A feature common to all
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
is the presence of a
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
corresponding to the
English verb ''to be''.
General features
This verb has two basic meanings:
*In a less
marked context it is a simple
copula (''I’m tired''; ''That’s a shame!''), a function which in non-Indo-European languages can be expressed quite differently.
*In a more heavily marked context it expresses existence (''I think therefore I am''); the dividing line between these is not always easy to draw.
Some languages have shared these functions between several verbs: Irish, Spanish and Persian all have multiple equivalents of ''to be'', making a variety of distinctions.
Many Indo-European languages also use the verb "to be" as an
auxiliary
Auxiliary may refer to:
In language
* Auxiliary language (disambiguation)
* Auxiliary verb
In military and law enforcement
* Auxiliary police
* Auxiliaries, civilians or quasi-military personnel who provide support of some kind to a military se ...
for the formation of
compound (periphrastic) tenses (''I’m working''; ''I was bitten''). Other functions vary from language to language. For example, although in its basic meanings, ''to be'' is a
stative verb
In linguistics, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are static, or unchangin ...
, English puts it to work as a
dynamic verb
A dynamic, fientive or sometimes eventive verb is a verb that shows continued or progressive Action (philosophy), action on the part of the subject (grammar), subject. This is the opposite of a stative verb.
Overview
Actions denoted by dynamic ...
in fixed
collocations (''You are being very annoying'').
The copula is the most
irregular verb
A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
in many Indo-European languages. This is partly because it is more frequently used than any other, and partly because
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
offered more than one verb suitable for use in these functions, with the result that the daughter languages, in different ways, have tended to form
suppletive verb paradigms.
This article describes the way in which the irregular forms have developed from a series of roots.
The Proto-Indo-European IEroots
''*h1es-''
The root ''*h
1es-'' was certainly already a copula in
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
.
The e-grade ''*h
1es-'' (see
Indo-European ablaut
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from Standard High German, German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).
An example of ablaut in English is the Germanic strong verb, strong ...
) is found in such forms as
English ''is'',
Irish ,
German ,
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
,
Persian ,
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
.
The zero grade ''*h
1s-'' produces forms beginning with /s/, like German ''sind'', Latin ''sumus'',
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...
''smas'', etc.
In
PIE
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...
, ''*h
1es-'' was an
athematic
In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel or from Indo-European ablaut, ablaut placed before the Suffix#Inflectional suffixes, ending of a Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjecti ...
verb in ''-mi''; that is, the first person singular was ''*h
1esmi''; this inflection survives in English ''am'',
Pashto
Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...
''yem'',
Persian ''am'', Sanskrit ''asmi'', Bengali first-person verb ending ''-ām'',
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
''esmĭ'', etc.
This verb is generally reconstructed for
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
thus:
The root or (which did not have ablaut variations in the protolanguage
) probably meant 'to grow', but also 'to become'.
This is the source of the English infinitive ''be'' and participle ''been''. Also, for example, the
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
"future" tense ''bithidh''; the
Irish imperative ''bí'', past ''bhí'' and future ''beidh''; the
Welsh (along with the other ''b-'' initial forms);
Persian imperative ''bov'', past ''bud'' and future ''bâš''; and the
Slavic infinitive and past, etc. for example
Russian (''byt’''), (''byl'').
PIE became Latin /f/, hence the Latin future participle ''futūrus'' and perfect ''fuī''; Latin ''fīō'' 'I become' is also from this root, as is the Greek verb (''phúō''), from which ''physics'' and ''physical'' are derived.
was a preterito-present verb, i.e. Imperfect endings for Present, and can be reconstructed as follows:
''*h2wes-''
The root ''*h
2wes-'' may originally have meant "to live",
and has been productive in all
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
. The e-grade is present in the German participle ''gewesen'', the o-grade (''*wos-'') survives in English and Old High German ''was'', while the lengthened e-grade (''*wēs-'') gives us English ''were''. (The Germanic forms with /r/ instead of /s/ result from
grammatischer Wechsel.) See
Germanic strong verb: Class 5.
