ATHEMATIC I NFLECTION IN THE L ATIN P RESENT S YSTEM by S TEPHEN L.

T YNDALL (Under the direction of Jared Klein) A BSTRACT This thesis examines the six irregular Latin verbal paradigms in their present and future tenses, attempting to explain their irregularity. The forms are traced from their Proto-Indo-European roots through Proto-Italic and Old Latin into their classical forms, with considerable analysis based in both phonology and analogy provided. The copula, in particular, is examined in a number of IndoEuropean languages, and explanations for irregularity in analogy, haplology, and poetic elision are explored. I NDEX WORDS : Latin, Linguistics, Proto-Italic, Proto-Indo-European, Historical Linguistics

ATHEMATIC I NFLECTION IN THE L ATIN P RESENT S YSTEM

by

S TEPHEN L. T YNDALL B.A., The University of Georgia, 2004

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulllment of the Requirements for the Degree M ASTER OF A RTS

ATHENS , G EORGIA

2009

c 2009 Stephen L. Tyndall All Rights Reserved

ATHEMATIC I NFLECTION IN THE L ATIN P RESENT S YSTEM

by

S TEPHEN L. T YNDALL

Approved: Major Professor: Committee: Jared Klein Keith Langston Bill Kretzschmar

Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2009

TABLE OF C ONTENTS

Page L IST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C HAPTER 1 I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 4 4 5 10 12 12 12 13 17 19 19 20 21 22 25 25 vi

1.1 P ROBLEMATIC PARADIGMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 T HE P ROTO -I NDO -E UROPEAN P RESENT I NDICATIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 T HE P ERSONAL E NDINGS OF THE I NDO -E UROPEAN P RESENT ACTIVE . 2.2 T HE P RESENT T ENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3 T HE S UBJUNCTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 T HE L ATIN P RESENT S YSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 T HE T ENSES OF T HE P RESENT S YSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 T HE P ERSONAL E NDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 T HE S YSTEM OF C ONJUGATIONS 4 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

L ATIN dare TO GIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L ATIN re TO GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 T HE S INGULAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 T HE P LURAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 T HE F UTURE AND I MPERFECT OF re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 7

L ATIN ferre TO BEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L ATIN e sse TO EAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 T HE P ROBLEM OF VOWEL L ENGTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

7.2 T HE V ERBAL E NDINGS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

27 27 27 28 28 28 30 30 31 32 32 33 34 34 41 44 45

7.3 e s YOU EAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 e st EATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 e stis YOU (P L .)

EAT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.6 PARALLELS TO S LAVIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7 C ONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 L ATIN velle TO WISH / WANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 T HE ROOT *welH1 - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 T HE T HEMATIC F ORMS OF velle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 vult WISHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4 v s YOU WISH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5 vultis YOU (P L .) WISH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 L ATIN esse TO BE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 A D ISCUSSION OF P RIOR W ORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 A N OVEL AND U NITARY A PPROACH TO THE PARADIGM . . . . . . . . 10 C ONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B IBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

L IST OF TABLES

1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 7.3 8.1

A List of Possible Athematic Latin Paradigms - Present Tense . . . . . . . . . . . A List of Possible Athematic Latin Paradigms - Future Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . The Primary Endings of the Present Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Secondary Endings of the Present Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An Example of an Athematic Narten Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Athematic Nasal Inx Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Athematic Reduplicated Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Simple Thematic Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 2 5 5 6 7 7 8

Thematic Present Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The PIE Subjunctive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Latin First Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Latin Second Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Latin Third Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Latin Fourth Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Present Paradigm of dare to give . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Present of re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Future and Imperfect of re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Latin Paradigm of ferre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The Present of *bher in Sanskrit and Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Present of e sse to eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Root *ed eat in PIE and Pre-Latin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Old Church Slavic Present Paradigm of to eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The Paradigms of velle, malle, and nolle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 vi

vii

8.2 9.1 9.2 9.3

The Present Paradigm of v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 The Latin Present and Future of esse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 The PIE Copula, Present and Subjunctive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Greek Thematic Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

C HAPTER 1 I NTRODUCTION

The Proto-Indo-European athematic verbal category is almost entirely absent in the Italic verbal system. Six (or nine, counting derived contractions) Italic verbs are generally thought to contain remnants of Indo-European athematic inectional morphology, but the structures of these verbs are often unexpected, given the postulated Proto-Indo-European original forms. This thesis attempts to provide an accurate diachronic analysis of these forms, in some instances relying on prior research and analysis while presenting some new solutions to the problems these unexpected forms offer. The rst part of this thesis provides a description of the present system of the Proto-IndoEuropean verb in its various inectional patterns, an understanding of which is critical for comprehension of the Proto-Italic and Latin morphological systems discussed in this work. The second part of this thesis provides a description of the present system of the Latin verb, including the division of the Proto-Indo-European types into the four Latin conjugations, as an understanding of the regular Latin morphological system is crucial for understanding the structure and history of the irregular forms. The third part of this thesis describes the treatment of Proto-Indo-European athematic presents that have been added to the regular Latin verbal system. The fourth and largest section of this thesis is broken into synchronic and diachronic descriptions of the ve irregular Latin verbs. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the similarities and differences between the irregular paradigms of Latin, with tentative explanations of the reasons for retention of and similarity in their irregularities. 1

Table 1.1: A List of Possible Athematic Latin Paradigms - Present Tense Person and Number esse velle ferre re First Singular sum vol o fer o e o Second Singular es v s fers s Third Singular est vult fert it First Plural sumus volumus ferimus mus tis Second Plural estis vultis fertis Third Plural sunt volunt ferunt eunt edere dare ed o d o d as e s e dat st edimus damus e datis stis edunt dant

Table 1.2: A List of Possible Athematic Latin Paradigms - Future Tense Person and Number esse velle ferre re First Singular er o volam feram b o Second Singular eris vol es fer es bis Third Singular erit volet feret bit First Plural erimus vol emus fer emus bimus Second Plural eritis vol etis fer etis bitis Third Plural erunt volent ferent bunt edere dare edam dab o ed es dabis edet dabit ed emus dabimus ed etis dabitis edent dabunt

1.1 1.1.1

P ROBLEMATIC PARADIGMS EO I
GO

The paradigm of e o I go has four athematic forms, s, it, mus, and tis, and two thematic forms, e o and eunt, and is the least problematic of the Latin irregular verbs, probably because of the lack of phonotactic problems engendered by the shape of the root.

3 FER O

1.1.2

The paradigm of fer o I bear has three seemingly-athematic forms fers, fert, and fertis, though almost all comparative evidence suggests a simple thematic etymon for the paradigm. The irregular forms are analyzed as reduced, either via a regular phonetic process or via phonetic reduction based on frequency of use.

1.1.3

ed o I EAT

The paradigm of ed o I eat contains three athematic forms e s, e st, and e stis, and three thematic forms ed o, edimus, and edunt. A curious alternation in root vowel quantity between e - in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural and e in the second and third persons singular and second person plural is the focus of this section.

1.1.4

vol o I WISH

The paradigm of vol o I wish, is irregular in three indicative forms v s, vult, and vultis, and appears to have a historically athematic Latin subjunctive (i.e. optative in Indo-European terms) paradigm. The second person singular v s is the most anomalous form of the paradigm and is discussed at length.

1.1.5

sum I AM

The paradigm of the copula is the least understood and most contentious of the irregular Latin verbs. This thesis contains a large literature review, and an original, strong suggestion for the history of this paradigm.

1.1.6

d o I GIVE

While only modestly irregular by synchronic Latin standards, the paradigm of d o I give shows remnants of athematic inection.

C HAPTER 2 T HE P ROTO -I NDO -E UROPEAN P RESENT I NDICATIVE

The Present System of Indo-European is composed of the present indicative and imperative, the imperfect, the active and medio-passive voices, and the subjunctive and optative moods. The present and imperfect active indicative and the active subjunctive will be treated in this section. The Indo-European verb is composed of three parts, a root, zero or more sufxes, and a personal ending.

