romance forms go back to *fegi. This originated in forms like fecĕrunt<br />
(VL), fecimus, fecerit etc. where post-tonic c became g in proparoxytones,<br />
as in <strong>the</strong> infinitive *fagere for facere (also fur<strong>the</strong>r reduced to *fare).<br />
*Fegerunt etc. produced *fegi, and <strong>the</strong> feit of <strong>the</strong> inscriptions probably<br />
50<br />
50
equals *fegit. The alternation of <strong>the</strong> forms with and without s (z) in <strong>the</strong> Fr.,<br />
Prov., Cat. reflexes affected o<strong>the</strong>r perfects with s coming from Latin s, ss, x,<br />
as OFr. mis, dis, OProv. mis, dis, OCat. dix, producing forms like 2 meis, 6<br />
mirent, 2 deis, 6 dirent; meiron, diron; diren respectively. The Romance<br />
forms from feci are: ORum. feci(u) (now făcui), OSard. feki/fegi (also<br />
faguit), It. feci and poetical fei, Fr. fis, OProv. fis, Cat. fiu, Sp. hice, Ptg. fiz.<br />
Engad. has fet (+ -tui ending; infinitive fer), and OFriul. 1 feis, 3 fes. There<br />
are also Old Dalmatian forms 1 fei, 3 fe.<br />
Comedere has only survived in Ibero-Romance, apart from a noun<br />
form comând in Rum. The perfect comedi developed like any o<strong>the</strong>r -edi<br />
perfect, Sp. comí, Ptg. comi.<br />
From *essere, fui survived everywhere, but in <strong>the</strong> contracted forms fui,<br />
*fusti, *fut etc.: Rum., OSard., It., OFr., OProv., Cat., OSp., Ptg. fui, Engad.<br />
3 füt (+ -tui ending), subjunctive füss, OSurs. fo (= *fut), subj. fuss, OFriul.<br />
foi, subj. fos. In <strong>the</strong> modern languages <strong>the</strong>re have been various<br />
modifications; Rum. also has fusei, with addition of -si.<br />
The verbs that changed to -ire will be discussed later.<br />
3) The Past Participle.<br />
There are four past participle types in CL (discounting anomalous<br />
forms like stratu, natu, cretu, petitu): -tu, -su, -ĭtu and -utu. These were all<br />
preserved in VL but with a somewhat different distribution. We will deal<br />
with <strong>the</strong>m here according to <strong>the</strong> perfect types to which <strong>the</strong>y correspond.<br />
a) Past Participles in -tu, -su, corresponding to VL perfects in -si.<br />
In CL <strong>the</strong> ending -tu is found attached to stems ending in a velar or<br />
labial; where it was attached to dental stops, <strong>the</strong> combination of two dentals<br />
changed to -ss- in pre-literary times, and this -ss- was simplified to -s- after<br />
51<br />
51
a long vowel; <strong>the</strong> ensuing forms in -su <strong>the</strong>n also affected some velar stems<br />
with perfects in -si. In Romance <strong>the</strong> -tu participles generally survive, but in<br />
some cases have yielded ground to -su; late Latin already had torsus for<br />
tortus, frixus for frictus, conversely tertus for tersus, fictus for fixus,<br />
*spartus for sparsus. Ano<strong>the</strong>r change affecting <strong>the</strong>se participles is <strong>the</strong><br />
addition of <strong>the</strong> -n- from <strong>the</strong> present stem, thus late Latin finctus, pinctus for<br />
fictus, pictus. I have also included in this group of velars and labials <strong>the</strong><br />
participles in -tu of some of <strong>the</strong> verbs which had perfects with a leng<strong>the</strong>ned<br />
vowel in classical Latin and did not always change over to -si perfects.<br />
In Rum. <strong>the</strong> change to -su is especially noticeable. Standard Rum. has<br />
copt, fript, supt, înfipt, spart, frânt, smult/(s)muls (CL mulctus/mulsus),<br />
întort/întors, and fossilised înŃelept, drept, strâmt, unt, treaptă, tort, toartă,<br />
but o<strong>the</strong>rwise all <strong>the</strong> participles have been changed to <strong>the</strong> -su type to match<br />
<strong>the</strong> perfects, following <strong>the</strong> analogy of mergere–mers, ştergere–şters (but<br />
trece makes trecut, as trecui, and înŃelege has an alternative inŃelegut; so<br />
also învence/învinge, which joined this class, has an old p.p. învencut). Of<br />
<strong>the</strong> above it will be seen that înfipt and spart continue VL forms fictus and<br />
*spartus, attested by <strong>the</strong> evidence of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages.<br />
Macedo-Rum., on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, is more conservative and keeps<br />
many (but not all) of <strong>the</strong> old participles: traptu, aleptu, culeptu, înŃeleptu,<br />
ndreptu, adaptu (= adauctu), az-vimtu (= vi(n)ctu), pimtu, plâmtu, tsimtu,<br />
strimtu, astimtu, adžumtu, alimtu (= linctu), (a)umtu, stortu (Bourciez,<br />
481).<br />
Scribere likewise produces scris, and vivere învis, but <strong>the</strong>re is an<br />
ORum. script, matched by standard rupt (rumpere) and <strong>the</strong> noun form vipt<br />
from victu.<br />
In Sard. in this class <strong>the</strong>re are such forms as cottu, fintu, lintu, istrintu,<br />
plantu (modern pi-, pr-), puntu, ğuttu (ducere), gollettu, arrettu (and<br />
arressu), (as)suttu (sugere), ispartu, assoltu (absolvere), multu/mulliu<br />
52<br />
52
(mulgere), lessu/lettu/lesidu, iscrittu, ruttu. Frigere makes frissu (in Sard.<br />
frittu = frigidu). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, imbergere (Latin immergere) has<br />
imbertu.<br />
In It. almost all <strong>the</strong> verbs quoted above in this class have past<br />
participles in -to. However, of <strong>the</strong>se, fitto, erto, and sparto are only<br />
adjectives. Note a dialectal lesto for letto (a late Latin legestum is attested).<br />
Also note rotto beside perfect ruppi. Participles in -so are: fisso, sparso,<br />
(e)merso, terso, erso, (e)mulso, backed by (e)multo through confusion with<br />
(e)munto; some of <strong>the</strong>se may be learned forms. Earlier colletto was replaced<br />
by colto, but in <strong>the</strong> north this -etto ending was extended to o<strong>the</strong>r verbs.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>r fossilized forms are: diritto, asciutto, stretto, intelletto (adj.), dispetto,<br />
sospetto, getto, tragitto, assunto (noun, but also still a regular p.p.;<br />
evidently learned, as are its cognates below), and arroto if this is from<br />
adauctu. There is also a tendency in dialect to replace <strong>the</strong> strong forms with<br />
weak forms in -uto, such as leggiuto, piangiuto, cociuto.<br />
In Rh.-Rom. <strong>the</strong> fact that this type of participle still survives and is<br />
flourishing is an indication that <strong>the</strong> corresponding perfect types were also<br />
once in use. Examples are (including fossilised forms): Engad. dit, cundüt,<br />
cot, trat, dret, tert, sdrüt, clet, (per)inclet, stret, let, plaunt (planctu), tit<br />
(tinctu), dschüt (iunctu), püt (punctu), üt (unctu), süt (suctu), stüert<br />
(extortu), scrit, ruot, Surs. detg, cotg, tratg, antaletg, scret, rut, and <strong>the</strong><br />
adverb fich/fetg from *fictu. (Meyer-Lübke also quotes mysterious fränt,<br />
stränt, depänt. The first seems to be a “phonetic” representation of fraunt.)<br />
-S- forms are seen in smers (*exmersu), mous (mulsu). Friulian has cundott,<br />
cott, suspiet.<br />
In Fr. <strong>the</strong> position is <strong>the</strong> same as in It., and <strong>the</strong> strong participles have<br />
been preserved into modern times, even if new weak perfects have been<br />
created. (But lit has given way to lu; fossilised élite remains.) Those that<br />
hesitate between -t and -s appear in OFr. as: aers/aert, fit/clofis, mous<br />
(mulgere), sors, tors/tort (later tordu), espars/espart, ters/tert. Frait and<br />
53<br />
53
estreit (adj.) show <strong>the</strong> old participle without -n-, beside new forms fraint,<br />
enfreint, estreint. Coilleit is <strong>the</strong> old participle of cueillir, used adjectivally;<br />
this ending -eit was later extended to o<strong>the</strong>r verbs. Fossilised forms are: droit,<br />
