
A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English language verb ''to be''. ==General features== :''Main article: copula'' 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. In addition, many Indo-European languages use this verb as an auxiliary verb for the formation of Grammatical tense (''I'm working''; ''I was bitten by a hedgehog''). Other functions vary from language to language. For example, although in its basic meanings, ''to be'' is a stative verb, English puts it to work as a dynamic verb in fixed collocations (''You are being very annoying''). The copula is the most irregular verb verb in many Indo-European languages. This is partly because it is more frequently used than any other, and partly because Proto-Indo-European 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 suppletion. This article describes the way in which the irregular forms have developed from a series of roots. ==The Indo-European roots== ===''*h1es-''=== The root ''*h1es-'' was certainly already a copula in Indo-European. The e-grade (see ablaut) is found in such forms as English ''is'', Latin ''est'', while the zero grade produces forms beginning with /s/, German ''sind'' or French ''sommes''. In PIE, ''*h1es-'' was an athematic verb in ''-mi'', that is, the first person singular was ''*h1esmi''; this inflection survives in English ''am'', Sanskrit ''asmi'', Old Church Slavonic , etc. The present indicative of this verb is generally reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European thus: {| ! Person ! Singular ! Plural |- | 1 | *h1és-mi | *h1s-més |- | 2 | *h1és-si ''(already in PIE reduced to'' *h1ési'')'' | *h1s-th1é |- | 3 | *h1és-ti | *h1s-énti |} ===''*bhuH-''=== The root ''*bhuH-'' (where ''H'' stands for a laryngeal theory of unknown quality) probably meant "to grow", but also "to become". This is the source of the English infinitive ''be'' and participle ''been'' (Germanic participles have the suffix in ''-an''), as well as, for example, the Gaelic future tense ''bithidh''. PIE /bh/ becomes Latin /f/, hence the Latin future participle ''futūrus'' and perfect tense ''fuī''; Latin ''fiō'' 'I become' is also from this root, as is the Greek verb , from which ''physics'' and ''physical'' are derived. Jasanoff (2003: 112) reconstructs the present indicative of this verb as follows: {| !Person !Singular !Plural |- | 1 | *bhúH-i-h2e(i) | *bhuH-i-mé- |- | 2 | *bhúH-i-th2e(i) | *bhuH-i-(t)é- |- | 3 | *bhúH-y-e | *bhuH-y-énti |} ===''*wes-''=== The root ''*wes-'' may originally have meant "to live". 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/ result from grammatischer Wechsel.) See West Germanic strong verb#Class 4. ===''*h1er-''=== The root ''*h1er-'' meant "to move". This is probably the origin of the Old Norse present stem, the second person forms of which were borrowed into English as ''art'' and ''are''. Older authorities linked these forms with ''*es-'' and assumed grammatischer Wechsel (/s/→/r/), which however would be difficult to explain in the present stem. ===''*steh2-''=== The root ''*steh2-'' survives in English with its original meaning: "to stand". From this root comes the present stem of the so-called "substantive verb" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''tá'' and ''tha'' respectively. In Latin, ''stō, stare'' retained the meaning "to stand", until local forms of Vulgar Latin began to use it as a copula is certain circumstances. Today, this survives in that several Romance languages use it as one of their two copulae, and there is also a Romance tendency for a past participle derived from ''*steh2-'' to replace that of the main copula. ==The resulting paradigms== ===Germanic languages=== :''Main article: Germanic verb'' {| |- | ! Old Norse ! Swedish ! colspan=2 | Old English ! English ! Old High German ! German ! Gothic |- | Infinitive | vera | vara | wesan | bēon | be | wesan | sein | wisan |------ | Present | em