2.1

T HE P ERSONAL E NDINGS OF THE I NDO -E UROPEAN P RESENT ACTIVE

Proto-Indo-European present active verbs had two sets of personal endings, the primary and secondary endings. Primary endings were used in the present, while secondary endings appeared in the imperfect tense. 2.1.1 P RIMARY E NDINGS OF ACTIVE V ERBS

Table 2.1 presents the primary verbal endings of the active voice in their Proto-Indo-European reconstructed forms1 and with representative forms from the copula of Sanskrit and Greek. Only those forms relevant to the Italic system appear. 2.1.2 S ECONDARY E NDINGS OF ACTIVE V ERBS

Table 2.2 presents the secondary endings of the active voice in their Proto-Indo-European reconstructed forms and with representative forms from the imperfect of the root *bher carry in Sanskrit and Greek. Again, only those forms relevant to the Italic verbal system appear.
1 Ive

chosen to use those reconstructions mostly closely underlying the Italic system unless otherwise

noted.

Table 2.1: The Primary Endings of the Present Active Person and Number Ending First Singular *-mi or *-H2 Second Singular *-si Third Singular *-ti First Plural *-me/o(s) Second Plural *-te Third Plural *-enti PIE *H1 e smi *H1 e si *H1 e sti *H e/ os . 1 sm *H e . 1 st *H s e nti .1 Sanskrit Greek eim a smi e a si a est sti sm as esm en sth a est e s anti Doric ent

Table 2.2: The Secondary Endings of the Present Active Person and Number Ending PIE Sanskrit Greek First Singular *-m *e e bherom a bharam pheron Second Singular *-s *e a e bheres bharas pheres Third Singular *-t *e a e bheret bharat phere First Plural *-me *e eromen ama eph bherome a bhar Second Plural *-te *e eph erete bherete a bharata Third Plural *-(e)nt *e a e bheront bharan pheron

2.2

T HE P RESENT T ENSE

The present tense in Indo-European was built with the verbal root, zero or more sufxes, and the primary endings detailed in Table 2.1.

2.2.1

T HE ATHEMATIC P RESENT

The Proto-Indo-European athematic present consists of either an ablauting root or a zero grade root with an ablauting inx, followed by one of the primary endings in Table 2.1.

Table 2.3: An Example of an Athematic Narten Present Person and Number Proto-Indo-Iranian umi First Singular *sta u Second Singular *sta si uti Third Singular *sta First Plural *st aumas(i) Second Plural *st autha Third Plural *st auati

T HE S IMPLE ATHEMATIC P RESENT Simple athematic presents are composed of an ablauting root followed by primary endings. The root takes full grade in the singular and zero-grade in the plural. See the PIE column in Table 2.1 for an example of this type of verb in the singular and plural.

T HE NARTEN P RESENT Narten presents are similar to simple athematic presents save that they take e -grade in the singular and full grade in the plural [Narten, 1968, 18]. Table 2.3 presents the forms Narten suggests underlie this type of present, demonstrated with root stu praise.

T HE NASAL I NFIX P RESENT Nasal inx presents consist of a root in zero-grade with an ablauting inx of the form *-ne-/-n- before the nal consonant and primary endings. As is typical with athematic formations, the ablauting inx takes full grade in the singular and zero grade in the plural. Table 2.4 presents the paradigm of a nasal inx present built to the root *yug yoke.

Table 2.4: The Athematic Nasal Inx Present Person and Number PIE First Singular *yu-n e-g-mi Second Singular *yu-n e-g-si Third Singular *yu-n e-g-ti First Plural *yu-n-g-m e/ os Second Plural *yu-n-g-t e Third Plural *yu-n-g- enti Sanskrit yun ajmi yun aks .i yun akti yu njm as yu nkth a yu nj anti

Table 2.5: The Athematic Reduplicated Present Person and Number PIE Sanskrit First Singular *bh -bher-mi b bharmi Second Singular *bh -bher-si b bhars .i Third Singular *bh -bher-ti b bharti First Plural *bhi-bhr e/ os bibhr as . -m . m Second Plural *bhi-bhr e bibhr a . -t . th Third Plural *bh -bhr-n ti b bhrati .

T HE R EDUPLICATED ATHEMATIC Reduplicated athematic formations consist of the onset of the root syllable followed by either *-e- or *-i-, the root, and primary endings [Fortson, 2004, 88]. The root has the same ablaut pattern as the simple athematic formation. Table 2.5 illustrates this type with the root *bher- carry.

2.2.2

T HE T HEMATIC P RESENT

The thematic presents of Indo-European are marked by an ablauting *-e-/-o- morpheme that appears before the personal ending. In contrast to the alternation between full grade and zero grade in the singular and plural of the athematic formations, the morpheme alternates between *-o- in the

Table 2.6: The Simple Thematic Present Person and Number PIE Sanskrit First Singular *bh er-o-H2 bh ar ami Second Singular *bh er-e-si bh arasi Third Singular *bh er-e-ti bh arati First Plural *bh er-o-me/os bh ar amas Second Plural *bh er-e-te bh aratha Third Plural *bh er-o-nti bh aranti

rst person singular and the rst and third persons plural and *-e- in the second and third persons singular and the second person plural.

T HE S IMPLE T HEMATIC P RESENT Simple thematic presents consist of a root in some xed ablaut grade, the ablauting thematic vowel, and a personal ending. Two types exist, one with the accent xed on the root, the other with the accent on the thematic vowel [Fortson, 2004, 89]. Table 2.6 presents an example of the simple thematic inection of the root-accented *bher- carry. The difference in accent between the two types just noted can be seen by comparing Sanskrit bh arati illustrated above with the third person singular form tud ati thrusts.

T HE *-ye-/-yo- P RESENT The *-ye-/-yo- present was built with either full or zero grade of the root with the sufx *-yo- in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural and *-ye- in the second and third persons singular and second person plural [Fortson, 2004, 89]. The sufx was used as the primary verbal formation for some roots and as a denominative sufx in other cases [Fortson, 2004, 89-90]. See the second column of Table 2.7 for an example of the inection of a *-ye-/-yo- present.

T HE C AUSATIVE -I TERATIVE The Proto-Indo-European causative-iterative was composed of a root in o-grade, an ablauting sufx *- eyo-/- eye-, and primary endings. The causative-iterative has two possible meanings. First, it can mean that the subject of the verb causes something to undergo the action indicated by the root, e.g. Latin mone o I warn/cause to think < *mon- eyo-H2 from the root *men think. Second, the causative-iterative can mean that the subject performs the action indicated by the verbal root repeatedly, e.g. Greek potH1 e eyo-m-H2 oi2 from the root *petH1 y. Table 2.7 omai < *potH1 - has an example of causative-iterative inection in its third column. e-/-sk o- P RESENT T HE *-sk e-/-sk o- present was built with a root in zero grade, the ablauting The Proto-Indo-European *-sk e-/-sk o- morpheme, and primary endings [Fortson, 2004, 90]. The Indo-European daughter *-sk languages differ as to the meaning of this sufx. Some indicate habitual action, while Latin, of e-/-sk o- formation for inchoatives like rub concern here, uses the *-sk escit becomes red < *rudh e-ti, from the root *rudh red [Fortson, 2004, 90]. This type is illustrated in the fourth eH1 -sk column of Table 2.7.

T HE R EDUPLICATED T HEMATIC P RESENT The Proto-Indo-European Reduplicated Thematic Present was built with some portion of the root onset plus *-i-, the root in zero grade, the ablauting thematic vowel, and primary endings [Fortson, 2004, 90]. Table 2.7 provides an example of this kind of inection in its fth column.

OTHER T YPES There exists a number of other types of present formations, but these fall outside the purview of this work.
2 This

reconstruction is after Sihler, see [Sihler, 1995, 471]

10

Table 2.7: Thematic Present Types e-/-sk oPresent Type *-ye-/-yoCausative-Iterative *-sk Reduplicated w see PIE Root *spek *bher carry *g em come *steH2 stand w o-H2 First Singular *sp ek-yo-H *bhor- eyo-H2 *g m *t -stH2 -o-H2 2 . -sk w Second Singular *sp ek-ye-si *bhor- eye-si *g m e-si *t -stH2 -e-si . -sk w Third Singular *sp ek-ye-ti *bhor- eye-ti *g m e-ti *t -stH2 -e-ti . -sk w First Plural *sp ek-yo-me/os *bhor- eyo-me/os *g m o-me/os *t -stH2 -o-me/os . -sk w Second Plural *sp ek-ye-te *bhor- eye-te *g m e-te *t -stH2 -e-te . -sk w Third Plural *sp ek-yo-nti *bhor- eyo-nti *g m o-nti *t -stH2 -o-nti . -sk

2.3

T HE S UBJUNCTIVE

The Proto-Indo-European subjunctive was used as a future tense. The subjunctive was formed by adding an ablauting thematic vowel before the personal ending, irrespective of whether the verb was initially thematic or athematic. In form, the subjunctive of an athematic verb is identical to a simple thematic present built to the athematic stem, save for some variation between primary and secondary endings in the second and third persons singular and secondary endings in the third person plural, while the subjunctive of a thematic verb contains a long vowel in place of the original thematic vowel. Table 2.8 shows an example of athematic and thematic subjunctive inection.