jet, étroit, dépit, route, old constreinte; trait(e) may be a mixture of tractu<br />
and traiectu. (A form traeit beside trait is found in OFr.) Aoit, ra(i)ent,<br />
souspite and sougit became obsolete.<br />
OProv. has participles ending in -i(n)t or -(n)ch (also written -g, -h)<br />
according to <strong>the</strong> dialect, thus: ceint/cench, cueit/cuech and similarly afit,<br />
aflit, dit, duit, feint, frit, joint, peint, plaint, estreit, teint, trait, oint, esteint,<br />
destruit, empeint, espeint, point, taint, ateint, frait/fraint, eslig, rot, modern<br />
vint, and, from escriure, escrit (etymological)/escrich (on <strong>the</strong> analogy of<br />
dit/dich)/escriut (from <strong>the</strong> perfect escrius, where -us- is etymological). -S<br />
forms appear in ers, (a)ders, pors, sors, espars, mols, pars, ters and estors<br />
beside tort/estort, with rezems beside rezemt. (There is also esteins formed<br />
by confusion with extendere.) Fossilised forms are: azaut, dreit, fita,<br />
nalech/ne-, culheta, eissuch, despieit, sospiecha, jieit, sotzjeit, tragiet.<br />
In modern Cat. <strong>the</strong> number of strong participles in this class is very<br />
limited: cuit/cogut, dit, dut (OCat. duit), tret (and compounds a-, con-, es-,<br />
re- etc.), estret (strictu, and compounds co(n)-, de-), escrit. OCat. also had<br />
elet/elegut, now elegit, and lest, now llegit; <strong>the</strong> old form lest suggests an<br />
original *lescitu/*lexitu to be equated with Prov. lescut, though it may also<br />
be cognate with It. lesto. The adjective tort was also a participle in earlier<br />
days. O<strong>the</strong>r old participial forms are: despit, sospita, (re)dret, nelet,<br />
ert/eret, surt, eixut, atent, cinta, frant, junt, punt, pint, empenta, tint, unt,<br />
assumpte (learned), fita, culleta, rot, get/git, elet, fretura, and, in <strong>the</strong> -su<br />
class, atès (attingere, confused with attendere), empès, fix (learned?) and<br />
fluix. Thus, though most of <strong>the</strong>se verbs have ei<strong>the</strong>r disappeared or taken<br />
weak participles, as tenyit, <strong>the</strong>re is evidence that <strong>the</strong> VL pattern was carried<br />
through here too. O<strong>the</strong>r verbs in -nyer, such as plányer, pertányer, have<br />
planyut/-gut, pertanyut/-gut.<br />
54<br />
54
Sp. and Ptg. show <strong>the</strong> same position. In this class in modern Sp. <strong>the</strong>re<br />
are only dicho, frito, escrito as past participles; OSp. had (a)ducho, frecho,<br />
cojecho/escollecho, erecho, esleyto (Arag.), costreito (Arag.), destruito<br />
(Arag.), empenta (Arag.), old afflito, escorrecho etc. Fossilised forms are:<br />
cocho, arrecho, correcho, derecho, yerto, surto, estrecho, trecho, cosecha,<br />
despecho, sospecha, echura, cinto, junto/yunta, finta, llanto, pinta, punto,<br />
tinto, unto, asunto, absorto, enjuto, hito/cohita, tuerto, roto, and, with a -su<br />
form, flojo. That <strong>the</strong> change to <strong>the</strong> present weak participles in -ido went via<br />
-udo is shown by forms like OSp. costreñudo, tañudo, esparzudo, ergudo,<br />
leudo. Trecho probably combines tractu and traiectu (cf. <strong>the</strong> meaning of<br />
Rum. treaptă < traiecta); traducta gives trocha (cf. <strong>the</strong> possible similar<br />
confusion of traxi and traduxi).<br />
Modern Ptg. just has <strong>the</strong> participles dito, escrito. OPtg. had also adoito,<br />
ereito, treito, colheito, escolheito (on <strong>the</strong> pattern of which new participles<br />
were created in o<strong>the</strong>r verbs, e.g., tolheito, coseito), coito, esleito (now<br />
eleito), cinto, junto, (in)finto, tinto, escorreito (OGal.; now an adj. in Ptg.),<br />
sogeito (OGal.; modern sujeito). Fossilised forms are: freito, direito,<br />
(h)irto, estreito, contreito, despeito, suspeito, jeito, trejeito (with <strong>the</strong> same<br />
meaning as It. tratto), chanto/pranto, pinto/pito, ponto, unto, assunto,<br />
absorto, surto, enxuto, aflito, fito/confita, frito, torto, rôto, and, with -su<br />
forms, frouxo, emerso, esparso, asperso (<strong>the</strong>se last evidently learned). As in<br />
OSp., intermediate -udo forms appear in this class of verbs, later giving<br />
way to -ido: aduzudo, constrangudo/constreniudo, tanjudo, regudo,<br />
correjudo, onjudo, (e)merjudo, espargudo (esparjudo)/sperçudo, leudo,<br />
esleudo.<br />
b) Past participles in -su, corresponding to VL perfects in -si, -edi.<br />
We are concerned here with <strong>the</strong> past participles from stems ending in a<br />
55<br />
55
dental; <strong>the</strong> velars and labials have already been dealt with above. This class<br />
is observable throughout Romania.<br />
Rum. has închis, trimis, ras, ros, ucis, pătruns, prins, purces, scos, râs,<br />
răspuns, ars, ascuns, încins, întins, old deştins, depins, tuns, following <strong>the</strong><br />
perfect stems. Here Macedo-Rum. shows <strong>the</strong> influence of <strong>the</strong> velars, with<br />
ascumtu, pătrumtu, tumtu, apres/aprimtu, tes/timtu.<br />
Sard. has forms like presu, prasu/prandidu (cf. pranso in Dante), tusu<br />
(tondere), pertusu/pertuntu, intesu/inténditu, rrispostu (italianised?),<br />
infusu/infustu, and <strong>the</strong> noun form isposu. There are also forms with added<br />
-ĭtu, such as arsidu, intesidu, offensidu, residu, missidu, arrisiu, mossiu<br />
(mordere; cf. <strong>the</strong> noun form mossu).<br />
It. has chiuso, messo (and OIt. mettuto), raso, roso, ucciso, contuso<br />
(learned), preso, scosso, riso, morso, arso, risposto (re-formed on (ri)posto,<br />
cf. sposo), OIt. (n)ascoso, similarly changed to nascosto, and -so or -uto<br />
forms for those with -si or -edi perfects, sceso/(old) scenduto, scoceso,<br />
acceso, inceso/incenduto, teso/tenduto, difeso/difenduto, feso/fesso/fenduto,<br />
(con)fuso/(old) fonduto, speso, sospeso/penduto, toso/tonso (as<br />
adj.)/tonduto, cesso/ceduto, perduto/perso, renduto/reso. Besides <strong>the</strong>se<br />
<strong>the</strong>re are learned borrowings, and in fact words like difeso, fuso, fesso,<br />
cesso (di-, dis-) may be learned, and feso purely an It. formation.<br />
Rh.-Rom. has forms like Engad. ars, ris, miss, prais (pre(he)nsu), tais,<br />
difais, sfes, -clüs, füs, rus (rosu), tus (tonsu), scus (excussu), respus, spans,<br />
müers, Surs. ars, ris, mess; contrast Friul. mettut. Also <strong>the</strong> nouns spus,<br />
spaisa, resposta. There has also been some extension as in It.; where <strong>the</strong> old<br />
language had perdudus, modern Engad. has pers, Surs. piers/pl. piars<br />
(Bourciez, 530, 531). There is also a Dalmatian respwast.<br />
OFr. likewise has -s participles for -s perfects: clos, conclus, mis (with<br />
<strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> perfect; cf. mets, messe, promesse, showing <strong>the</strong> original<br />
form), res, ocis, pris (vowel of <strong>the</strong> perfect; so also ap-, com-, re-, etc.),<br />
escos, socos (cf. secousse), ris, mors, respons/respondu (cf. époux), ars,<br />
56<br />
56
escons/escondu. Fossilised forms are toise, poids, fesse, ces (OFr.), décès,<br />
defois (OFr.), touse (OFr.), and, with learned influence, dépens(e), offense,<br />
encens, confus, contus etc. Compare also <strong>the</strong> derivative pertuis. The verbs<br />
of this class with -edi perfects have -utu participles, as tendu, pendu, fondu,<br />
tondu, descendu, later joined by mordu.<br />
OProv. has claus, conclus, mes (pro-, sos-, tra-, etc.)/Gasc. metut, ras,<br />
ros/rodut, aucis, pres/prendut (a-, com-, em-, re- etc.), cofus/coffondut,<br />
escos, socos, fos (fodere), mors/mordut, respos/respost/respondut, ars,<br />
rescos/escost/escondut, deisses (descendere), tes/tendut, ences/acendut,<br />
defes/defendut. Respost, escost correspond to It. risposto, nascosto.<br />
Fossilised: pes, ces, espos. Derivative: pertuis. As in Fr., <strong>the</strong> -edi perfects<br />
have -utu participles, thus pendut, fondut, tondut, deissendut.<br />