ert (est)
er (es)
erum
eruð
eru | är
är
är
är
är
är
| eom
eart
is
sint
sint
sint | bēo
bist
biþ
bēoþ
bēoþ
bēoþ | am
art
is
are
are
are | bim
bis(t)
ist
birum
birut
sint | bin
bist
ist
sind
seid
sind | im
is
ist
sijum
sijuþ
sind |- | Subjunctive | siá
sér
sé
sém
séð
sé | | sīe
sīe
sīe
sīen
sīen
sīen | bēo
bēo
bēo
bēon
bēon
bēon | be
be
be
be
be
be | sî
sîs(t)
sî
sîm
sî(n)t
sîn | sei
seist
sei
seien
seid
seien | sijau
sijais
sijai
sijaima
sijaiþ
sijaina |- | Preterite | var
var
var
várum
várum
várum | var
var
var
var
var
var
| colspan=2 | wæs
wǽre
wæs
wǽron
wǽron
wǽron | was
wast
was
were
were
were | was
wâri
was
wârum
wârut
wârun | war
warst
war
waren
wart
waren | was
wast
was
wesum
wesuþ
wesun |- | Past participle | verit | várit | colspan=2 | —— | been | —— | gewesen | —— |} Old English kept the verbs ''wesan'' and ''bēon'' separate throughout the present stem, though it is not clear that they made the kind of consistent distinction in usage that we find, for example in Spanish. In the preterite, however, the paradigms fell together. Old English has no participle for this verb. ===Latin and Romance languages=== {| |- | ! Latin ! French language ! colspan=2 | Spanish language ! Italian language |- | Infinitive | esse | être | ser | estar | essere |------ | Present tense | sum
es
est
sumus
estis
sunt | suis
es
est
sommes
êtes
sont | soy
eres
es
somos
sois
son | estoy
estás
está
estamos
estáis
están | sono
sei
è
siamo
siete
sono |- | Subjunctive mood | sim | sois | sea | esté | sia |- | Perfect tense
/ Preterite | fui | fus | fui | estuve | fui |- | Imperfect tense | eram | étais | era | estaba | ero |- | Future tense | ero | serai | seré | estaré | sarò |- | Past participle | n/a | été | sido | estado | stato |} :''Main article: Romance copula'' In several modern Romance languages, the perfect is a composite tense formed with the participle as in English, but the old Latin perfect survives as a commonly-used preterite in Spanish and Portuguese, and as a literary "past historic" in French, Italian and Catalan. In Spanish, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese (and, to a lesser extent, Italian) there are two parallel paradigms, ''ser/èsser/essere'' from Latin ''esse'' on one hand, and ''estar/stare'' from Latin ''stare'', "to stand" on the other. The distinction between these is covered at Romance_copula#Evolution_of_meaning. 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''. Again, see: Romance_copula#Evolution_of_meaning for greater detail. The table to the right has five verbs fully conjugated in the present tense, plus the first-person singular forms of other tenses. See Romance_copula#Conjugation for further data.
===Balto-Slavic languages=== {| border=2 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 class=Unicode style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px #aaa solid; border-collapse:collapse; font-size:95%; font-family:; font-family /**/:inherit;" | ! Old Church Slavonic ! Ukrainian language |- | Infinitive | byti | buty |- | Present | esmь
esi
estь
esmъ
este
sǫtъ | je
je
je
je
je
je |- | Imperfect | –
–
běaše
–
–
běaxǫ | |- | Imperfective aorist | běxъ
bě
bě
běxomъ
*běste
běšę | |- | Future | bǫdǫ
bǫdeši
bǫdetъ
bǫdemъ
bǫdete
bǫdǫtъ | budu
budeš
bude(t′)
budem(o)
budete
budut′ |- | Imperative | –
bǫdi
bǫdi
bǫděmъ
bǫděte
bǫdǫ | –
buvaj/bud′
–
buvajmo/bud′mo
buvajte/bud′te
– |- | Perfective aorist | byxъ
by(stъ)
by(stъ)
byxomъ
byste
byšę | |- | Present participle | sy ''m.''
sǫšti ''f.''
sy ''n.'' | buvajučyj ''m.''
buvajuča ''f.''
buvajuče ''n.'' |- | Resultative participle | bylъ ''m.''
byla ''f.''
bylo ''n.'' | |- | Past active participle | byvъ ''m.''
byvъši ''f.''
byvъ ''n.'' | |- | Past passive participle | | buvšyj ''m.'' ("former" adj.)
buvša ''f.''