11

Table 2.8: The PIE Subjunctive Subjunctive Type Athematic Thematic First Singular *H1 e *bh er-o-o-H2 s-o-H2 Second Singular *H1 e *bh er-e-e-s(i) s-e-s(i) Third Singular *H1 e *bh er-e-e-t(i) s-e-t(i) First Plural *H1 e er-o-o-me/os s-o-me/os *bh Second Plural *H1 e *bh er-e-e-te s-e-te Third Plural *H1 e *bh er-o-o-nt(i) s-o-nt(i)

C HAPTER 3 T HE L ATIN P RESENT S YSTEM

The Latin verb has a system of three persons: rst, second, and third; two numbers: singular and plural; three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive; two voices: active and passive; and six tenses: future, present, imperfect, future perfect, perfect, and pluperfect. Latin verbs are divided into four conjugations (or ve, counting third conjugation -io- separately) characterized by different vowel patterns between the Latin verbal stem and the personal ending. Six verbs lie outside this system.

3.1

T HE T ENSES OF T HE P RESENT S YSTEM

The Latin Present Tense continues the Indo-European present tense. The Latin verb can have one of two future formations with distinct origins. First, the Proto-Indo-European subjunctive mood, which was probably used as a future in Proto-Indo-European, was used as the future formation for some verbs. Second, a morpheme -b- plus thematic personal endings was created to provide a future for another set of verbs [Palmer, 1961, 271].

3.2 3.2.1

T HE P ERSONAL E NDINGS T HE F IRST P ERSON S INGULAR

The Primary *-mi loses the hic-et-nunc particle *-i, and is therefore identical to the secondary *-m. In the Latin present, this -m appears only in sum I am [Palmer, 1961, 263]. The thematic *-o-H2 > - o is used as the rst person present ending elsewhere.

12

13

3.2.2

T HE S ECOND P ERSON S INGULAR

With the loss of the hic-et-nunc particle, the primary and secondary second person singular endings became identical. The endings remain -s.

3.2.3

T HE T HIRD P ERSON S INGULAR

Old Latin distinguished the primary ending -t < Proto-Indo-European *-ti from the secondary ending -d < Proto-Indo-European *-t, but by the time of Classical Latin, the primary -t had replaced the secondary -d everywhere, cf. Old Latin sied let it be vs. Classical Latin sit id. [Palmer, 1961, 263].

3.2.4

T HE S ECOND P ERSON P LURAL

Latin has only -tis < *-tes in the second person plural. This ending appears to be from a ProtoIndo-European second person dual, as seen in Sanskrit bh arathas you two bear.

3.2.5

R EMAINING E NDINGS

Latin uses only -mus < *-mos in the rst person plural and -nt < *-nti in the third person plural.

3.3 3.3.1

T HE S YSTEM OF C ONJUGATIONS T HE F IRST C ONJUGATION

The Latin rst conjugation is marked by a morpheme - a- between the root and the personal endings detailed in 3.2. An example of the inection of a rst conjugation verb is given in Table 3.1 using the verb laud are to praise. The conjugation is built from many different Indo-European verbal types, including denominatives (initially to feminine nouns in - a, but used productively to form verbs from other nouns), factitives to adjectives, certain frequentatives, some nasal-inx presents, and some monosyllabic root formations [DeWandel, 1982, 46-48]. These formations are etymologically thematic, coming from *-eH2 -ye/o- [Sihler, 1995, 528].

14

Table 3.1: The Latin First Conjugation Person and Number Present First Singular laud o Second Singular laud as Third Singular laudat First Plural laud amus Second Plural laud atis Third Plural laudant Future laud ab o laud abis laud abit laud abimus laud abitis laud abunt

Table 3.2: The Latin Second Conjugation Person and Number Present Future First Singular mone o mon eb o Second Singular mon es mon ebis Third Singular monet mon ebit First Plural mon emus mon ebimus Second Plural mon etis mon ebitis Third Plural monent mon ebunt

3.3.2

T HE S ECOND C ONJUGATION

The Latin second conjugation verb is marked by a morpheme - e- before the personal ending. An example of the inection of the second conjugation verb mon ere to warn is given in Table 3.2. The second conjugation is composed of denominative and verbal statives (like alb ere be white and cal ere be hot), a few primary formations to roots in *-H1 , and causative-iteratives [DeWandel, 1982, 49-50]. The verbs of this category are also etymologically thematic, with the ending *eH1 -ye/o- from statives or roots ending with that sequence (like *pleH1 ll), or *- eye/oin the case of causative/iteratives [Sihler, 1995, 530-531].

15

3.3.3

T HE T HIRD C ONJUGATION

The third conjugation represents the Latin outcome of the Proto-Indo-European thematic present, with - o in the rst personal singular, -u- in the third person plural, and -i- elsewhere. An example of the inection of the third conjugation verb d cere to say is given in Table 3.3. The third conjugation is composed of simple thematic presents, thematic reduplicated presents, thematized root e-/-sk o- presents, desideratives athematics, thematized nasal inx presents, -ye-/-yo- presents, -sk in -s-, and denominatives from u-stem nouns [DeWandel, 1982, 50-54].

T HE NASAL I NFIX P RESENT Latin treats nasal inx presents in several different ways. First, the nasal inx can be xed in the zero grade, the present root morpheme re-analyzed as containing the inx, and then the verb can be inected like a normal thematic third conjugation verb, cf. tang o I touch, with the perfect tense tetig proving the presence of the inx [DeWandel, 1982, 51]. A different treatment is that of toll o I raise/destroy. The form comes from *toln o, itself from *tl . -n-H2 -o-H2 , rebuilt from athematic *tl . -ne-H2 -mi, and has been merged into the Latin third conjugation. T HE ATHEMATIC R EDUPLICATED P RESENT No athematic reduplicated presents persist into Latin. A few thematic reduplicated presents exist as members of the third conjugation. Latin sist o I set up and bib o I drink are of this type, as is redd o I give back, where the geminated d reects an original *di-dH3 -, as in Sanskrit d ad ati gives, (which actually shows a full-grade root).

3.3.4

T HE L ATIN F OURTH C ONJUGATION

The Latin fourth conjugation verb is marked by a morpheme before the personal ending. An example of the inection of the fourth conjugation verb ven re to come is given in Table 3.4. The fourth conjugation is composed of *-ye-/-yo- presents, a few root athematics, denominatives from

16

Table 3.3: The Latin Third Conjugation Person and Number Present Future First Singular d c o d cam Second Singular d cis d c es Third Singular d cit d cet First Plural d cimus d c emus Second Plural d citis d c etis Third Plural d cunt d cent

Table 3.4: The Latin Fourth Conjugation Person and Number Present Future First Singular venio veniam Second Singular ven s veni es Third Singular venit veniet First Plural ven mus veni emus Second Plural ven tis veni etis Third Plural veniunt venient

i-stem nouns, desideratives, and a single causative [DeWandel, 1982, 55-57]. These formations are thematic, built with the sufx *-ye/o- [Sihler, 1995, 536].