''*h1er-''
This has been claimed as the origin of the
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
and later
Scandinavian languages
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is al ...
' present stem: Old Norse ''em, ert, er, erum, eruð, eru''; the second person forms of which were borrowed into English as ''art'' and ''are''. It has also been seen as the origin of the Latin imperfect (''eram, eras, erat'') and future tenses (''ero, eris, erit'').
However, other authorities link these forms with ''*h
1es-'' and assume
grammatischer Wechsel (/s/→/r/), although this is not normally found in the present stem.
Donald Ringe
Donald Ringe () is an American linguist and Indo-Europeanist.
He has been described as a historical linguist and as a mathematical linguist. He is multi-lingual. His work is on language family trees and the Proto-Indo-European language, a ...
argues that the copula was sometimes unaccented in Pre-Proto-Germanic, which would have then triggered the voicing under
Verner's law.
He explains the Germanic first person singular form as such, deriving it from earlier , since -zm-, but not -sm-, was assimilated to -mm- in Germanic (for which other evidence exists as well). Furthermore, the third person plural form (from PIE ) shows that this word, too, was unaccented. If the accent had been preserved, it would have become , but that form is not found in any Germanic language. In this view, it is likely that stressed and unstressed varieties of the copula (with corresponding voiceless and voiced fricatives) existed side by side in Germanic, and the involvement of a separate root ' is unnecessary.
The Latin forms could be explained by
rhotacism.
''*steh2-''
The root ''*(s)teh
2-'' meant "to stand". From this root comes the present stem of the so-called "substantive verb" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''tá'' and ''tha'' respectively, as well as ''taw'' in Welsh. On the absence of the initial s- in Celtic, see
Indo-European s-mobile
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e ...
.
In Latin, ''stō, stare'' retained the meaning "to stand", until local forms of
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
began to use it as a copula in certain circumstances. Today, this survives in that several Romance languages (Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan) use it as one of their two copulae, and there is also a Romance tendency for a past participle derived from ''*steh
2-'' to replace the original one of the copula (this occurs in French, Italian and the main dialects of Catalan). See also
Romance copula.
Although in
Dutch this verb retains its primary meaning of "stand", it is used in an auxiliary-like function that only has a secondary meaning of "standing", for example: ''ik sta te koken'' ("I am cooking", literally "I stand to cook"). While it is not a full copula (it can normally only be used as an auxiliary with another verb), it does have shades of meaning that resemble that of the Italian ''sto cucinando'' ("I am cooking"). The intransitive verbs ''zitten'' ("to sit"), ''liggen'' ("to lie") and ''lopen'' ("to walk/run") are used in similar ways.
In
Swedish, which usually lacks gerund forms, the corresponding ''stå'' is often used similarly, along with ''sitta'' ("to sit"), ''ligga'' ("to lie") and ''gå'' ("to walk").
In
Hindustani the past tense of the copula ''honā'' "to be" which are «tʰā», «tʰe», «tʰī» and «tʰī̃» are derived from Sanskrit «stʰā».
Gujarati has a cognate verb «tʰavũ» "to happen"; cf. Bengali aorist «tʰā-» (to stay) as well.
The resulting paradigms
Indo-Iranian languages
Indic languages
=Sanskrit
=
The
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...
root ''as'' (to be) is derived from the Indo-European root *'.
''bhū'' (to be) is derived from Indo-European *'.
