From: Christophe Grandsire (christophe.grandsire@free.fr)
Date: Wed May 22 2002 - 05:13:38 EST
En réponse à Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@free.fr>:
>
> I have to look at this one. I'm thinking that it could indeed come from
> ESSERE,
> but the appearance of the T is not a normal development. Maybe one of
> the
> infinitive contaminated the other as they became synonymous and finally
>
> collapsed into a single declension... I have a book about Old French at
> home.
> When I'm there I will look at it.
>
OK, after looking at it I don't have much more to say. According to the book
the picture is too blurred to give a secure answer. To get to |estre| (the Old
French form), you have to suppose a form *ESSRE instead of *ESSERE, something
not impossible but intriguing. Moreover, the participles |estant| and |esté|
cannot even be surely said to come from STARE. They could very well be a
creation from the new infinitive |estre|. So basically without a time machine
we'll never know :)) . But indeed, STARE at that time had given the verb
|ester| (which died out a little later), so a single origin from it is nearly
out of the question.
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.
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