OCat., and <strong>the</strong> modern language too, has more strong participles than<br />
perfects, leading one to suppose that <strong>the</strong>re were originally more strong<br />
perfects too: clos, conclòs, enclòs/enclús, mes, promès (sot-, per-, tra-, etc.),<br />
ras (now adj.), oucís, pres, après (com-, em-, re-, etc.), fos (fusu with vowel<br />
of fonder), confús, mos (noun, from morsu), respost (and noun espòs), tos,<br />
tes, atès (en-, es-, pre-), sospès (and nouns pes, despesa), defès (OCat., and<br />
noun devesa), ofès, encès. We can also suppose -s participles for <strong>the</strong> old<br />
perfects ris, concés. Fendre has fes and fenut, also fendit like those verbs<br />
that have changed to <strong>the</strong> -ir type. Note <strong>the</strong> old escondut, now escondit.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>r p.ps. for verbs in -dre are as atengut, pretengut, depengut.<br />
In Sp. <strong>the</strong> -su participles are in general to be sought amongst <strong>the</strong><br />
fossilised forms, though some still existed as participles in OSp., such as<br />
preso, apreso, meso, espeso, repiso/repeso (repender/-ir), defeso, enceso,<br />
ascuso. The forms are: llosa, concluso (in-), remesa (pro-), raso, roso, tuso,<br />
confuso, contuso (learned), occiso, risa (son-), mueso, respuesta, tieso/teso,<br />
enceso, dehesa/OSp. devesa, peso/pesa, espesa, esposo, a excusa etc. These<br />
forms were early replaced as past participles, giving place to -udo forms<br />
like ardudo, prendudo, defendudo, pendudo, (de)spendudo, espandudo,<br />
57<br />
57
co(n)fondudo, arrepentudo, ascondudo, encendudo, entendudo, metudo,<br />
which in turn yielded to -ido forms.<br />
OPtg. has such participles as preso, apreso, despeso, repeso/arrepiso<br />
(repender). Fossilised forms are: chousa, concluso (in-), remessa (pro-),<br />
raso, riso (sor-), tosa, confuso, contuso (learned), mossa, remorso, resposta,<br />
têso, aceso, devesa/defesa, pêso, espesa, despesa, espôso, escoso/escuso.<br />
OGal. also has <strong>the</strong> noun rosa. As in Sp., early changes produced -udo forms<br />
like (a)prendudo, metudo, defendudo, entendudo (es-), encendudo,<br />
despendudo, fendudo, cofondudo, ascondudo, mordudo, espandudo,<br />
repentudo, which later gave way to -ido forms.<br />
c) Past participles in -ĭtu (including participles in -tu corresponding<br />
to VL Perfects in -ui).<br />
This type is attested as a growing type in late Latin, with forms like<br />
sapitus, dolitus, tremitus, tollitus, vincitus, vivitus, parcitus (and cf. <strong>the</strong><br />
future participles noted above, and verb formations in -itare, such as<br />
agitare, pascitare). But later it gave way everywhere to -utu, except in Sard.<br />
and certain secondary formations in south It., and except in cases where <strong>the</strong><br />
-i- had been lost and <strong>the</strong> form had become <strong>the</strong> equivalent of a strong<br />
participle in -tu; in this case <strong>the</strong> verbs concerned formed a class with words<br />
like rumpere, colere, redimere, recipere, whose participles (partly noted<br />
above) will also be considered here as <strong>the</strong>se verbs belong to <strong>the</strong> same VL<br />
-ui perfect type, along with <strong>the</strong> forms from currere, -serere and those from<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r verbs with perfects in -ui. -Ĭt- is still a live element in word formation,<br />
however, in <strong>the</strong> endings -itor, -itoriu, as in <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong> (see above).<br />
Taking <strong>the</strong> more conservative type first, in Sard. we have forms like<br />
curtu/curridu, nascidu, vinkitu (also vissu/binsu), bittu (from bibitu),<br />
crettitu (on <strong>the</strong> perfect stem), intenditu, venditu, perditu, cumprendiu,<br />
battitu (replacing <strong>the</strong> *battutu to be supposed from <strong>the</strong> CL form), ruttu<br />
58<br />
58
(from ruptu), pettitu, proppiu/proitu (*plovitu), assoltu/assolviu. (Central<br />
dialects have -tu, Logudorian -du, Campidanian -u.) Fremida, emida,<br />
premida are also found, as nouns.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages <strong>the</strong> -ĭtu participles that still appeared in <strong>the</strong><br />
verbal <strong>system</strong> in one language or ano<strong>the</strong>r are: positu (to be discussed later),<br />
*expanditu, *fervitu, fremitu, gemitu, *premitu, tremitu, molitu, tollitu,<br />
*solvitu, *volvitu, vincitu. The o<strong>the</strong>rs, which were replaced as participles by<br />
-utu forms, appear as fossilised forms.<br />
In Rum. only *fervitu, *volvitu survive in <strong>the</strong> verb <strong>system</strong>, as fiert,<br />
desvolt. Învinge has a new form învins and curge <strong>the</strong> CL form curs. The<br />
only o<strong>the</strong>r forms found are freamăt, gemăt/geamăt, ORum. temet, beat<br />
(bibitu), nat, vipt (from vivere, as noted above), Ńesătură, deşert, and new<br />
forms like treacăt, cusătură, bătătură. Then <strong>the</strong>re are, as mentioned, all <strong>the</strong><br />
nouns and adjectives in -ător, as crezător, vânzător, învingător, attached to<br />
each verb in this <strong>conjugation</strong>. Rupt, from ruptu, also belongs here.<br />
Rh.-Rom. also has ruot (Engad.), rut (Surs.) in this class. O<strong>the</strong>rwise<br />
<strong>the</strong>re are fossilized forms like Engad. siut, vieult/veulta/vouta, miot, tot,<br />
where <strong>the</strong> Latin l has become vocalised, Surs. antschet (inceptu), retschet<br />
(receptu), cret (creditu), Friul. témit; also cuors from classical cursu. The<br />
-itor formation also survives, but is sometimes affected by -ator; Engad.<br />
credéder, Surs. mulgíder/mulgiáder, rumpáder (Bourciez, 520).<br />
In It. <strong>the</strong>re are <strong>the</strong> full participles spanto (and spaso), tolto (also<br />
tolletto, after colletto), solto (and soluto), sciolto, volto (and involuto), vinto.<br />
-Ĭtu survives in dialect, e.g., Ven. creto (creditu), Neap. chiuóppeto<br />
(*plovitu), curzeto (cursu), vippeto (bibitu), Apul. fiersetu (*fervitu), <strong>the</strong>se<br />
formed on <strong>the</strong> perfect stem. Fremito, gemito, premito, tremito appear as<br />
nouns (also as Neap. participle prémmeto); as <strong>the</strong>y remained proparoxytone<br />
<strong>the</strong>y were not drawn into <strong>the</strong> class of redimere–redento, (as)sumere–<br />
(as)sunto. The verb molere has disappeared, leaving only <strong>the</strong> form molenda.<br />
59<br />
59
-Tu forms, apart from redento, (as)sunto, are rotto, nato (and dialectal<br />
nasciuto), irato, old testo, old decetto, ricetta. Correre keeps <strong>the</strong> CL form<br />
corso, and scernere forms <strong>the</strong> new scerso, while <strong>the</strong> CL -su, -stu forms also<br />
survive fossilised in presso/pressa (with p.p. espresso, perhaps learned, as<br />
also in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r languages), pasto, misto, converso. Fossilised -(ĭ)tu forms<br />
are: perdita, rendita, vendita, ascondito, tenda (if this and cognate forms<br />
are from *tendita; cf. Rum. tindă), fenditura, fondita/fonditura, tonditura,<br />
spendita, tessitura, mietitura, vincita, seguito, conto (cognitu), gen(i)to<br />
(learned?), colto, diserto, inserto, bibita (learned influence)/bevitura,<br />
crescita, mescita, nascita, cernita, peto. The -itor/-itoriu form is seen in<br />
genitore, bevitore, vincitore, venditore, pascitore, accenditore, accenditoio,<br />
corridoio etc. Note also battito, which suggests that batt(u)ere did indeed<br />
follow <strong>the</strong> vendere pattern at an early stage.<br />
Participial forms in OFr. are: solt (and sols), tolt (and toleit on <strong>the</strong><br />
analogy of coilleit), volt (and vols), crient, gient, prient; modern Fr. absoute<br />