C HAPTER 4 L ATIN dare TO GIVE

The Latin present paradigm of dare to give, shown in Table 4.1, shows athematic inection from a Proto-Indo-European root *deH3 give. The verb differs from typical rst conjugation verbs in that the rst conjugation sufxes in - a are understood to come from PIE *-eH2 -y(e/o)-, an underlyingly thematic formation. The root shows reduplicated athematic presents in Greek d d omi I give and Sanskrit d ad ami id.. Given an etymon identical to that of Greek and Sanskrit, we might expect a Latin paradigm *did o, *did os, *did ot, *didamus, *didatis, *dident < *didH3 n . ti or *didont < *didH3 enti. Latin, however, appears to have built a simple athematic present to the zero grade of the root, *dH . 3 - > da-. In the rst and second persons plural, the forms are precisely what wed expect from a simple athematic paradigm, PIE *dH . 3 -mos > damus, and PIE *dH . 3 -te datis. The third person plural would likely have syllabied as PIE *dH3 n adati < PIE *de-dH3 n . ti (cf. Sanskrit third plural d . ti), which should have resulted in Latin *dent (cf. Latin tentus stretched from *tn os [Sihler, 1995, . -t

Table 4.1: The Present Paradigm of dare to give Person and Number dare First Singular d o Second Singular d as Third Singular dat First Plural damus Second Plural datis Third Plural dant

17

18

97]). Latin *dent was leveled to dant for paradigmatic unity. The future and imperfect forms like dabit will give and dabat was giving likewise reect the zero grade form *dH . 3. The morpheme da- also becomes the base for the singular forms of the Latin present. In the rst person singular, *da- o contracts to d o, and in the third person singular, the personal ending -t is added to the present stem morpheme to yield dat. The second person singular, d as could have gotten its long vowel in a number of ways. Perhaps it was a remodeling of a more original *(di)-d os d as [Sihler, 1995, 544]. Otherwise, *das could have been remade as d as after homophony with the the singular pattern of the rst conjugation. The rst conjugation pattern seen in laud o, laud as, laudat, I praise, you praise, and praises, respectively, becomes the pattern for analogical lengthening of the second person singular, leaving a matching singular present paradigm d o, d as, dat. The match with the rst conjugation is incomplete, however, since the stem of the rst and second persons plural is da- rather than *d a-. The future and imperfect tenses to this root also appear to be built to dH . 3 - > da-, as in dabit will give and dabat was giving. Further, the second element of the form cedo give here! may represent a full-grade, endingless imperative *-deH3 . The paradigm of dare to give shows a sort of dereduplicated athematic present, and certain compounds, such as redd o I give back show evidence of the reduplication, and the form reddit gives back could come from *re-di-dH . 3 ti > *redidat, then, with syncope and vowel weakening, reddit. These compounds have been merged into the third conjugation and appear regular with respect to synchronic Latin grammar.

C HAPTER 5 L ATIN re TO GO

The Latin paradigm of re to go is the most regular of the Latin athematic verbs, probably because the root suffers no phonotactic difculties when coming into contact with personal endings. The rst person plural form of this root is the only rst plural of the Latin irregular verbs without an inserted thematic vowel. Table 5 presents the inection of re in the present. Four forms of the paradigm remain athematic, though the vocalism of the root has been analogically leveled throughout.

5.1

T HE S INGULAR

The second and third person singular forms of the paradigm of re are nearly identical to their Proto-Indo-European proto-forms, while the rst person singular has been thematized.

Table 5.1: The Present of re Person and Number Latin Sanskrit Greek PIE First Singular e o e e mi *H1 e mi y-mi Second Singular s e ei *H1 e s y-si .i Third Singular it e e si *H1 e ti y-ti First Plural mus im as men *H1 i-m es Second Plural tis ith a te *H1 i-t e Third Plural eunt (i)y anti a si * H (i)y e nti 1

19

20

5.1.1

e o I

GO

The Latin form e o comes straightforwardly from *H1 e y-o-H2 . Intervocalic *y was lost everywhere in Latin, as in *tr eyes > Latin tr es three [Sihler, 1995, 188]. The two vowels remain in hiatus with no further modication. Note that this form is thematic in structure, in contrast to the protoform *H1 e y-mi that underlies the Sanskrit and Greek forms of the rst person singular. The Latin present form is here identical to the Proto-Indo-European subjunctive form *H1 e y-o-H2 , cf. Sanskrit a a(ni). y

5.1.2 s YOU GO The Latin form s is one of the clearly athematic forms within this paradigm. The proto-form here is *H1 e y-si. Latin rst loses the hic-et-nunc particle, and then the diphthong *ey is monophthongized to - , cf. *bh eydh-oH2 I am persuaded > Latin f d o I trust [Sihler, 1995, 52]. 5.1.3 it GOES

The Classical Latin form it is descended from Old Latin t, which comes from *H1 e i-ti by the process detailed in 5.1.2. The reduction of - - to -i- is a regular occurrence before every nal consonant except s [Baldi, 1999b, 266].

5.2

T HE P LURAL

All plural forms of the paradigm of re show a full-grade root that has supplanted the zero-grade Proto-Indo-European form reected by the Greek and Sanskrit plural forms in Table 5.

5.2.1 mus WE GO In this form, the full grade form of the root has been used instead of the more original zero grade form. Thus, PIE *H1 i-m os Pre-Latin *ey-mos > Latin mus.

21

Table 5.2: The Future and Imperfect of re Person and Number Future Imperfect First Singular b o bam Second Singular bis b as bit bat Third Singular First Plural bimus b amus bitis b atis Second Plural Third Plural bunt bant

5.2.2 tis YOU ( PL .) GO As in 5.2.1, tis has a full-grade root instead of the expected zero grade. Otherwise, this forms history is mutatis mutandis like that of mus.

5.2.3

eunt THEY GO

The Latin form eunt differs from the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction in two important aspects: the full-grade root and the replacement of the athematic ending *-enti with the thematic *-onti. Thus, PIE *H1 (i)y- enti Pre-Latin *ey-onti > Latin eunt by loss of the hic-et-nunc particle and intervocalic *-y-, as in 5.1.1 above. Note here, as in the rst person, that *ey-ont(i) is identical to the Proto-Indo-European subjunctive form of this word, as shown by Sanskrit a yan they will go < *H1 e y-ont.

5.3

T HE F UTURE AND I MPERFECT OF re

Both the future and imperfect paradigms of re are built with a morpheme -b-, an Italic innovation likely created from the Proto-Indo-European root *bh u be [Palmer, 1961, 271]. Table 5.2 presents the paradigms of the future and imperfect of re.

C HAPTER 6 L ATIN ferre TO BEAR

The present indicative paradigm of ferre to bear seems to contain three athematic forms, the second and third persons singular and second person plural. The paradigm of ferre from ProtoIndo-European *bher carry, bear, presented in Table 6.1, is anomalous, in that comparative evidence for an athematic present is scanty. The present indicative paradigms for this root in Greek and Sanskrit, given in Table 6.2, point to a simple thematic paradigm. Some isolated athematic forms do exist, however. Sihler discusses an occasionally-occurring Sanskrit bh arti [Sihler, 1995, 541], and Lindeman presents Homeric ph erte, a plural imperative attested once, in book nine of the Iliad [Lindeman, 1976, 117]. We would expect a Latin future *ferit if fert were a real athematic present, just as erit it will be < *H1 e s-et is the future to athematic est is. The actual future, as seen in Table 6.1, is feret, from the PIE thematic subjunctive *bh er-e-e-t(i), suggesting a present more in line with the paradigms in Sanskrit and Greek.

Table 6.1: The Latin Paradigm of ferre Person and Number Present Future First Singular fer o feram Second Singular fers fer es Third Singular fert feret First Plural ferimus fer emus Second Plural fertis fer etis Third Plural ferunt ferent

22

23

Table 6.2: The Present of *bher in Sanskrit and Greek Person and Number Sanskrit Greek First Singular bh ar ami ph er o Second Singular bh arasi ph ereis Third Singular bh arati ph erei First Plural bh ar amas ph eromen Second Plural bh aratha ph erete Third Plural bh aranti ph erousi

Further, syncope of both vowels and consonants after r is frequent in Latin. The *-ro- and *-ero- stem nouns attest to this tendency, as do a few words in nal *-ris. A Proto-Indo-European form *a gros (cf. Greek agr os eld) becomes Latin ager eld, inscriptional Old Latin SAKROS priest becomes classical Latin sacer, and *a kris sharp becomes Latin a cer [Sihler, 1995, 315]. The case of *pueros > *puers (> *puerr) > puer boy provides the most direct parallel for the development of fers, since, by a parallel process, we might expect *feris to become *fer, a form lacking the -s that is everywhere the marker of the second person singular in Latin. Cowgill suggests a *ferr which speakers then remake into fers, requiring a second person singular form in -s rather than -r [Cowgill, 1978, 26]. A few verbs make an explanation of regular syncope in fers, fert, and fertis problematic. As Sihler claims, ger o I wage comes from a pre-rhotacism form *ges o, so our syncope needs to have occurred before rhotacism took intervocalic *-s- to -r-, i.e. before about 500 BCE [Sihler, 1995, 541]. Another form, ferit strikes, from feri o I strike, was, in Old Latin fer t, with a long - that makes this form irrelevant to the discussion of the reduction of *ferit to fert bears. A third verb, ter o I rub disproves Sihlers claim that fer o is the only Latin simple thematic verb ending in single -r- [Sihler, 1995, 541] and proves that the syncope suggested by Sihler cannot be regular, since ter o carries normal third conjugation inection.

