On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 15:01:58 +0000, altamix <
alxmoeller@...> wrote:
>was this "b" a kind of a very
>short "w" which could dissapper between /e/ and /a/?
>The "dormie:bam" will explain the actualy "dormeam" and not "dormiam".
-b- becomes -v-, which is regularily dropped in Romanian. In the case of
the imperfect, however, the -v- had already been dropped in Vulgar Latin,
and all Romance languages, including Sardinian, have the endings -ia or -ea
(but -ava in the a:-stems = Rom -áa > -á). Sard. -ía, -ías, -íat, -iámus,
-iázis, -íant, Spa. -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían; Cat. -ia, -ies,
-ia, -iem, -ieu, -ien,; OFr. -oie, -oies, -oit, -iiens, -iiez, -oient;
ORom. -ea, -eai, -ea, -eam, -eatzi, -ea. Only Italian has restored the -v-
from the a:-stems in the imperfects -iva, -eva (but OItal. and many
dialects still maintain(ed) the -ia, -ea forms).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...