(ré-)/absous (ré-), voûte (noun), craint, geint, empreint, épreint. Né and<br />
OFr. (d)espert (experrectu), ra(i)ent, rot, iré also belong here; <strong>the</strong>se verbs<br />
also developed new -utu forms to match <strong>the</strong> perfect or present stems: rompu,<br />
nascu/naissu, irascu/iraissu. Fossilised are: OFr. friente, mouture (<strong>the</strong>re is<br />
also an old participle mols formed on <strong>the</strong> perfect mols, itself formed on an<br />
earlier participle *molt), perte, rente, vente, aprentis > apprenti,<br />
fente/(OFr.) fenture, tente, fonte, tonte, pente, descente, attente, entente,<br />
crainte, route, désert, boite (<strong>the</strong> vowel from <strong>the</strong> present, cf. dette), suite,<br />
OFr. cointe (cf. accointer), gent, croît, pet, with OFr. deceite, receite;<br />
cours(e), repas, près/presse, exprès, OFr. convers survive from <strong>the</strong> CL<br />
forms. (Some of <strong>the</strong>se forms, such as descente, are not recorded until late,<br />
so <strong>the</strong>y may have been formed analogically in Fr., ra<strong>the</strong>r than going back to<br />
VL.) -Itor/-itoriu appear in défendeur, vendeur, vainqueur, etc., cf. modern<br />
abattoir (for <strong>the</strong> formation, see above, under <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>).<br />
60<br />
60
In <strong>the</strong> Prov. verb <strong>system</strong> <strong>the</strong> roots ending in l have kept <strong>the</strong> -ĭtu type:<br />
molt, (ab)solt, tolt, volt, and with <strong>the</strong>m colt from cultu. Those ending in m<br />
have -s: crems, prems, rezems/rezemt, tems. This s comes from <strong>the</strong> perfect,<br />
except in <strong>the</strong> case of prems, which was formed by inserting <strong>the</strong> m of <strong>the</strong><br />
present stem into <strong>the</strong> old participle pressu; this formation is found in o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
languages too. The forms *premsi, *premsu thus formed, toge<strong>the</strong>r with an<br />
early *redempsi, set <strong>the</strong> pattern for <strong>the</strong> introduction of s forms in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
-mere verbs. -Tu forms are found in espert (experrectu), rot, nat, irat (with<br />
alternative -utu forms). Fossilised forms are: venda/-ta, fenda/-ta/fendedura,<br />
perda, renda, tenda, atenda, ententa, penda, descenda, fonda, tonda, crenta,<br />
desert, beu(e)t (bibitu), volta, coinde/cuenhde (cognitu), gent, peit, teissura,<br />
naissedura, and cosedura beside costura. Corre keeps <strong>the</strong> CL form cors<br />
(beside corregut); fossilised CL forms are près/pressa, exprès, mest,<br />
recet(a). -Itor/-itoriu forms like batedor, crezedor, vendedor, naisedor,<br />
temedor/-a, conoisedor also flourish.<br />
In Cat. <strong>the</strong> l verbs have also kept <strong>the</strong> participle in -t: molt, absolt (dis-,<br />
re-), envolt, tolt, colt. Of <strong>the</strong> m verbs, premsa survives as a noun, alongside<br />
<strong>the</strong> CL forms pres/pressa, exprés. Lest (perhaps from *lexitu/*leskitu) has<br />
already been mentioned. Despert, rot, nat (alongside romput, nascut), irat<br />
also belong here. O<strong>the</strong>r fossilised forms are: venda, renda, tenda, pèrdua,<br />
fenedura, volt(a), desert, pet, test, naixedura, with recepta in a Latin dress,<br />
and cos (cursu). The -edor ending also flourishes, e.g. corredor,<br />
estenedor/-a, prenedor, venedor, batedor.<br />
In Sp., suelto, vuelto, roto, and, in OSp., nado, tuelto (OArag.), remain<br />
as participial forms, with adjectival despierto. Surviving fossilised forms<br />
are: pérdida, renta (OSp. renda), venta (OSp. véndida), aprendiz,<br />
hendedura (and dial. fenda), pendura, (con)tienda, tunda, mesta, receta, old<br />
tiesto/tejedura, moledura, vuelta/bóveda, desierto, injerto (inserere), beodo<br />
(dial. bébedo), irado, pedo, OSp. gento, yemdo, and prisa from CL pressa<br />
61<br />
61
(also prensa from Prov. or Cat., and learned expreso), corso/coso. Nado<br />
survives in nadie, nada. The -itor/-itoriu forms are seen in vencedor,<br />
vendedor, perecedero, prendedor, prendedero etc., with -ero < -uero <<br />
-oiro.<br />
OPtg. had tolheito (for *tolto by analogy with colheito) and nado.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>r forms remaining are desperto, sôlto, (en)volto/volta/abóbada, rôto,<br />
perda, renda, venda, aprendiz, fenda, pendura, (con)tenda, tunda, tecidura,<br />
moedura, bêbedo/bêbado, deserto, enxerto, irado, peido, receita, pressa<br />
(and prensa, expresso), corso/cosso; also old teisto, gento. Nado survives in<br />
nada. -Itor/-itoriu forms are as in vendedor, batedor/-doiro, vencedor,<br />
perecedor/-doiro, prendedor.<br />
Apart from <strong>the</strong> above examples, <strong>the</strong> -ĭtu participles were replaced by<br />
-utu and o<strong>the</strong>r forms, to be discussed next.<br />
d) Past Participles in -utu.<br />
We have already traced <strong>the</strong> origin and spread of this form. There are<br />
several instances of such forms in late Latin (which, in many cases, can<br />
better be regarded as a <strong>latin</strong>ised form of <strong>the</strong> local Romance language):<br />
perdutus, reddutus, incenduta, molutus, pendutus, Creduta, Venutus,<br />
battutus, tolutum, fundutas (Väänänen, 341; Bourciez, 212). It would seem<br />
that this was a process that was only given an initial impulse in VL, without<br />
being brought to completion; witness modern forms such as Fr. connu, Prov.<br />
conogut, Rum. cunoscut, It. conosciuto derived independently from<br />
different stems.<br />
Rum. has bătut, futut, cusut, Ńesut, cunoscut, crescut, născut, mescut,<br />
păscut, crezut, pierdut, vândut, gemut, scremut (*expremutu), vomut, temut,<br />
început (pri-, per-), băut, trecut, cernut, aşternut, old învencut. Fossilised<br />
are: mărunt/amănunt, strănut, stătut (attached to sta; but this may ra<strong>the</strong>r be<br />
62<br />
62
formed from *stetui).<br />
It. has battuto, fottuto, soluto/OLomb. solvuo, involuto, creduto,<br />
perduto/perso, renduto/reso, venduto, old traduto, OLomb. asconduo,<br />
ceduto/cesso (perhaps learned), fenduto/fes(s)o, incenduto/inceso,<br />
tenduto/teso, fonduto (old)/fuso, tonduto/toso (as adj.), risplenduto, penduto,<br />
mietuto, fremuto, gemuto, premuto, vomuto, temuto, leggiuto/OAquil. lesto,<br />
ricevuto/ORom. receputo, bevuto, fervuto, piovuto, vinciuto/vinto/vitto,<br />
conosciuto, cresciuto (with <strong>the</strong> consonant seen also in crescita), pasciuto,<br />
nasciuto (dial.)/nato, mesciuto, tessuto, vissuto (and vivuto), scernuto, old<br />
(pro)sternuto. Cucire (consuere) makes cucito, but consutu survives in<br />
costura. Fossilised forms are: acuto, minuto, imbuto, starnuto, tributo<br />
(learned re-formation). O<strong>the</strong>r -uto forms are found in dialects, such as<br />
convertuto, metudo, currutu.<br />
Sard. also has <strong>the</strong> fossilised forms minutu, OCamp. trauda (tributa),<br />
and ruttu, <strong>the</strong> participle of ru(g)ere from ruere.<br />
In Rh.-Rom. <strong>the</strong> -utu type is <strong>the</strong> normal one, with forms like Lower<br />
Engad. battü, vendü, naschü, creschü, cunschü, and corresponding ones in<br />
<strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r dialects. Friul has cognossut, recevut.<br />
Fr. has battu, foutu, cousu, cru, perdu, rendu, vendu, fendu, répandu,<br />
tendu (at-, en-, é-, pré-), défendu, OFr. ofendu, descendu, pendu (sus-, dé-),<br />
fondu, tondu, répondu, OFr. escondu, OFr. resplandu, OFr. cremu, OFr.<br />
gemu, OFr. premu, reçu (con-, dé-, a(p)er-), bu, plu, rompu, vaincu, OFr.<br />
sëu (*sequutu), lu, élu, connu, crû, repu, OFr. irascu, OFr. nascu/naissu,<br />
tissu, vécu, moulu, couru, OFr. tolu, OFr. vertu (con-, per-, re-). Fossilised<br />
are: aigu, imbu, menu, éternue, OFr. trëu; perhaps <strong>the</strong> influence of statutu<br />
may be seen in OFr. estëu (participle of ester), of indutu in enduit.<br />