24

Since regular syncope cannot explain the retention of terit rubs and the reduction of *ferit carries, we must turn to another possible explanation. The fact that an irregular (by the standards of the Latin conjugation system) form survived suggests that this form was more frequently used and more salient than those forms that were part of Latins productive morphological system. As Bybee claims: High frequency encourages phonetic change, but it renders items more conservative in the face of grammatical change or analogical change based on the analysis of other forms (Phillips 2001)1 . For example, high-frequency forms with alternations resist analogical leveling: while English weep / wept, creep / crept, and leap / leapt have a tendency to regularize to weeped, creeped, and leaped, respectively, the highfrequency verbs with the same pattern, keep / kept, sleep / slept show no such tendency (Bybee 19852 , Hooper 1976b3 ). As a result, morphological irregularity is always centered on the high-frequency items of a language [Bybee, 2001, 12]. We can surmise, then, that the irregular ferre was more frequent than the regular terere. Further research on phonological effects of word frequency suggests that the more frequent a word, the more phonetic (and therefore phonological) reduction it undergoes. Research by Pluymaekers, et al., has shown that high frequency Dutch words have phonetically shorter afxes than low frequency words [Pluymaekers et al., 2005, 43-46]. This, taken together with Bybees more general, cross-linguistic claim that frequency and phonological reduction are directly related [Bybee, 2001, 60-62], supports the irregular syncopation of *feris, *ferit, and *feritis to fers, fert, and fertis, respectively, while allowing the retention of regular thematic inection in the present of terere.

1 See 2 See

[Phillips, 2001] in bibliography [Bybee, 1985] in bibliography 3 See [Hooper, 1976] in bibliography.

C HAPTER 7 L ATIN e sse TO EAT

The paradigm of Latin e sse to eat shows the typical Latin pattern of simple thematic forms in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural and athematic forms in the second and third persons singular and second person plural. Table 7 presents the full paradigm of e sse in the present tense.

7.1

T HE P ROBLEM OF VOWEL L ENGTH

This Latin paradigm shows two distinct present stems, ed- in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural, and e s- in the second and third persons singular and second person plural. The paradigm of the root *ed eat in Slavic, presented in Table 7.3, and perhaps the presence of full-grade forms like ad anti they eat in Vedic, suggest that at least some Indo-European dialects inherited this root with Narten ablaut pattern. The Proto-Indo-European paradigm of the

Table 7.1: The Present of e sse to eat Person and Number Latin Form First Singular ed o Second Singular e s Third Singular e st First Plural edimus Second Plural e stis Third Plural edunt

25

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Table 7.2: The Root *ed eat in PIE and Pre-Latin Person and Number PIE Pre-Latin d-mi First Singular *H1 e *e o d d-si Second Singular *H1 e *e ss > e s s Third Singular *H1 e *e d -ti ss e st First Plural *H1 e edimus d-mos Second Plural *H1 e ds -te *esstis > *e stis Third Plural *H1 e edunt d-n . ti

root, given Narten ablaut, is presented in Table 7.1 with its probable initial Latin outcomes after the replacement of athematic endings with thematic endings in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural, and the analogical restitution of of -t in the third person singular and the second person plural after the double dental law took the sequence *-dst- to ss, which becomes s after a long vowel almost immediately, in Latin. Note that in the Pre-Latin paradigm, speakers are forced to deal with four distinct root allomorphs: e d- in the rst person singular, e s- in the second and third persons singular, ed- in the rst and third persons plural, and *es- in the second person plural. These roots have alternations both in vowel length, between the singular and the plural, and in nal consonant, wherein the rst person singular and the rst and third persons plural share a -d, while second and third persons singular and the second person plural share a nal -s. Speakers then collapse a system of four root allomorphs into a system of two allomorphs. Thus *estis e stis to match the root morpheme of e st and e s, or perhaps the long vowel results from lengthening after consonant cluster reduction, and *e o is remade as ed o after edimus and edunt. d The preservation of the Narten pattern with modication in the rst person singular and second person plural in this verb mirrors the presence of the typical athematic ablaut pattern in the Latin copula, with full grade forms in the second and third persons singular and second person plural and zero-grade forms in the rst person singular and rst and third persons plural.

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7.2

T HE V ERBAL E NDINGS

The thematic forms, ed o, edimus, edunt, and edere, the analogically-produced innitive, are easily explained by analogy to third conjugation simple thematic forms like ag o, agimus, agunt, and agere respectively. The vowel quantity in the rst person singular ed o must be analogical to that of edimus and edunt, since the expected Narten form would be *e d-mi.

7.3

e s YOU EAT

d-si > Proto-Italic e The underlying form of e s is likely *H1 e t-s with the loss of the hic-et-nunc particle. The s would devoice the preceding d, leaving a form e ts which would, by regular development, become *e less soldier from ss, which contracts to e s after a long vowel, cf. Plautine m *m let-s [Sihler, 1995, 205]. Plautine m less appears in Classical Latin as m les, with a short e , so, absent an original lengthened grade from Narten inection, we would expect *es to be the Classical Latin form of the second person singular of this verb.

7.4

e st EATS

s by the Latin outcome The underlying form of e st should be *e ds -ti > *e ts -ti > *e ssi > *e ss > e of the double dental law of Indo-European, cf. the *-ti-on- abstract noun sessi o a sitting to root sed sit. This expected form is identical to the second person singular form above and lacks the -t characteristic of the third person singular, so speakers were unlikely to have tolerated it. Analogical replacement of the third person singular marker -t yielded e st. Without recourse to Narten inection, the vowel length is without parallel or good explanation1 .
exists a remote possibility that the length of the vowels in e st and e stis is due to Lachmanns Law, a contentious rule involving the lengthening of vowels before a sequence of PIE plain voiced stop and voiceless stop. Consult [Jasanoff, 2004] for the controversy surrounding this rule.
1 There

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Table 7.3: The Old Church Slavic Present Paradigm of to eat Person and Number OCS Form First Singular jam Second Singular jasi Third Singular jast u First Plural jam u Second Plural jaste Third Plural jad et u

7.5

e stis YOU (P L .) EAT

Given the proto-form *eds -tes, the development of e stis would parallel that of e st in section 7.4 above with respect to the -st.

7.6

PARALLELS TO S LAVIC

The Old Church Slavic present paradigm of to eat, given in Table 7.3, parallels the Latin paradigm in a few important ways. First, the paradigm is clearly athematic. Second, the ja in the root appears to come from *j e, with joticization of an initial vowel and the regular change of *j e to ja, cf. OCS stojati to stand from *sto-j e-tei [Schmalstieg, 1983, 51]. This, together with the Slavic outcome of double dental sequences, *-st- [Schmalstieg, 1983, 30], suggests a paradigm that has a root *e d-, probably from an original Narten present with the lengthened grade analogically extended to the plural. The presence of extended Narten inection here supports the supposition of Narten proto-forms underlying the present paradigm of the Latin forms.

7.7

C ONCLUSIONS

The paradigm of ed o shows the single instance of the Narten ablaut pattern remaining in Latin. Indeed, only this verb and the copula show any intra-paradigmatic root ablaut in the present

29

active indicative, and they display the same pattern, with the ablaut grade found in the ProtoIndo-European singular appearing in the Latin second and third person singular and the second person plural, and the ablaut grade found in the Proto-Indo-European plural found in the Latin rst person singular and the rst and third persons plural.