= Hindi-Urdu
=
In modern
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
(
Hindustani), the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
verb अस् ''(as)'' (to be) which is derived from the
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
root ''*'' has developed into the present indicative forms of the verb होना ہونا ''(honā)'' (to be). The infinitive होना ہونا ''(honā)'' itself is derived from the Sanskrit verb root भू ''(bʱū)'' which is derived from Indo-European root ''*.'' The indicative imperfect forms of होना ہونا ''(honā)'' comes from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
स्थित ''(stʰita)'' "standing, situated" which are derived from the PIE root ''*steh₂-'' (“to stand”). होना ہونا (''honā'') is the only verb in Hindi-Urdu to have the ''present indicative'', ''imperfect indicative'', ''presumptive mood'' and the ''present subjunctive'' conjugations, and all the other verbs in Hindi-Urdu lack them.
The verb होना / ہونا ''(honā)'' can be translated as "to be", "to exist", "to happen" or "to have" depending on the context, and when used in the third person it could also be translated as "''there is/are''". Many verbs conjugations in Hindi-Urdu are derived from participles and hence are gendered and numbered, and they agree with either the object or the subject of the sentence depending on the grammatical case of the subject of the sentence. When the subject is in the
ergative or the
dative case
In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this examp ...
(seeː
dative construction
The dative construction is a grammatical way of constructing a sentence using the dative case. A sentence is also said to be in dative construction if the subject and the object (direct or indirect) can switch their places for a given verb, with ...
&
quirky subject) the verb agrees in gender and number with the object of the sentence and with the subject when the subject is in the nominative case.
= Bengali
=
Bengali is considered a
zero copula
Zero copula, also known as null copula, is a linguistic phenomenon whereby the subject is joined to the predicate without overt marking of this relationship (like the copula (linguistics), copula ''to be'' in English). One can distinguish languag ...
language, however there are notable exceptions. In the simple present tense there is no verb connecting the subject to the predicative (the "zero verb" copula) but when the predicate expresses ideas of existence, location, or possession, for such cases the verb আছ- (''ach'') can be roughly translated as "to exist" or "to be present".
* In the past tense, the incomplete verb আছ- ''(ach)'' is always used as the copula, regardless of the nature of the predicative.
* For the future tense and non-finite structures, the copula is supplied by the verb হওয়া (''howa''), with the exceptions being the possessive and locative predicatives for which the verb থাকা (''thaka'', "to remain") is utilized.
* Bengali does not have a verb for possession (i.e. "to have", "to own"). Instead, possession in Bengali is expressed by the verb আছ- ''(āch)'' (for present and past tenses) and the verb থাকা ''(thaka)'' (for future tense) inflected with the possessed object and a genitive case for the possessor.
Bengali verbs are highly
inflected
In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
and are regular with only few exceptions. They consist of a stem and an ending; they are traditionally listed in Bengali dictionaries in their "verbal noun" form, which is usually formed by adding ''-a'' to the stem: for instance, করা (''kôra, to do'') is formed from the stem কর (''kôr''). The stem can end in either a vowel or a consonant.
= Nepali
=
The copula verb of Nepali has two sets of conjugations. The हो (ho) set is used in sentences that equate two things, like त्यो किताब हो (tyo kitāb ho, “That is a book.”) The छ (cha) set is used in sentences that describe something, or locate where something is, like त्यो ठूलो छ (tyo ṭhūlo cha, “That is big.”). Singular present tense forms of the copulas in Nepali are shown in the table below:
Iranic languages
=Persian
=
With regard to the function of the verb ‘to be’ as a
copula, the most conspicuous feature of Modern
Persian language
Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
is the evolution of an ''existential be'', ''hast'' (exists), out of ''ast'' (is). In fact, when studying the forms and functions of ‘to be’, one might find certain characteristics specific to
Persian that are worth pondering upon
[Toofan, M. ''Zabān: ast yā hast?'' (Language: Is or Exists?). Ketāb-e Iran, 2000]— i.e. even without considering the
diachronic
Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach - from ,("together") + ,("time") - considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. In contrast, a ''diac ...
evolution of Modern
Persian language
Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
and its relation to Ancient
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian langu ...
(such as
Old Persian
Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...
and
Avestan
Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...