OProv. has batut, fotut, cosut, crezut/cregut/crezegut, perdut, rendut,<br />
vendut, fendut, espandut, tendut (en-)/tes, acendut, defendut, deissendut,<br />
fondut, coffondut/cofus, tondut, pendut, respondut/respos/respost,<br />
escondut/rescos/escost, resplandut, penedut, cremut/crems, premut/prems,<br />
63<br />
63
ezemut/rezems/rezemt, temut/tems/temsut, receubut (de-, con-, (a)per-,<br />
soisseubut), ereubut, begut, plogut, romput/rot, vencut, segut/seguit (to<br />
infinitive seguir), legut/lescut (from perfect *lexui/*lescui)/legit (to<br />
infinitive legir), elegut/elescut/eslig/elech, conogut, cregut, pagut/pascut,<br />
irascut/irat (adj.), nascut/nat, tescut/teissut, viscut, molut/molt, tolgut/tolt,<br />
volgut/volt, corregut with old CL form cors. Fossilised are: agut, embut,<br />
menut, estranut, treut/traut. Gascon has <strong>the</strong> participle form metut.<br />
Cat. has: batut, fotut, (cosit from infinitive cosir, but costura shows<br />
consutu), cregut, perdut, retut, venut, fenut, penedut, (es)premut, temut,<br />
OCat. resemut, rebut (concebut, de-, (a)per-), begut, plogut, romput/rot,<br />
vençut, conegut/conescut, crescut, nascut/nat, viscut, pascut, irascut/irat,<br />
merescut, corregut. Seguir, teixir make seguit, teixit. There is also<br />
dialectal creixit, and fendit from fendre, beside <strong>the</strong> usual fenut/fes.<br />
Fossilised forms are: agut, menut, embut, esternut, traut.<br />
In Sp. <strong>the</strong> modern language has weak past participles in -ido<br />
corresponding to <strong>the</strong> -edi (including former -ui) perfects, but <strong>the</strong> ancient<br />
language had -udo, which enjoyed a wide extension to those verbs which<br />
originally had -to or -so participles (some cases already listed above), thus<br />
producing a uniform <strong>conjugation</strong> in -er, -í, -udo. The relevant forms I have<br />
found quoted are: batudo, fududo (hodudo), atrevudo, creudo (credere),<br />
perdudo, rendudo, vendudo, tra(h)udo (tradere), ascondudo, tendudo,<br />
entendudo, encendudo, defendudo, pendudo, (de)spendudo, (a)prendudo,<br />
descendudo, espandudo, co(n)fondudo, ardudo, metudo, arrepentudo, leudo,<br />
temudo, cernudo, recebudo, (a)percebudo, (cor)rompudo, vençudo,<br />
conosçudo (conoçudo, conuzudo etc.), cresçudo, nasçudo, pazudo,<br />
estavlezudo (-bleç-), desparesçudo, texudo, segudo, moludo, tolludo,<br />
comudo. Fossilized are: agudo, embudo, menudo, estornudo, OSp. treudo.<br />
In Ptg. <strong>the</strong> same situation is found; <strong>the</strong> weak -er verbs all had past<br />
participles in -udo, which were finally changed to -ido. Relevant forms<br />
64<br />
64
quoted are: batudo, fududo (fodudo), creudo (credere), perdudo, rendudo,<br />
vendudo, traudo, adudo (inaddere), ascondudo, tendudo (en-, es-),<br />
encendudo, defendudo, despendudo, (a)prendudo, fendudo, espandudo,<br />
cofondudo, mordudo, metudo, (con)vertudo, repentudo, leudo, esleudo,<br />
recebudo (con-, de-, (a)per-), bevudo, atrevudo, conhoçudo, (a)pareçudo,<br />
estabele(s)çudo (and so o<strong>the</strong>r -e(s)cer verbs), creçudo, vençudo, teçudo,<br />
temudo, premudo, remeudo (redimere), mudo (molere), corrudo (a-, de-),<br />
persolvudo. Fossilised are: agudo, embudo, miudo, old trevudo.<br />
e) Past Participles of <strong>the</strong> Anomalous Verbs.<br />
In VL ponere had <strong>the</strong> past participle postu for CL positu, a form found<br />
in late Latin inscriptions, from which <strong>the</strong> Romance forms come: Rum. pus<br />
(after <strong>the</strong> perfect puse, but *post must have existed and may remain<br />
reflected in adăpost; see also essere below), Sard. postu, It. posto, Friul.<br />
puost, Engad., OFr., OProv., Cat. post (OFr. also had pos, pus, pons after<br />
<strong>the</strong> perfect, later pondu; cf. also <strong>the</strong> noun ponte), Sp. puesto, Ptg. pôsto.<br />
Quaerere had *quaestu, *-quistu replacing CL quaesitu (cf. perf. quaesi);<br />
this must have been <strong>the</strong> earlier form, cf. noun quaestus and o<strong>the</strong>r formations<br />
in quaest-. Rum. has a new weak form cerut, also cerşit (< quaesitu?) and<br />
cerşut (with <strong>the</strong> new formations cestor, cestiune based on *quaest-), It.<br />
chiesto/conquista (n.), dial. chieduto, Fr. quis/conquis after <strong>the</strong> perfect, but<br />
fossilised forms quête/conquête, OProv. ques/quis/quist/conquest, Cat.<br />
request (con-)/requist, Sp. quisto (adj.)/conquista (n.), Ptg. benquisto<br />
(adj.)/conquista (n.)/OGal. conquisto. Note <strong>the</strong> OFr. queru, Prov. queregut,<br />
OCat. requeregut, as paru, paregut. There are also -utu forms in an<br />
uncertain OSp. malquerudo and OPtg. enquerudo. Prov., Cat., Sp., Ptg. now<br />
have weak -itu forms, and Rum. has cucerit from cuceri, while Sard. has<br />
<strong>the</strong> -ĭtu forms kerfidu/kertu, and also kersu.<br />
65<br />
65
From factu come: ORum. fapt (now only a noun, superseded as a<br />
participle by făcut; but Macedo-Rum. still has faptu), Sard. fattu, It. fatto,<br />
Engad., Friul. fat, Surs. fatg, Fr. fait, OProv. fait/fach, Cat. fet, Sp. hecho,<br />
Ptg. feito. In compounds It. has confetto, sconfitto, profitto (for <strong>the</strong> vowel,<br />
cf. diritto, tragitto), Fr. (dé)confit, profit, suffi (OFr. soffit), Prov. confiech,<br />
profieit/profiech, Cat. confit, profit, Sp. cohecho, provecho, Ptg. confeito,<br />
proveito. Vegliot has regular fwat and an anomalous fayt. From comedere,<br />
comestu survives in OPtg., OGal. comesto, with analogical extension to<br />
bebesto; comido is <strong>the</strong> modern participle in Sp., Ptg.<br />
*Essere had no past participle; <strong>the</strong> stem fut- seen in futurus was used<br />
in Rum., thus Macedo-Rum. futu. In standard Rum. <strong>the</strong> past participle is<br />
fost, formed from <strong>the</strong> extended form of <strong>the</strong> perfect, fuse, on <strong>the</strong> proportion<br />
puse:*post; fuse: fost. In It., Rh.-Rom., Fr., Prov., Cat., statu is used: It.<br />
stato, Upper Engad. sto, Fr. été, Prov., Cat. estat; but OIt. also has *essutu<br />
forms, suto/essuto, and Cat. has dialectal sigut, set, formed on <strong>the</strong><br />
subjunctive and infinitive. Sp. and Ptg. use <strong>the</strong> participle of sedere: s(e)ido,<br />
earlier seudo (but ser has been replaced by estar in some of its functions).<br />
Conjugation IV.<br />
Most of <strong>the</strong> original verbs in this <strong>conjugation</strong> follow <strong>the</strong> regular<br />
pattern of perfect -i(v)i, participle -itu. A few irregular types survived into<br />
Romance, but in many cases <strong>the</strong>y are only remembered by fossilised forms,<br />
such as It., Prov., Cat., Sp., Ptg. salsa, Fr. sauce, Prov., Cat. fart, Sp. harto,<br />
Ptg. farto, ORum. sâmt, Sard. santu, It., Sp., Ptg. santo, Surs. sontg, Engad.<br />
saunch, Fr. saint, Prov. sanch, Cat. sant, or by CL noun forms as in <strong>the</strong> case<br />
of Rum., Prov., Cat. salt, It., Sp., Ptg. salto, Surs., Fr. saut, Engad. sot, Rum.<br />
măsură, It. misura, Fr. mesure, Prov., Cat., Sp., Ptg. mesura, Engad.<br />
masüra, It. sarto, Prov. sartre/sastre (borrowed in Cat., Sp.).<br />
In late VL times a new distinction was introduced into this <strong>conjugation</strong>,<br />
66<br />
66
corresponding to that discussed in <strong>the</strong> case of <strong>the</strong> -are <strong>conjugation</strong>, in that<br />
in certain verbs an “infix” appeared in <strong>the</strong> parts of <strong>the</strong> verb originally<br />
accented on <strong>the</strong> vowel of <strong>the</strong> root. The origin and distribution of this infix I<br />
discussed at length in my last paper, so I will only summarise my<br />
conclusions here. This type of verb arose, as mentioned above under <strong>the</strong><br />
2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>, out of a fusion of two kinds of verbs formed from<br />