C HAPTER 8 L ATIN velle TO WISH / WANT

The paradigm of Latin vol o has a number of interesting features and irregularities. Two subparadigms, that of m al o I prefer and n ol o I dont want, contractions built during the early history of the Latin language, exist alongside the main paradigm. The three paradigms are presented together in Table 8.1.

8.1

T HE ROOT *welH1 -

The root of Latin velle, Proto-Indo-European *welH1 -, has a number of interesting characteristics. The root appears to carry athematic inection across Indo-European dialects, with Old Lithuanian rst person singular pa-velmi and Sanskrit nasal-inx present vr t e, which points to a root *welH1 .n . instead of *wel [Sihler, 1995, 539]. The presence of Germanic subjunctive, i.e. Indo-European optative, forms with full grade, like Gothic wiljau I wish leads some to suggest that this root had

Table 8.1: The Paradigms of velle, malle, and nolle Person and Number velle First Singular vol o Second Singular v s Third Singular vult First Plural volumus Second Plural vultis Third Plural volunt m alle m al o m av s m avult m alumus m avultis m alunt n olle n ol o n on v s n on vult n olumus n on vultis n olunt

30

31

Narten inection rather than the simple athematic pattern [Sihler, 1995, 539]. Since Latin almost always levels the ablaut grade of the root between the singular and the plural (cf. e o I go < *eyo-H2 and mus we go < *ey-mos rather than *i-mos), the Latin paradigm can tell us little about the ablaut grade of the Proto-Indo-European etymon. With regard to the nal laryngeal of the reconstructed root, Latin presents a problem. The root *welH1 , should have yielded thematic-looking forms like second person singular *volis from *welH as. The root, in order to yield the forms attested in Latin, must . 1 -si via an intermediate *vol have entered the language as *wel- rather than *welH1 , and the set . root structure is not completely certain, as Swiggers and Seldeslachts discuss [Seldeslachts and Swiggers, 2002, 324].

8.2

T HE T HEMATIC F ORMS OF velle

The thematic forms in the paradigm of velle are, as is normal, the rst person singular and the rst and third persons plural. There are a few variations in need of explanation. First, the innitive velle from Proto-Indo-European *wel(H1 )-s-i, the locative to an *s-stem noun to the verbal root [Sihler, 1995, 610], reveals an original e-grade in the paradigm. The original paradigm for these forms, *wel(H1 )-mi, *wel(H1 )-mos, and *wel(H1 )-ent were replaced by *wel-o-H2 , *wel-o-mos, and *wel-onti, respectively. The -e- in the root is rounded to -o- by either a rule of *we- > *wo-, as in Latin vom o I vomit from Proto-Indo-European *wemH1 -, cf. Sanskrit athematic v amiti [Whitney, 1885, 154] and Greek em eo [Sihler, 1995, 41], or a rule of *e > *o before a pinguis l, as in *kw el-o-H2 I go round > Latin col o I till [Sihler, 1995, 41]. In either case, the result is a synchronic Latin allomorph vol- in the present indicative. The rst person plural form volumus shows a -u- between the root and the personal ending, giving -umus rather than the typical thematic -imus seen in the Latin third conjugation. The vowel could have been conditioned by the strongly rounded environment, but forms like vomimus we vomit preclude the presence of a regular *i > u rule in labial surroundings. The velar l may have added a tendency toward rounding. Another uncertain possibility is analogy with sumus we are which is itself probably an analogical creation.

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Table 8.2: The Present Paradigm of v Person and Number v First Singular v emi Second Singular v es .i Third Singular v eti First Plural v m as Second Plural v th a Third Plural viy anti

8.3

vult WISHES

Latin vult (Old Latin volt) wishes is the regular outcome of Proto-Italic *wel-ti. The rounding of the *-e- in the root is detailed in section 8.2 above, and the the change of o to u before a pinguis l is a regular development between Old and Classical Latin [Sihler, 1995, 62].

8.4

v s YOU WISH

The postulated proto-form of Latin v s, *wel-si, would have become, by regular development vel, a form attested, but as a conjunction meaning if you will (cf. Latin ter three times < *ters, Greek tr s) [Sihler, 1995, 69]. This form lacks the -s that elsewhere marks the second person singular in the Latin verbal system. is a suppletive form, with Latin *wel-si having fallen out completely Osthoff proposes that vis and been replaced by a form *wei-si, which he equates with the Vedic Sanskrit root v strive, approach, or enjoy1 [Osthoff, 1881, 486]. The root takes athematic inection, and its present tense paradigm is presented in Table 8.2.
calls v A perplexing root in its varieties of meaning; divided into two or three roots by BR. and Grassmann [Whitney, 1885, 162].
1 Whitney

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Osthoffs explanation is satisfying phonetically, but the semantics are not an exact match. Further, this instance of suppletion would be the only instance of suppletion within a proximal verbal paradigm in Latin. Warren Cowgill proposes the most likely sequence of events in the creation of the attested form v s. He postulates an intermediary stage between *wel-s and *v s, *well [Cowgill, 1978, 26]. Here, the distinction in the two types of Latin l, the pinguis or velar l and the exilis or palatal l, becomes important. Sihler states The distribution [of l] was as follows: l exilis was found before the vowels -i- and - -, and before another -l-; l pinguis occurred before any other vowel; before any consonant EXCEPT l; and in word-nal position [Sihler, 1995, 174]. The form *well would contain an l exilis, a palatal consonant. Speakers would add the second person singular ending, -s to this form, creating *wells, which is then reduced to *wels, but with retention of the palatal quality of the l. This palatal l then loses its laterality, creating a form weis spelled veis and attested by Priscian [Cowgill, 1978, 30]. The form veis becomes v s by normal sound law, cf. Old Latin deic o > Classical Latin d c o I say [Sihler, 1995, 52]. Cowgill explains the infrequent presence of nal -ls in Latin in two other words with the following: uls was archaic - quoted by Varro, Gellius, Festus, but scarcely used in Classical Latin while puls was a form that was practically imposed by the structure of the language, if pult- was not to lack a nominative singular [Cowgill, 1978, 33].

8.5

vultis YOU (P L .) WISH

If the Proto-Indo-European paradigm for the root *welH1 -2 want was inected after a simple athematic pattern, Latin vultis you(Pl.) wish would come from Proto-Italic *wl . -te > Pre-Latin *wol-tes. If the present showed Narten ablaut, then the Proto-Indo-European form would have been *welH1 -te, becoming Proto-Italic *wel-te, whence *wel-tes in pre-Latin. The development of Latin vultis follows the same path as vult, detailed in section 8.3.

2 Recall

that that Latin uses *wel- instead of *welH1 .

C HAPTER 9 L ATIN esse TO BE

The copula of Latin and Italic is the most contentious and least understood of the irregular athematic Latin verbs. Table 9.1 provides the Latin present and future, and Table 9.2 provides ProtoIndo-European reconstructions of the present and subjunctive.

9.1 9.1.1

A D ISCUSSION OF P RIOR W ORK T HE T HIRD P ERSON P LURAL

The reconstructed PIE form for the third person plural is *H1 s enti, as can be seen in Doric enti, Attic eis , or Sanskrit s anti. Latin sunt, however, appears to point to a formation with o-grade of the ending, as opposed to the other attested Italic forms: Oscan sent/set and Umbrian sent suggesting a proto-Italic as well as PIE form *H1 s enti. The Oscan and Umbrian forms here suggest no alterations at all, save in the case of set, which seems to show a loss of *-n- before -t [Buck, 1904,

Table 9.1: The Latin Present and Future of esse Person and Number Present Future First Singular sum er o Second Singular es eris Third Singular est erit First Plural sumus erimus Second Plural estis eritis Third Plural sunt erunt

34

35

Table 9.2: The PIE Copula, Present and Subjunctive First Singular *H1 e smi Second Singular *H1 e si Third Singular *H1 e sti First Plural *H sm os . 1 e/ Second Plural *H e . 1 st Third Plural *H enti . 1 s *H1 e s-o-H2 *H1 e s-e-s(i) *H1 e s-e-t(i) *H1 e s-o-me/os *H1 e s-e-te *H1 e s-o-nt(i)

160]. The Latin form then requires explanation. The rst option that presents itself is a remaking with the thematic ending, such that *senti *sonti (cf. OCS so t u), (cf. Latin eunt they go from *ey-onti *yenti, cf. Sanskrit y anti they go). The resulting form sunt would have the benet of homoioteleuton with the third conjugation verbs such as dicunt they say as a reinforcing pressure.

