Re: [tied] Latin perfect tense

From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
Message: 7335
Date: 2001-05-21

On Sun, 20 May 2001 21:50:53 +0100, "Dan Jones" <feuchard@2crfm.net>
wrote:

>What is the derivation of the Latin perfect endings? It seems to me as if they are a mix of the sigmatic aorist and perfect endings.
>Taking the indicatice endings of an -a:re verb as an example:
>-ui: < *-ah2 (?)

The ending is *-h2a-i > -i:

>-uisti: < *-s-th2a

In the second sg. we also have *-i : *-th2a-i

>-uit < *-e-t (-t presumably by analogy)
>-uimus < *-me (?)
>-uistis < *-s-te-s
>-ue:runt < -s-ont

The 3pl. has three forms: -e:re, -erunt and -e:runt. The latter is a
contamination of the former two, which are old.

The element *-(e)s- appears in the 2sg. -is-ti:, the 2pl. -is-tis and
the 3pl. -erunt [< *-es-ont].

Also noteworthy is the element *w(e) that appears in the "weak"
perfects (such as most a:-conjugation verbs).

A good number of more or less elaborate explantions have been given to
explain the Latin perfect forms. None of the ones I've seen have I
found very convincing. Now, apart from the pf.ind., the rest of the
perfect paradigm in Latin seems to be based on the verb "to be"
together with a a worn-down form of the ptc.pf.act. in *-us-/*-wos-:

pf. conj. ama:verim, ama:veri:s < *ama:ve sim, *ama:ve si:s
pqpf. ama:veram, ama:vera:s < *ama:v eram, *ama:v era:s
pqpf.conj. ama:vissem, ama:visse:s < *ama:v essem, *ama:v esse:s
fut.ex. ama:vero:, amaveris < *ama:v ero:, *ama:v eris
[but 3pl: ama:verint, for expected ama:verunt (identical to pf.ind.)]

So the "weak" pf.ind. must originally also have been:

*ama:ve sum > *ama:verum
*ama:v es > *ama:vis
*ama:v est > *ama:vist
*ama:ve sumus > *ama:verumus
*ama:v estis > ama:vistis
*ama:ve sunt > ama:verunt

Besides which there were the strong forms, inherited from PIE:

e:m-i: < *-h2a-i
*e:m-ti: < *-th2a-i
e:m-it < *-e
e:m-imus < *-me
*e:m-tis < *-te
e:m-e:re < *-e:r-i

The attested Latin paradigm is an amalgamation of the two types:

ama:v-i: / e:m-i: (< synthetic)
ama:v-is-ti: / e:m-is-ti: (< periphrastic + synthetic)
ama:v-it / e:m-it (< synthetic)
ama:v-imus / e:m-imus (< synthetic)
ama:v-istis /e:m-istis (< periphrastic)
ama:v-erunt / e:m-e:re / ama:ve:runt (< periphrastic/synthetic/both)

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...