adjectives, <strong>the</strong> one in -escere (intr.), <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r in -ire (trans.; but <strong>the</strong>se two<br />
endings later became used for ei<strong>the</strong>r sense), both expressing a change to <strong>the</strong><br />
state described by <strong>the</strong> adjective, so, for example, <strong>the</strong> combination of<br />
mollescere plus mollire (‘soften’) gives a new <strong>conjugation</strong> — mollire with<br />
1st person singular mollesco. This type <strong>the</strong>n spread to o<strong>the</strong>r -ire or -escere<br />
verbs containing similar notions; thus, corresponding to finire (‘bring to an<br />
end’), *finescere (‘come to an end’) was formed, and, to florescere (‘come<br />
into bloom’), florire (‘bring into bloom’ and ‘come into bloom’ — attested),<br />
and <strong>the</strong> two types subsequently fused.<br />
Finally this formation spread to a wide range of -ire verbs. That this<br />
change did not take place in <strong>the</strong> earliest period of VL is shown by <strong>the</strong> fact<br />
that, like <strong>the</strong> past participles in -utu, it does not appear in Sard. (But parallel<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>s, such as pudire and pudeskere, occur.) It does, however,<br />
appear in Rum. It is also a reasonable certainty that it appeared in <strong>the</strong><br />
earliest stages of Sp. and Ptg., as I showed in my last paper, and that <strong>the</strong><br />
present position in <strong>the</strong>se languages, in which <strong>the</strong> -esc- forms appear<br />
throughout <strong>the</strong> paradigm, is a later development, as is <strong>the</strong> replacement of<br />
-udo by -ido. Examples of this <strong>conjugation</strong> in Romance are: VL<br />
*(in)vir(i)descere/-ire, Rum. înverzi, It. inverdire, Fr., Prov., Cat. verdir, Sp.<br />
enverdir and enverdecer, Ptg. enverdecer; VL florescere/-ire, Rum. înflori,<br />
It. fiorire, Fr. fleurir, Prov., Cat. florir, Sp., Ptg. florir/florecer; VL<br />
finire/*-escere, (Rum. fini is a new form), It. finire, Fr. finir (OFr. fenir),<br />
Prov. fenir, Cat. finir (OCat. fenir), Sp. fenecer (OSp. finir, and fenir, as<br />
shown by <strong>the</strong> vowel of fenecer), OPtg. fĩir, modern fenecer from Sp. (In <strong>the</strong><br />
67<br />
67
case of Sp. and Ptg. <strong>the</strong> -ir infinitive represents <strong>the</strong> putative infix<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong> of <strong>the</strong> old languages, and <strong>the</strong> -ecer <strong>the</strong> modern form with -ec-<br />
throughout; where modern -ir forms are found, as in florir, enverdir, abolir<br />
etc., <strong>the</strong>y only occur in those parts of <strong>the</strong> verb where <strong>the</strong> -esc- infix did not<br />
originally appear.) In most of <strong>the</strong> modern languages this infix type has<br />
spread to o<strong>the</strong>r -ire verbs which were not so affected in VL, including <strong>the</strong><br />
later learned borrowings from o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s in Latin, or loan-words<br />
from o<strong>the</strong>r languages; in Sp., Ptg., however, it is confined to <strong>the</strong> verbs<br />
formed from adjectives, a certain number of o<strong>the</strong>r verbs like florecer,<br />
perecer, fenecer, padecer, obedecer, aborrecer, and verbs introduced from<br />
Germanic, like guarecer, earlier guarir, which followed <strong>the</strong> Gallo-Romance<br />
cojugation pattern, showing that <strong>the</strong>se verbs were introduced before<br />
Ibero-Romance was effectively isolated from <strong>the</strong> rest of Romance; but<br />
evidently, in most areas, <strong>the</strong> -ecer forms had largely driven out <strong>the</strong> -ir forms<br />
in this type by <strong>the</strong> time of <strong>the</strong> introduction of learned Latin words, as <strong>the</strong>se<br />
all appear in <strong>the</strong> plain -ir class, except in OArag., where forms like<br />
destribuescan, punescer, presumescer, possedezcan, constituezcan appear.<br />
(In Sp., Ptg. <strong>the</strong> extension of -ec- forms throughout was helped by <strong>the</strong><br />
existence of verbs like parecer, merecer, which never had any -ir forms.)<br />
One o<strong>the</strong>r subdivision of this group concerns those languages which<br />
have -isc- instead of -esc- by extension of <strong>the</strong> -i- of -ire. The -isc- forms<br />
appear in It., Lower Engad., Fr., Prov., and Cat. dialects. In various areas,<br />
notably in Fr. and modern Prov., <strong>the</strong> -isc- forms have been extended beyond<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir original domain; for example, in OProv., OCat. to <strong>the</strong> whole of <strong>the</strong><br />
present subjunctive (but in modern Cat. <strong>the</strong> distribution is <strong>the</strong> same as in <strong>the</strong><br />
indicative), and in OProv. to <strong>the</strong> present participle. The same distribution in<br />
<strong>the</strong> subjunctive was probably found in OSp., OPtg., and it was only a short<br />
step from <strong>the</strong>re to extending <strong>the</strong> infix to <strong>the</strong> whole of <strong>the</strong> present paradigm,<br />
as in Fr. and modern Prov., and <strong>the</strong>n to <strong>the</strong> whole <strong>conjugation</strong>, eliminating<br />
68<br />
68
all <strong>the</strong> -ire forms.<br />
In all <strong>the</strong> Romance languages this infix type was greatly used to form<br />
verbs from adjectives, some going back to VL forms, some being new<br />
formations, so that in <strong>the</strong> early stages of Romance, in <strong>the</strong> areas where this<br />
infix type had developed, <strong>the</strong> number of verbs in this class greatly<br />
outnumbered <strong>the</strong> simple verbs without infix. This had <strong>the</strong> effect, in <strong>the</strong><br />
languages o<strong>the</strong>r than Sp. and Ptg., that <strong>the</strong> simple verbs were more and<br />
more refashioned on <strong>the</strong> model of <strong>the</strong> infix verbs; in It., OFr., OProv. and<br />
OCat., many verbs hesitate between forms with and without <strong>the</strong> infix, and<br />
in <strong>the</strong> modern languages <strong>the</strong>re are only a handful of verbs without infix. (In<br />
a Table appended to my original article, I drew up a list of verbs which did<br />
not have <strong>the</strong> infix in VL, and ano<strong>the</strong>r of those that did, separating <strong>the</strong>m on<br />
<strong>the</strong> basis of <strong>the</strong> Sp. and Ptg. forms and <strong>the</strong> situation in OFr., which mostly<br />
agrees with Sp., Ptg. in having no infix in any of <strong>the</strong>se verbs, though some<br />
verbs have both forms, but this does not correspond to <strong>the</strong> distribution in<br />
<strong>the</strong> modern languages, which varies from one language to ano<strong>the</strong>r. This<br />
Table is omitted here, as being too difficult to reproduce in this format.) In<br />
Sp. and Ptg., on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, <strong>the</strong> simple -ir class was swollen partly by<br />
<strong>the</strong> influx of learned words and partly, especially in Sp., by <strong>the</strong> fur<strong>the</strong>r<br />
addition of words from o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s.<br />
Apart from <strong>the</strong> additions to this <strong>conjugation</strong> made in <strong>the</strong> individual<br />
languages, which have already been mentioned, it is worth repeating here<br />
those verbs which, to a greater or lesser extent, changed over to -ire in VL<br />
times; <strong>the</strong> reasons for <strong>the</strong>se changes have been discussed above. These are,<br />
from <strong>the</strong> 2nd <strong>conjugation</strong>, lucere, implere, splendere (semilearned), merere,<br />