9.1.2

T HE F IRST P ERSON P LURAL

The Italic rst person plural is so far unattested in languages other than Latin [Buck, 1904, 160]. The Latin form sumus is generally taken to come from a form *somos, built analogically for any of several reasons. An initial thought, and one that seems reasonable, is that -sm- is a phonotactically disallowed sequence in Latin. This is generally true, at least in Classical Latin, but more archaic Latin appears to allow this sequence to stand, at least medially. The Duenos inscription, for instance, contains COSMIS for later Latin c omis [Baldi, 1999b, 200] and IOVXMENTA for i umenta [Dunkel, 1998, 90]. However, initial sm- is unattested in these old inscriptions, and appears to be lacking in Latin entirely, though evidence either for or against the possibility of such a sequence is scanty [Sihler, 1995, 214]. If Sihler is correct in connecting Latin m ror with Vedic smi- and English smile, then such initial phonotactic constraints might be responsible for some refashioning, since, if the rule is actually *sm- > m-, the Proto-Indo-European form *H1 sm os would become *mos in Latin, a form lacking the s that seems to be the morphological core of the paradigm in syn-

36

chronic terms. Thus, while we cant use phonotactic constraints to analyze the outcome of *esmi (as detailed below), such constraints are at least plausible, if not certain, in dealing with *smos. The reduction of *smos to *mos by regular sound law would be problematic for speakers learning the paradigm. A number of phonological or analogical shifts could produce sumus. One possibility is a Lindemanns law sequence in which *H1 smos > *sm . mos, which developed to *semos. An enclitic form of this word would under raising of *e to i or u, yielding simus or sumus after the regular development of nal *-os to -us. Another possibility better explains the presence of a biform simus which appears in the idiolect of Augustus Caesar, in several lost texts, and in an inscription SECUTI SIMUS we followed [Dunkel, 1998, 87]. A sort of anaptyxis, breaking up the initial *sm-, giving a short vowel, could cause such biforms, as Sihler explains in his discussion of the -i-/-u- alternation, saying Quintilian and others state that the sound in question was intermediate between u and i, and the emperor Claudius is said to have proposed adding a letter to the alphabet in order to write the sound unambiguously [Sihler, 1995, 64]. The introduction of such an intermediate short vowel would serve to preserve the s that appears to characterize the present tense of the copula while accounting for the variant forms appearing in Latin. The existence of the biforms suggests another option, however. Simple thematic verbs in the rst plural in Latin end in -imus, and certain other verbs, such as velle to wish and its derivatives, have rst plurals of the type volumus. The form *mos could have been discarded entirely and rebuilt by attaching either -imus or -umus analogically after these other verbs, retaining the initial s- after analogy with sunt. Another important possibility for the creation of sumus is that of thematization. The Latin verb velle, to wish, want shows thematic forms where other languages show athematic forms, i.e. Latin replaced *w el-mi with *wel-o-H2 and *w el-mos with *wel-o-mos, yielding vol o and volumus by regular sound change (see [Dunkel, 1998, 97] for explanation of the presence of -u-, rather than -i-, in volumus). If *smos were thematized like *w elmos, the resulting *somos would then undergo regular sound change in an enclitic form as detailed above, yielding sumus.

37

9.1.3

T HE S ECOND AND T HIRD P ERSONS S INGULAR

On the surface, the forms es and est appear to require only loss of the hic-et-nunc particle to be established. However, much scholarly ink has been spilled over the presence of enclitic forms -s(s) and -st that appear in certain contexts in Plautus. The following lines give a survey of the distribution of the forms: Contracted Forms: non iratass? for non irata ess? youre not angry?

quis homo sit magis quam tuss? for quis homo sit magis quam tu es? what man is greater than you are?

idem mihist. . . vitium for idem mihi est vitium I have the same fault.

quod factost opus for quod factum est opus what work was done

Uncontracted Forms: mulier ess, audacter iuras Youre a woman, you swear boldly.

quid est id, soror? What is it, sister?

quod tibi nomen est, fecit mihi What your name is, he gave to me (All cited in Nyman, 1977, 42).

38

Nyman presents the rules for the alternation thus: ess, est after consonants, -ss, -st after vowels [Nyman, 1977, 42]. However, the rules arent exactly that, as shown by factost for factum est above. The rule must assume the presence of poetic elision. The elision found variously in Horace, Ovid, and Vergil functions as follows: ...when a word in a verse ends with a vowel or a diphthong or a vowel followed by -m, and the following word begins with a vowel or a diphthong or a vowel preceded by h-, the nal syllable of the rst word and the beginning syllable of the next were usually collapsed or elided, into a single syllable. The quantity of the single syllable resulting from such elision was usually that of the second syllable (suggesting that, in some cases at least, the preceding vowel or diphthong was in pronunciation actually dropped altogether, as the term elision, from elidere to compress or strike out might suggest) [LaFleur, 1999, xxii]. If this sort of poetic elision began by the time of Plautus, then such forms might merely be early examples, especially given the frequency of occurrence in past passive participles of the neuter in -um or the feminine in -a. Also of note here is that SCRIPTUM EST appears several times in the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, and the sequence SACRI EST appears once, showing a lack of the type of contraction that the works of Plautus display in a text contemporary with the playwright [Baldi, 1999b, 210]. The lack of contraction in a high-style prose text afrms the status of -st and -s(s) as real enclitic biforms. However, forms such as opust for opus est also appear [Nyman, 1977, 45], forcing us to revise our suspicions about the postulated enclitic -st. Further, Nyman postulates a loss of nal -s such that the sequence of contraction goes opus -st > opu -st > opust [Nyman, 1977, 45]. However, the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus shows that contemporary Latin orthography didnt require the writing of the double s, including as it does forms such as ESENT for essent, where an orthographic single s represents an etymological and actual double s [Baldi, 1999b, 200]. It is likely therefore that the sequence of contraction in a situation like this is opus -st > opust. In instances like this, haplology, though Nyman claims to have discredited the possibility, still seems to be a reasonable explanation, especially if est can be

39 enclitic and thus contain an unstressed vowel. The sequence *sVs > ss under conditions of weak stress is far from implausible.

9.1.4

T HE S ECOND P ERSON P LURAL

In the case of estis, the explanation is quite straightforward. The Proto-Indo-European form *H e . 1 st would regularly appear as *stes in Latin and requires only a contamination with est (based on the shared -st sequence) to generate the form estis < *estes with raising of *e in nal syllables.

9.1.5

T HE F IRST P ERSON S INGULAR

The story of the Italic rst personal singular forms is a complex one. In Latin generally the athematic rst person singular ending *-mi has been replaced with *-o-H2 , as in vol o I wish < *welo-H2 *wel-mi. However, sum shows no such replacement. A list of Italic forms will prove useful here. In Latin, we have the basic form sum, but additionally esom, attested on the Garigliano bowl, dated to the 5th century BCE [Baldi, 1999a, 169]. In Oscan, sum is present, but also attested are sim from the area of Saticula, and esum from 6th century BCE Campania [Joseph and Wallace, 1987, 675,692]. Additionally, South Picene shows a form esum [Joseph and Wallace, 1987, 683]. The earliest forms attested all point to a proto-Italic rst person singular form *esom, but how are we to understand the origin of such a form in the light of PIE *esmi? Many earlier treatments, such as that in Palmer suggest that sum is an entirely analogical creation, built after sumus, but the presence of esom contradicts this possibility [Palmer, 1961, 269]. Analogy on the proto-Italic level is not entirely out of the question, but the analogical source form cannot be sumus. Another possible explanation is partial thematization of the original athematic form. The introduction of the thematic vowel -o- before the ending could have resulted in a sequence like *esmi *es-o-mi > esom with the loss of the hic-et-nunc particle. However, this particular style of thematization is otherwise unattested in Latin. The usual thematization process, as seen in e o I go and vol o involves the complete replacement of the athematic *-mi ending with *-o-H2 , which

