From: Mangiat (mangiat@tin.it)
Date: Wed May 22 2002 - 23:18:38 EST
>
> 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.
That's the development I suggested (see my previous postings). The form
ESSRE (<'ESSERE) is not so unlikely: think about battre, vivre, prendre: the
final -re is a contraction of VL unstressed -ERE. The _t_ in the root of
French e^tre is probably an intrusion: the cluster /sr/ was (and is) not
allowed, the consonant _t_ plays the same role _b_ plays in chambre from
CAMRA<CAMERA.
> 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 :)) .
Beware Italian has _essere_ as infinitive, but _stato_ and _stante_ as
participles (_ente_ exists, but it's a learned word used in philosophy to
translate Latin _ens_ or Greek _o:n_). Lombard _vess_ but _staa_; Ligurian
_esse_ but _stæto_ [stE:tu].
Luca
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