putere, gaudere, paenitere (in <strong>the</strong> form *pentire), monere, and, from <strong>the</strong> 3rd,<br />
cupere, fodere, fugere, parere, rapere, *morere, *patere, *offerere,<br />
*sufferere (and o<strong>the</strong>r compounds of ferre), conspuere, petere, in part fallere.<br />
The forms of <strong>the</strong>se verbs will all be considered here, as <strong>the</strong>y had some<br />
69<br />
69
effect on <strong>the</strong> development of this <strong>conjugation</strong>. In general, <strong>the</strong>re were no<br />
losses to o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>conjugation</strong>s in earliest times, though <strong>the</strong>re were later, in<br />
Sard. and south It., as already observed. However, <strong>the</strong> verb prurire seems to<br />
have had an alternative form *prudere, which is <strong>the</strong> basis of It. prudere/-ire,<br />
Prov. pruzer, Cat. pruir, OGal. proer, Ast. and Ptg. pruir. Tussire has<br />
suffered subsequent change in Fr. and Sp. to tousser, toser (but Ast. tusir);<br />
in Fr., o<strong>the</strong>r verbs too have changed to <strong>the</strong> 1st <strong>conjugation</strong>, such as grander,<br />
puer, vesser and <strong>the</strong> great majority of <strong>the</strong> learned borrowings (Fouché, 111).<br />
Ptg. has morrer, sofrer, repender (beside Gal. sofrir, repintir), while Gal.<br />
fluctuates quite greatly with -er forms beside -ir ones as in vester/vistir,<br />
senter/sintir, menter/mintir, proer/proir, seguer/siguir, peder/pidir,<br />
locer/locir, nocer/nocir, old offerer/offerir, besides having alternative -ir<br />
forms where Ptg. has only -er, such as sofrer/sofrir, coser/cusir.<br />
There were three irregular perfect types in CL, in -ui, -si, and -i. To <strong>the</strong><br />
first belonged aperui, (co)operui. These survived into VL, as is shown by<br />
Prov. oberc, coberc, beside obri, cobri. They attracted *offerire and<br />
*sufferire, producing Prov. oferc, soferc (cf. also esp(e)rec, p.p. espert, and<br />
new infinitive (r)esperir, beside esp(e)reisser). Ferire may also have been<br />
affected, as witness <strong>the</strong> participle forms in -utu surviving. These perfects<br />
were joined by paenituit, merui (Prov. merc), rapui and perhaps conspui, if<br />
this -u- was artificially retained. It is possible that *vestui (cf. ORum.<br />
învăscui), *fodui, *morui (cf. Fr. mourus, and Cat. muigui formed on one of<br />
<strong>the</strong> present stems), *parui, *fallui (cf. Fr. fallut) were also formed, and<br />
*exui seems highly likely, to judge from Mac.-Rum. esui, Cat. isqui (but<br />
this last could also be from <strong>the</strong> present subjunctive stem isc-) and <strong>the</strong> OSp.<br />
strong perfect ixe and <strong>the</strong> -utu type participles in SIt., Fr. and Prov. (exire<br />
would also be attracted to <strong>the</strong> forms of texere, and <strong>the</strong>re was also a CL<br />
exuere ‘cast off’). The o<strong>the</strong>r compounds of ire — perire, transire, redire,<br />
subire — probably also had -ui perfects to match <strong>the</strong>ir participles in -ĭtu (cf.<br />
Mac.-Rum. k’erui (perire), It. (Marches) subbe, and also OIt. infinitives<br />
70<br />
70
trasere, riedere, p.p. transuto). A valid reason for this change could be <strong>the</strong><br />
fact that a perfect form like -iit was contracted to -it — perit, trasit, exit,<br />
obit are attested — necessitating <strong>the</strong> creation of a new -uit form to<br />
distinguish <strong>the</strong> perfect from <strong>the</strong> present; a VL obuit is in fact found. One<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r consideration arguing <strong>the</strong> for <strong>the</strong> postulation of such -ui perfects is<br />
<strong>the</strong> need to account for <strong>the</strong> presence in OFr. of -edi type perfects, as well as<br />
-ii forms, and in Fr., Prov., It. of -utu participles. (For <strong>the</strong> forms, with a<br />
different explanation of <strong>the</strong>ir origin, see Fouché, 133, 134.) In general,<br />
<strong>the</strong>se verbs all have -i(v)i perfects in <strong>the</strong> Romance languages, but Fr. is not<br />
alone in confusing <strong>the</strong> -ii and -edi types; if we suppose that certain verbs<br />
had -ui perfects in VL, which <strong>the</strong>n changed to -edi as in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
<strong>conjugation</strong>s, we <strong>the</strong>n have a starting point for this confusion, and also for<br />
<strong>the</strong> fur<strong>the</strong>r confusion between <strong>the</strong> 2nd, 3rd and 4th <strong>conjugation</strong>s (see below).<br />
Such -edi forms found in OFr. are feriet, repentiet, vestiet, and, in <strong>the</strong><br />
dialects, also isseit, defallerent, peret. Also resplendiet, which is perhaps a<br />
form from an original 3rd-<strong>conjugation</strong> verb which became attached to a<br />
4th-<strong>conjugation</strong> infinitive. (On <strong>the</strong> question of <strong>the</strong> -ui perfects, note also<br />
that forms like cooperuisset, *moruissem might underlie OIt. (Umbrian)<br />
scopresse, moresse, which have <strong>the</strong> -esse derived from a strong perfect, not<br />
<strong>the</strong> -isse of <strong>the</strong> -ir verbs.<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> original -si perfects, none survived in Romance (Fr. luis,<br />
toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> participle luit, is most likely a reformation on <strong>the</strong> analogy<br />
of cuis–cuit, duis–duit; <strong>the</strong> weak -ii, -itu forms are also found), but various<br />
new ones were formed, challenging <strong>the</strong> -ui type. Thus we have *offersi,<br />
*suffersi, perhaps *salsi, *falsi, *fossi, formed on <strong>the</strong> past participles, and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r perfects which were attracted to this type; so Sard. offersi, affersi,<br />
apersi, coberssi, It. offersi/offrii, soffersi/soffrii, salsi/salii, apersi/aprii,<br />
copersi/coprii, morsi/morii (cf. apparsi/-vi/-ii from apparire/-ere), OFr. fals,<br />
Prov. fos. In OSp. <strong>the</strong>re was a perfect fuxo, perhaps based on <strong>the</strong> form<br />
71<br />
71
fugere, which seems to have survived widely beside *fugire, and<br />
consequently given rise to a perfect formed on <strong>the</strong> analogy of destruxo from<br />
*destrugere; <strong>the</strong>re is also a local fusco, matched by OCat. fusqué, showing<br />
<strong>the</strong> same development as seen earlier.<br />
Apart from <strong>the</strong> forms mentioned above, a new Rum. form ştiui, and<br />
<strong>the</strong> descendants of veni, mentioned below, all <strong>the</strong> VL 4th <strong>conjugation</strong> verbs<br />
have regular perfects in Romance.<br />
The past participles corresponding to <strong>the</strong>se perfects are (1) in<br />
-ĭtu/-tu/-su: Rum. mort (VL *mortu from mortuu), It. aperto, coperto,<br />
offerto (Latin offertus found in Gl. Reich.), sofferto (and Istr. riferto), morto,<br />
OGen. futo (< fugitu), fossilised merto, ratto, falta (VL *fallitu as tollitu),<br />
redito, parto, fossa, Sard. abbertu, fertu (cf. inferturus in a Latin<br />
inscription), mortu, Surs. aviert, miert, Engad. avert, müert, ofert, Fr.<br />
ouvert, couvert, offert, soffert, mort, fossilised faute, fuite, fosse, Prov.<br />
ubert, cubert, sofert, ofert, mort, fos (still used as a participle), fossilised<br />
falta, Cat. obert, cobert, sofert, ofert (and analogical omplert, complert),<br />
mort, OCat. and dial. fuit, fossilised falta, fossa, Sp. abierto, cubierto,<br />
muerto, OSp. sufierto, fossilised falto/-a, oferta, refierta/reyerta, huesa,<br />
Ptg. aberto, coberto, morto, OPtg. vesto, fossilised falto/-a, oferta, referta,<br />
fossa; (2) in -utu: Rum. ştiut, învăscut, Mac.-Rum. k’erut, OIt. feruto,<br />
pentuto, vestuto, empiuto, sparuto, falluto, dial. issuto/usciuto, OFr. feru,<br />
