Latin inchoatives in -scō merged into their base verbs in Old French (so
flōrēscere and
flōrēre became one verb), so OF ended up with verbs that had forms descending from the -scō inchoative in the present indicative and present subjunctive, and forms from the base verb in the other tenses. This pattern expanded to some Old French
-ir verbs (and as time would pass, also many more verbs).
These pres. indic. forms descending from ancient inchoatives had 1SG -s and 2SG -s:
fīniō fīnīs > *fīnīscō *fīnīscis > je finis tu finis (inf. fīnīre > fenir)
cognōscō cognōscis > je conois tu conois (inf. cognōscere > conoistre)
crēscō crēscis > je crois tu crois (inf. crēscere > croistre)
nāscor nāsceris > analog. *[ˈnasko nastses] > je nais tu nais (inf. nāscī > analog. *nāscere > naistre)
To these, we add Latin verbs whose stems ended in a consonant that became [s] in French through regular sound changes or by a slight analogy of [ts] > [s]:
cōnsuō cōnsuis > OF je *cos tu *cos > Late OF je queus tu queus (inf. cōnsuere > cosre > coudre)
exeō exis > je is tu is (inf. exīre > eissir/issir)
jaceō jacēs > analog. je gis tu gis (analogized, expected forms: *giz) (inf. jacēre > analog. *jacīre > gisir)
lūceō lūcet > analog. je luis tu luis (analogized) (inf. lūcēre > analog. *lūcīre/*lūcere > luisir/luire)
These verbs above seem to have paved the way for the expansion of -s in the present indicative 1SG form of almost all
-oir, -re and
-ir verbs in Middle French.
videō vidēs > *[ˈve:do ˈve:des] > OF je voi tu vois > MF je vois tu vois (inf. vidēre > EOF vedeir [vəˈðejr] > OF veoir > MF voir)
crēdō crēdis > OF je croi tu croi > MF je crois tu crois (inf. crēdere > EOF creidre > OF croire)
faciō facis > OF je fai (rare je faz) tu fais > MF je fais tu fais (inf. facere > faire)
serviō servīs > OF je serf tu sers > MF je sers tu sers (inf. servīre > OF servir)
The only verbs in the
-oir/-re/-ir groups that managed to escape were 1) verbs with a stem ending in labial + /r/ 2) verbs with a stem ending in /ʎ/ which analogized to
-er verbs while retaining some
-ir forms:
cooperiō cooperīs > > OF je covre tu covres > MF je couvre tu couvres
colligō colligis > *[ˈkɔljo ˈkɔles] > OF je cueil [ˈkwɛʎ] tu cuelz [ˈkwɛɫts] (inf. colligere > coillir / analog. cueildre)
> analogized to MF je cueille [ˈkœʎə] tu cueilles
Salīre >
saillir is another verb that escaped 1SG -s by analogizing to
-er verbs (
je saille tu sailles).
Notice that
fallere > analog.
*fallīre >
faillir and
bullīre >
bouillir present the expected Middle French outcomes:
fallō fallis > [ˈfal:jo ˈfal:es] > OF je fail [faʎ] tu falz [faɫts] > MF je faux tu faux [fos]
bulliō bullis > OF je boil tu bols > MF je boux tu boux [bus]
([faɫts] > [fawts] > [faws] > [fos], [bols] > [bows] > [bus])
Ars Lande wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:14 pmFor that matter Italian had *so > sono for no clear reason, and generalized -iamo, of all possible endings in the first person plural, whereas Italian verbs already had very sensible endings. Go figure.
I personally somewhat buy the idea that that 3PL sunt [son] got an [o] attached as an analogy to the 3PL -unt of -ere/īre verbs (dūcunt/capiunt/audiunt), becoming *sunt-unt [ˈsono]. And Florentine at the time had so many of these same verbs that were pronounced the same in the 1SG and 3PL forms (just like Romanian today), as in dūcō/dūcunt *[ˈduːko] or audiō/audiunt [ˈawd(j)o], that the copula expanded its new sunt-unt [ˈsono] to 1SG sum, i.e. sum-unt [ˈsono]. This 3PL -[no] ending then also expanded throughout all 3PL forms.
I like it because this would explain the geminate
-nn- in a few verbs like
habent > *[an] >
hanno [ˈan:o],
vādunt > *[van] >
vanno,
faciunt > *[fan] >
fanno,
dan >
danno,
stant >
stanno (cf. Spanish
habent>
han,
van,
dan,
están).
That is, Florentine
hanno would etymologically come from habent-(su)nt-unt [an-n-o].
Further evidence for the tight relationship of 1SG and 3PL in pre-Italian is the expansion of 1SG -go to 3PL, something not seen in most other Western/Italo-Romance varieties: 3PL
pōnunt [ˈpo:no] > *[pon-go] > then
pongono,
vident > *vid-unt [ˈve:do] > *[ved-go] > then
veggono. Also the stem in the now old-fashioned 3PL
jacent >
giacciono, with a geminate
-cc- that has been analogized from 1SG
jaciō >
giaccio.
The replacement of Old Florentine
amamo/tenemo/udimo by the subjunctive
-eāmus/-iāmus >
-iamo, giving
amiamo/teniamo/udiamo, is very head-scratching though, I agree. Why did they all grab the subjunctive 1PL while retaining the inherited indicative 2PL (
amate/tenete/udite)?!?? Even -are verbs did it! WTF?