40

would result in *es-o-H2 , a form identical with the Latin future, er o. We likewise cannot postulate a thematicization of the form *esmi *esomi based on grounds of disambiguation from the future, since the Oscan and Umbrian future is not based on the PIE subjunctive of *es-, but is rather derived from a different IE root, *bh u [Buck, 1904, 160]. The ambiguity would occur only within Latin, leaving the other Italic branches to use the form normally. Phonotactic difculty is another tack tried in explaining sum, but as shown previously, medial *-sm- can stand in more archaic Latin, and -sN - clusters are present in both Oscan and Umbrian [Joseph and Wallace, 1987, 691]. A nal *-sm, following apocope of the nal hic-et-nunc -i, might well produce considerably more difculties. The sequence would be likely to develop an anaptyctic vowel, resulting perhaps in *esem (cf. The Latin treatment of Proto-Indo-European *m . , as in Latin septem < Proto-Indo-European *s eptm . seven. Even though the nal *-sm sequence of I am is generated long after the era of Proto-Indo-European, a similar outcome is plausible.) or perhaps esom with a rounded vowel from the labial character of the m, which produces the attested form. The enclitic behavior of the copula can then explain the loss of the initial e-, or one can turn to analogy with sumus. Another possible method for deriving sum appears in the existence of subjunctive biforms that appear in Sanskrit. The basic Indo-European subjunctive appears in Latin er o (cf. Sanskrit a a(ni)), s but beside this subjunctive form (*H1 e s-o-H2 ), there appears in the Yajurveda a form asam, a subjunctive built with the *-m ending instead of the -o-H2 (i.e. *es-o-m), the exact form that appears in proto-Italic [Dunkel, 1998, 95]. Sanskrit asam is likely secondary, however, an analogical subjunctive built to a subjunctive like bharam, a form that itself is an analogical construction, probably after the imperfect of the Sanskrit paradigm1 , and the form is therefore unlikely to underlie any Italic verb form. The concept of semantic fading of subjunctive forms to indicative forms is conditioned by politeness, and is well attested in various IE languages [Dunkel, 1998, 91]. We must presume, then, that however this Proto-Italic*esom was built, it replaced whatever the natural outproportional analogy would look something like imperfect indicative a ama : subjunctive bhar bh ar ama :: imperfect indicative a aram, instead of regular rst sin bharam : X, X = new subjunctive bh gular subjunctive bh ar a(ni).
1 The

41

Table 9.3: The Greek Thematic Verb Person and Number Greek Form Thematic Vowel First Singular ph er o o Second Singular ph ereis e Third Singular ph erei e First Plural ph eromen o Second Plural ph erete e Third Plural ph erousi o

come of *esmi was in Latin, giving rise, through enclisis, aphaeresis, or analogy to sum, as detailed above.

9.2

A N OVEL AND U NITARY A PPROACH TO THE PARADIGM

The above methods perform reasonably well in showing possible derivations from the Proto-IndoEuropean forms individually. However, an approach looking at the paradigm as a whole, with much interaction between the forms at an early stage of Latin, can produce the paradigm without resort to many of the ad hoc methods discussed above. The paradigm of Latin sum displays the basic vowel pattern seen in the Indo-European thematic verb, i.e. *o in the rst person singular and the rst and third persons plural and *e in the second and third persons singular and second person plural, a pattern setting up a sort of identity in the minds of speakers, connecting the rst personal singular with the rst and third persons plural, and then the second and third persons singular with the second person plural. This mental connection is the critical fact on which the following analysis of the structure of the sum paradigm hinges. For a clear example of the vowel pattern in the Indo-European thematic present, see Table 9.3 for the Greek thematic paradigm of ph er o I bear.

42

Proto-Italic speakers would have perceived the o-e-e-o-e-o pattern before the eventual reduction (cf. Latin third conjugation) to o-i-i-i-i-u2 . Ill now discuss the formation of the Classical Latin copula form by form.

9.2.1

sunt

The Proto-Italic form *senti gets rebuilt only in Latin (recall that analogy is an irregularly applied process in human language) with the thematic ending -onti, cf. eunt and volunt, two athematic forms that get rebuilt in Latin with -onti, giving a form *sonti, which loses the hic-et-nunc particle and then undergoes vowel raising to -u-, a process supported by homophony with third conjugation verbs.

9.2.2

sumus

The Proto-Italic *smos is phonotactically uncertain, if not surely disallowed, and was probably analogically altered to *somos based on the vowel pattern shown above, supported by a proportional analogy of the type *legont : *sont :: *legomos : X, X = *somos.

9.2.3

sum

The Proto-Italic form *esmi loses the hic-et-nunc particle at the same time that *esi and *esti do, yielding *esm . . The normal outcome of Proto-Indo-European nal *m is -em (cf Latin septem < *septm . ), but here, we need a development from a proto-Italic *-m . , and a reasonable hypothesis is -om, giving esom, which is directly attested by the Garigliano bowl and the various other Italic forms. The form then undergoes raising of *o > u in nal syllables, yielding the form esum, which Varro claims was an archaic form of sum [Dunkel, 1998, 88]. To understand the change from esum to sum, we need to return to the analysis of elision in section 9.1.3. The critical data point for understanding this is the form opust for opus est, showing an instance of haplology of the type *-sVso-i-i-u-i-u stage of the Latin third conjugation seems likely, based rst on the Proto-Indo-European etymon of the rst person plural and second on the presence, even in Classical Latin, of third conjugation rst plurals in -umus.
2A

43 > -ss- <-s->. In a nearly identical process, a periphrastic perfect like *sec utus esum I followed with an enclitic copular form would be *sec utusum or sec utussum, given a reduction of the type *-VsVsV- > *VssV. This process leaves two rst singular forms, a stressed esum and an enclitic sum. Rhotacism, however, causes a change of esum > *erum, a form lacking the s that, in synchronic terms, marks the present of the copula in Latin, and has the -r- that marks the Latin future and imperfect forms. The stressed erum is then discarded, and the enclitic sum takes over all rst person singular present active indicative copular duties3 .

9.2.4

estis

Proto-Italic *stes is remade as *estes after a comparable paradigmatic identity with the second and third person singular forms (in Old Latin ess and est). The vowel reduction to estis provides a reinforcing paradigmatic identity in these three forms, giving a unitary stem es- followed by the standard Latin Personal endings (-s, -t, and -tis).

to analogies such as those suggested for sumus in section 9.2.2 are possible for sum as well, but they do not explain the presence of esom and Varros esum.

3 Recourse

C HAPTER 10 C ONCLUSIONS

The six irregular verbs of the Latin present system have substantial similarities in their structures. Three of these verbs, ferre, velle, and edere have Latin futures that appear to be derived from IndoEuropean thematic subjunctives, and therefore fall at least partially into the Latin third conjugation. Only esse to be has a future paradigm directly cognate with the Proto-Indo-European athematic subjunctive. Other anomalies associated with this verb are that it has a rst person singular form that hasnt become thematic, and it alone retains part of the Indo-European simple athematic ablaut pattern between the singular and the plural. Only edere eat retains the Narten ablaut pattern. The paradigm of dare shows athematic inection, with endings appended directly to a root *dH . 3> da-. Elsewhere, intraparadigmatic ablaut is leveled out of the Latin present tense. These facts suggest that the Indo-European athematic inectional type was near extinction by the literate period of the Italian peninsula. Indeed, some of the forms discussed in this thesis, such as e s you eat, e st eats, and e stis were replaced by the simple thematic forms edis, edit, and editis respectively, regularizing the paradigm and drawing it into the third declension. The fact that the forms discussed herein survived as long as they did is a testament to their frequency and saliency, and further research into the relationship between irregularity, frequency, retention, and reduction is warranted in explaining the structure of the Italic system. A paucity of Vulgar Latin data will likely prevent the creation of a solid, usage-based understanding of the Latin system, but some usage effects may be observed and explained.

44

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system. Unpublished Ohio State University Dissertation, University Microlms International, Ann Arbor, Mich. [Dunkel, 1998] Dunkel, G. E. (1998). On the Thematisation of Latin sum, volo, eo and edo and the System of Endings in the IE Subjunctive Active. In Jasanoff, J., Melchert, H. C., and Oliver, L., editors, M r Curad. Studies in Honor of Calvert Watkins, pages 83100. Institut f ur Sprachwissenschaft der Universit at Innsbruck, Innsbruck. [Fortson, 2004] Fortson, B. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, Ma. 45

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