repentu, eissu, vestu, fallu, resplendu, emplu (but only recorded late),<br />
OProv. ferut, eissut, vestut (in general <strong>the</strong> -utu forms are found alongside<br />
-itu forms), OSp. arrepentudo, OPtg. repentudo (<strong>the</strong>se verbs also had<br />
infinitives in -der, see above). (Note OPtg. sofrudo, inf. sofrer.) CL falsu<br />
has also left fossilised forms everywhere: Rum. falş (from German?), Sard.<br />
falsu, It., Sp., Ptg. falso, Prov., Cat. fals, Fr. faux.<br />
The above perfects in -edi and participles in -utu, toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong><br />
group of verbs with forms in various <strong>conjugation</strong>s, led to a wide confusion<br />
72<br />
72
etween <strong>the</strong> 2nd, 3rd. and 4th <strong>conjugation</strong>s. The similarity of <strong>the</strong> future<br />
forms also contributed. Thus in old or dialectal It. <strong>the</strong>re are perfects such as<br />
odetti, finetti, sentetti, and participles finuto, partuto, sentuto, servuto<br />
(Bourciez, 423, 426). (Engad. also uses *-tui in forming <strong>the</strong> regular perfect,<br />
as durmit.) OFr. dialects, apart from <strong>the</strong> above forms, have forms like partei,<br />
saillei, assentei, and participles like mentu, partu, öu, sentu, saillu, boulu<br />
are found. In one case a new verb was formed, falloir beside faillir. O<strong>the</strong>r<br />
new infinitives were also created, and appear in modern dialects as sentre,<br />
repentre, vestre etc. (Fouché, 114). In Sp. <strong>the</strong> perfects and past participles<br />
of <strong>the</strong> -ir and -er verbs have merged completely, and similarly in Ptg. <strong>the</strong><br />
past participles, while, especially in Sp., some -ere verbs have <strong>the</strong> infinitive<br />
in -ir. We have also seen how in Gal., and to some extent in Ptg., <strong>the</strong>re is a<br />
converse tendency for -ire verbs to have -er, perhaps on <strong>the</strong> analogy of<br />
paenitere/*-ire which gave repender and repintir.<br />
In general <strong>the</strong> -i(v)i perfect has survived until modern times in<br />
Romance, except for Engad. (cf. durmit above), and Prov., where parti etc.<br />
gave way to new forms partiguère, partisquèri, with -gu- from <strong>the</strong> -ui<br />
perfect and -squ- from <strong>the</strong> infix. Gascon has partiscoui.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> remaining class, <strong>the</strong> perfects in -i with leng<strong>the</strong>ned vowel, is<br />
venire, which requires special mention. In VL <strong>the</strong> perfect and past participle<br />
forms were veni/*venui (subvenuit in Chiro) and *venĭtu, later *venutu<br />
(venitus, probably with short i, in Pereg. Silv., Venutus in an inscription),<br />
formed to match *venui, and this verb was greatly affected by <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>conjugation</strong> of tenere. From veni come: ORum. véni(u), which was later<br />
replaced by weak venii, OFr. vin (but N.E. dial. vinve from *venui), OCat.<br />
vin (but see vinc below), Sp. vine, Ptg. vim (<strong>the</strong> -o of vino, veio could<br />
conceivably go back to an -ui ending, but it is more reasonable to treat it as<br />
added on <strong>the</strong> analogy of <strong>the</strong> -ió, -eu, -iu endings, as <strong>the</strong> u forms do not<br />
appear in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r persons). From *venui come: Sard. venni/benni, It. venni,<br />
Fr. dial. vinve, OProv., OCat. vinc, later Prov. vengui, Cat. venguí, now<br />
73<br />
73
vinguí (OCat. vin could also represent *venui, as OCat. tol does *tollui).<br />
OEngad. venn could come from ei<strong>the</strong>r; <strong>the</strong> verb now has only a new weak<br />
form gnit (with subjunctive vigness). (Note <strong>the</strong> It. dial. subjunctive forms as<br />
ven(n)esse from <strong>the</strong> strong form *venuisset.) The participle form *venĭtu<br />
survives in Sard. vennitu/bennidu, with <strong>the</strong> doubled consonant of <strong>the</strong> perfect<br />
(but in some dialects <strong>the</strong>re is a new weak form bennidu). *Venutu is found<br />
in It. venuto, Lower Engad. gnü (with corresponding forms in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
dialects), Friul. vignut, Fr. venu, OProv. vengut/venut, Cat. vengut/vingut<br />
(with g from <strong>the</strong> perfect), OSp. (Ast.), OGal. venudo, OPtg. vẽudo. Rum.<br />
and modern Sp., Ptg. have replaced <strong>the</strong> -utu forms with a new weak<br />
participle in -itu: venit, venido, vindo.<br />
Conclusion<br />
We have seen that, in spite of various individual tendencies in<br />
different regions, which led, to a greater or lesser extent, to subsequent<br />
changes which now distinguish one language from ano<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> VL of <strong>the</strong><br />
whole of <strong>the</strong> Roman Empire was remarkably homogeneous. The only<br />
major split before <strong>the</strong> break-up of <strong>the</strong> Empire lay in <strong>the</strong> fact that Sard. and<br />
<strong>the</strong> remote dialects of south Italy were not affected by <strong>the</strong> change from -ĭtu<br />
to -utu participles or <strong>the</strong> merging of <strong>the</strong> -escere and -ire verbs. (This latter<br />
seems clear in <strong>the</strong> case of Sard., but I am not sure about <strong>the</strong> position in<br />
south It.) Greater variety of forms <strong>the</strong>re must have been, but <strong>the</strong> state of<br />
affairs inherited by <strong>the</strong> modern languages must represent <strong>the</strong> VL norm<br />
established by educated speakers, who put restrictions on <strong>the</strong> changes<br />
made by <strong>the</strong> less educated. It is notable that <strong>the</strong> standard forms of <strong>the</strong><br />
modern languages, based on a literary standard, are more conservative<br />
than <strong>the</strong> dialect forms, which have had no written norm; changes in<br />
infinitive types, for example, are widespread in <strong>the</strong> dialects, and in relation<br />
74<br />
74
to <strong>the</strong>se <strong>the</strong> few changes recorded in <strong>the</strong> standard languages represent <strong>the</strong><br />
tip of an iceberg. Similarly, <strong>the</strong> far-reaching changes in Sp. and Ptg. may<br />
reflect <strong>the</strong>ir longer history of existing without a written standard.<br />
Expressed negatively, <strong>the</strong> conclusions I would draw are that <strong>the</strong>re<br />
was no clearly defined cleavage in VL times between, for example, areas<br />
which preferred -si and those which preferred -edi perfects, and <strong>the</strong><br />
corresponding participles; nor between those that rejected -ĕre and those<br />
that rejected -ēre infinitives; nor that Ibero-Romance had no -utu<br />
participles or mixed -ire/-escere <strong>conjugation</strong>. No doubt such tendencies<br />
existed, but <strong>the</strong> preferences, such as for -si perfects in It. and Rum. and<br />
-edi perfects in West Romance, only became clearly defined after <strong>the</strong><br />
different languages had separated, or, often, only in quite recent times.<br />
Bibliography. Works referred to in <strong>the</strong> text.<br />
Bourciez, E. Éléments de Linguistique Romane, Paris, 1967.<br />
Fouché, P. Morphologie Historique du Français: Le Verbe, Paris,<br />
1967.<br />
Grandgent, C.H. An Introduction to Vulgar Latin, New York, 1962.<br />
Lausberg, H. Romanische Spraschwissenschaft, Berlin, 1962-69.<br />
Pope, M. K. From Latin to Modern French, Manchester, 1952.<br />
Väänänen, V. Introduction au Latin Vugaire, Paris, 1967.<br />
Wagner, M.L. La Lingua Sarda, Berne, 1951.<br />
******<br />
This is a revised version of a paper published in Ronshu, Vol.10 (Tokyo,<br />
Aoyama Gakuin University, 1969).<br />
75<br />
75
76<br />
76
77<br />
77