) whose usage of the verb ‘to be’ seems more close to
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
. Paradoxically, despite the fact that Persian is apparently the only
Indo-European language
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...
that has created an ''existential be'' out of the
copula, it has simultaneously made an extreme use of the latter to produce a general paradigm for
conjugating all Persian verbs.
Historically speaking, like most of
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
that make use of
suppletive
In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflection, inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irre ...
roots to denote ‘to be’, Persian integrates
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
(PIE) verbs *''h
1es-'' (to be) and ''*b
huH'' (to grow> to become> to be). Hence, while Persian
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
''būdan'' (to be) < PIE ''*b
huH'' forms the past stem of the verb (e.g. Persian ''būd-'' ‘was’) or acts as an
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
in formation of
pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, characterizes certain verb forms and grammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "we ''had arrived''" ...
of other verbs, its present tense is solely based on the derivatives of PIE *''h
1es-''. It is, in fact, from the
declension
In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
of PIE *''h
1es-'' (to be) that six present stems have been created and assigned to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular and plural to act as the present-tense conjugation of Persian ''būdan'' (to be), as shown in the following table.
As an example, in the following sentences, the present forms of the verb 'to be' are used as
copulas or
predicates:
Furthermore, as endings added to the stem of the verbs, these declensional forms have been
grammaticalized to shape a general paradigm for the
grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation ( ) is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar). For instance, the verb ''break'' can be conjugated to form the words ''break'' ...
of all other verbs; these endings were once auxiliary verbs which evolved into an
enclitic. This generalized conjugational paradigm is also applied to the past tense of the verb ''būdan'' (shown in the table below). However, what is linguistically notable, is the emergence of an ''existential be'' out of the ''copula'', viz ''hast'' (exists) out of ''ast'' (is). The evolution of this exceptional form, might go back to ancient Iranian languages, where ''ast'' could have two variants (cf.
Avestan
Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...
which has both ''as-'' and ''has-''
1es- ‘be’). In the next phase, what we may call a ''pseudo-verb appeared, vis. the verb hastan'' (to exist) has been ''analogically'' evolved from ''hast'' (exists) and has been conjugated like any other Persian verb (e.g. ''hast-am'' = literally: *‘''(I) am existence''’→ ‘I exist’).
The simple past conjugation of the verb ''būdan'' (to be) is in fact formed by a double-copula, in the sense that both the stem and the ending are copulas: the past stem of the verb ''būd''- is derived from PIE *bhuH-, while the endings are from the suppletive form of PIE *h1es- (to be) with the exception of 3rd person singular which has zero ending for the all Persian verbs in the past tense.
The present perfect conjugation of the verb ''būdan'' (to be) is a double copula paradigm as it is produced by addition of all enclitic copulas to the past participle of the verb: ''būde'' (been).
The pseudo-verb ''hastan'' (to exist) has only simple present tense; in addition, it is truly and purely existencial only in the case of third person singular (hast). The fact is that the verb has been the product of this very case, as an "existential is", ''hast'' (he/she/it exists). For other persons the conjugation has to use enclitic copulas. These copulas are, in turn, derived from the declension of PIE *h1es- (to be); as if the predicative "to be" has been an auxiliary verb turned into enclitic, to provide six endings for 1st/2nd/3rd person (singular & plural). However, as it is said, the 3rd person singular has no ending in the case of ''hastan''. That is to say that the existential hast (exists), which is like the alter-ego of the copula ast (is), takes no ending, while the present stem of all other verbs take an archaic ending -''ad'' in their 3rd person singular.
Hellenic languages
Greek
The Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
verb ''eimi'' (I am) is derived from the Indo-European root *'.
Dual is not shown in the table.
The participles are based on the full-grade stem ἐσ- in Homeric, according to Smyth.
Italic languages
Except for Latin, the older Italic languages
The Italic languages form a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, whose earliest known members were spoken on the Italian Peninsula in the first millennium BC. The most important of the ancient Italic languages ...
are very scarcely attested, but we have in Oscan
Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian and South Picene.
