Re: [tied] Re: latin esse

On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 14:56:44 -0000, "tolgs001 <gs001ns@...>"
<gs001ns@...> wrote:

>>Modern Romanian has disambiguated the form (i)erá (1sg., 3sg.
>>or 3pl.) by substituting the endings of avea (1sg. am, 2sg.
>>a(re), 2pl. au), giving the paradigm of the literary language
>>eram, erai, era, eram, eratzi, erau.
>
>Hm. But in Rumanian, all praeterita 1st person singular have
>the -m ending: the -A verbs: cântam, jucam / the -EA verbs: aveam,
>taceam, vedeam, placeam; the -E verbs: faceam, ceream, credeam;
>the -I verbs: citeam, iubeam, loveam; the -RÎ verbs: hotaram,
>coboram, uram, pâram.
>
>So, I/me has to have the -m. Without it, the verb is automatically
>perceived as of the 3rd person.

But in old Romanian 1sg. was cântá. The -m was added in the 17th
century. According to Bourciez, it's either the 1pl. ending -am(u) or
influence of <am> "I have". 3pl. -au is certainly from au "they
have", and was added in the literary language even more recently.

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