Oscan was spoken by a number of t ...
''set'' (they are), ''fiiet'' (they become), ''fufans'' (they have been) and ''fust'' (he will be), and in Umbrian
Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbr ...
''sent'' (they are). This section will explain Latin, and the Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
that have evolved from it.
''Esse'' and the forms beginning with (e)s- are from the root ''*h1es-'', while the forms beginning with ''f-'' are from the root . For the forms beginning with er-, see '. ''Stāre'' is derived from the root ''*steh2-''.
In Spanish, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and to a lesser extent, Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
there are two parallel paradigms, ''ser/èsser/essere'' from Latin ''esse'' "to be" on the one hand, and ''estar/stare'' from Latin ''stare'', "to stand" on the other.
In several modern Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
, the perfect is a compound tense formed with the past participle as in English, but the old Latin perfect survives as a commonly used preterite
The preterite or preterit ( ; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple p ...
in Spanish and Portuguese, and as a literary " past historic" in French, Italian and Catalan.
There is a tendency for a past participle derived from ''stare'' (or more specifically its supine, ''statum'') to replace that of the main copula derived from ''esse''. For example, the French participle ''été'' comes from ''statum''.
Germanic languages
The proto-Germanic verb for 'to be', *wesaną, and its conjugations are mostly derived from the Proto-Indo-European verb ''*h2wes'' (‘stay overnight, camp’). The present subjunctive stem is derived from the optative of ''*h1es-''. West Germanic languages also have an additional stem *bi- (such as 'to be' in English), which is thought to derive from the PIE stem *bʰuh₂- ('become'). Proto-Germanic retained the dual, but only in the first and second person.
* Old English kept the verbs ''wesan'' and ''bēon'' separate throughout the present stem, though it is not clear that the kind of consistent distinction in usage was made that we find, for example in Spanish. In the preterite, however, the paradigms fell together. Old English has no participle for this verb.
* The plural forms in Modern Swedish (indicated in brackets) were in common use in formal written language until the mid-20th century, but are now no longer in use except in deliberately archaising texts. The preterite subjunctive is also increasingly being replaced by the indicative, or past participle.
* Dutch, like English, has abandoned the original second-person singular forms, replacing them with the second-person plural forms. However, while in English the old forms are still in limited and deliberately archaic use, in Dutch they have disappeared entirely and are no longer known or used at all. The forms listed in the plural are the historical plural forms, the 'jij' and 'gij' forms. Dutch formed a new plural pronoun 'jullie' with inflection similar to the 1st and 3rd person plural, but it would be redundant to list them here.
Slavic languages
* In Russian, the present forms are archaic and no longer in common use, except for the third person forms, which are used in "there is/are" type phrases.
*In Ukrainian, the present tense forms of the verb "бути" have all but disappeared from contemporary language, except for the third person form which is used in existential phrases; єсть (jesť) is archaic and encountered only in poetry. All participles have turned into other parts of speech, future and past active participles becoming present and past active adverbial participle respectively, and resultative pariciple becoming past tense of verbs.
* In Serbo-Croatian the forms ''jesam, jesi, jeste'' and so on are used as the basic form of the Present Tense "to be" (i.e. ''I am, you are'' etc.), while the forms ''budem, budeš, bude'' etc. are used only for the formation of the Future Perfect.
* In Bulgarian, forms ''бъда'', ''бъдеш'', etc. are not used by themselves but only in compound forms (future ''ще бъда'', subjunctive ''да бъда''). In this respect they closely follow the usage (and non-usage) of perfective verbs. As such it has its own forms for the aorist (''бидох'', ''биде'', ''биде'', ''бидохме'', ''бидохте'', бидоха''), the imperfect (''бъдех'', ''бъдеше'', ''бъдеше'', ''бъдехме'', ''бъдехте'', ''бъдеха'') and the resultative participle (''бъдел''). Another verb - ''бивам'' with fully regular conjugation type III paradigm - completes an aspect triple: imperfective ''съм'', perfective ''бъда'', secondary imperfective ''бивам''. The perfective aorist has lost its original meaning and is now used only to form the compound conditional mood (''бих чел'' = ''I would read''). All participles except the resultative participle (''бил'') have lost their function and are now used as regular adjectives with changed meanings (''същ'' = ''same'', ''бивш'' = ''previous'', ''ex-'', ''бъдещ'' = ''future'').
* In Polish, the present forms, except for ''jest'' and ''są,'' have turned into suffixes (''-m'', ''-ś'', ''-śmy'', ''-ście'') used primarily to construct the past tense and the conditional clitic. The modern conjugation comes from attaching these suffixes onto the third person singular form ''jest.''
Baltic languages
In Lithuanian, the paradigm ''būnu, būni, būna'', etc. is not considered archaic or dialectal but rather a special use of the verb ''būti'', to be, mostly used to describe repeated actions or states, or habits.
Celtic languages
In the Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...
there is a distinction between the so-called substantive verb, used when the predicate is an adjective phrase or prepositional phrase, and the so-called copula, used when the predicate is a noun.
The conjugation of the Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...
and Middle Welsh
Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ().
Literature and history
Middle Welsh is ...
verbs is as follows:
The forms of the Old Irish present tense of the substantive verb, as well as Welsh ''taw'', come from the PIE root *''stā-''. The other forms are from the roots *''es-'' and *''bhū-''. Welsh ''mae'' originally meant "here is" (cf. ''yma'' 'here').
Irish and Scottish Gaelic
In modern Gaelic, person inflections have almost disappeared, but the negative and interrogative are marked by distinctive forms. In Irish, particularly in the south, person inflections are still very common for the ''tá/bhí'' series.
=The verb bí
=
† archaic forms
Gaelic ''(bh)eil'' and Irish ''(bh)fuil'' are from Old Irish ''fuil'', originally an imperative meaning "see!" (PIE root ''*wel-'', also in Welsh ''gweled'', Germanic ''wlitu-'' "appearance", and Latin voltus "face"), then coming to mean "here is" (cf. French ''voici < vois ci'' and ''voilà < vois là''), later becoming a suppletive dependent form of ''at-tá''. Gaelic ''robh'' and Modern Irish ''raibh'' are from the perfective particle ''ro'' (''ry'' in Welsh) plus ''ba'' (lenited after ''ro'').
=The copula
=
Modern Welsh
The present tense in particular shows a split between the North and the South. Though the situation is undoubtedly more complicated, King (2003) notes the following variations in the present tense as spoken (not as written according to the standard orthography):
:
For example, the spoken first person singular dw i'n is a contraction of the formal written yr ydwyf fi yn . The Welsh F /v/ is the fricative analogue of the nasal /m/, the PIE suffix consonant for the first person singular.
:
also has a conditional, for which there are two stems. The ''bas-'' stem is more common in the North, and the ''bydd-'' stem is more common in the South:
:
Hittite
The Hittite verb "to be" is derived from the Indo-European root *'.
Armenian
The Classical Armenian present tense derives from PIE *'- (cf. sg. ', ', '; 3rd pl. ').[ Hrach K. Martirosyan, ''Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon'', s.v. “em” (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 255.]
Albanian
The Albanian copula shows two distinct roots. The present ''jam'' ‘I am’ is an athematic root stem built from PIE *'. The imperfect continues the PIE imperfect of the same root but was rebuilt based on the 3rd person singular and plural. The preterite, on the other hand, comes from the thematic aorist of PIE *' ‘turn’ (cf. Ancient Greek ''épleto'' ‘he turned’, Armenian ''eɫew'' ‘he became’, Old Irish ''cloïd'' ‘turns back, defeats’). Analogical or otherwise indirect reflexes are italicized below.
Notes
References
{{Proto-Indo-European language
Copula