buvše ''n.'' |} ===Celtic languages=== In the earliest Celtic languages there was a distinction between the so-called substantive verb, used when the predicate was an adjective phrase or prepositional phrase, and the so-called copula, used when the predicate was a noun. This contrast is maintained today in the Goidelic languages but has been lost in the Brythonic languages. The conjugation of the Old Irish and Middle Welsh language verbs is as follows: {| | ! Old Irish substantive verb ! Old Irish copula ! Middle Welsh |- | Present tense | (at)·tó
(at)·taí
(at)·tá
(at)·taam
(at)·taïd
(at)·taat | am
at
is
ammi
adib
it | wyf
wyt
yw, mae, taw, oes
ym
ywch
ynt, maen(t) |- | Preterite | ·bá
·bá
·boí
·bámmar
·baid
·bátar | basa
basa
ba
bommar
''unattested''
batar | buum
buost
bu
buam
buawch
buant |- | Future tense | bia
bie
bieid, ·bia
beimmi, ·biam
bethe, ·bieid
bieit, ·biat | be
be
bid
bimmi
''unattested''
bit | bydaf
bydy
byd
bydwn
bydwch
bydant |} The forms of the Old Irish present tense of the substantive verb, as well as Welsh ''taw'', come from the PIE root *''stā-''. Welsh ''mae'' originally meant "here is" (cf. ''yma'' 'here'). The other forms are from the roots *''es-'' and *''bhū-''. In modern Gaelic, person inflections have almost disappeared, but the negative and interrogative are marked by distinctive forms. {| |- | ! Scottish Gaelic |- | Present
affirmative
interrogative
negative
negative interrogative |
tha
a bheil
chan eil
nach eil |- | Assertive present | is |------ | Past
affirmative
interrogative |
bha
an robh
|- | Assertive past | bu |- | Future | bithidh |} Gaelic ''(bh)eil'' is from Old Irish ''fil'', 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''). ==References== * Indo-European linguistics Historical linguistics
== Slavic == I compiled some information on Ukrainian language (an Eastern Slavic language) with the help of the notes on grammar in my English/Ukrainian dictionary. I'm no grammar expert, so there may be errors. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 05:39 Z'' {| |- ! ! Ukrainian language |- | Infinitive
"to be" | бути ''buty'' |- | Present
"I am" | є ''je''
є
є
є
є
є |- | Present continuous
"I am being" | буваю ''buvaju''
буваєш ''buvaješ''
буває ''buvaje''
буваєм(о) ''buvajem(o)''
буваєте ''buvajete''
бувають ''buvajut′'' |- | Conditional (Subjunctive, formed by adding particle би or б to past)
"I would be" | був би ''buv by''/була би ''bula by'' (m./f.)
був би/була би
був би/була би/було би ''bulo by'' (m./f./n.)
були би ''buly by''
були би
були би |- | Future
"I will be" | буду ''budu''
будеш ''budeš''
буде(ть) ''bude(t′)''
будем(о) ''budem(o)''
будете ''budete''
будуть ''budut′'' |- | Future imperfect
"I will be being" | бутиму ''butymu''
бутимеш ''butymeš''
бутиме ''butyme''
бутимемо ''butymemo''
бутимете ''butymete''
бутимуть ''butymut′'' |- | Past Participle | ? |- | Past
"I was" | був ''buv''/була ''bula'' (m./f.)
був/була
був/була/було ''bulo'' (m./f./n.)
були ''buly''
були
були |- | Past imperfect
"I was being" | бував ''buvav''/бувала ''buvala''
бував/бувала
бував/бувала/бувало ''buvalo''
бували ''buvaly''
бували
бували |- | Imperative (imperfect/perfect)
"be being!/be!" | -
бувай! ''buvaj''/будь! ''bud′''
-
буваймо! ''buvajmo''/будьмо! ''bud′mo''
бувайте! ''buvajte''/будьте! ''bud′te''
- |- | Present perfective
various prefixes indicating completion change the meaning and create new verbs | відбути ''vidbuty'' ("to accomplish/to attend"), перебути ''perebuty'' ("to remain/to suffer"), добути ''dobuty'' ("to gain [weight]"), здобути ''zdobuty'' ("to acquire"), набути ''nabuty'' ("to accumulate"), збути ''zbuty'' ("to get rid of"), забути ''zabuty'' ("to forget") |- | Present active participle
"being" adj. | буваючий ''buvajučyj'' m./буваюча ''buvajuča'' f./буваюче ''buvajuče'' n. |- | Present passive participle | ? |- | Past active participle | ? |- | Past passive participle
"had been being" adj. | бувший ''buvšyj'' m./бувша ''buvša'' f./бувше ''buvše'' n. ("former" adj.) |- | Present gerund
"(while) being" | буваючи ''buvajučy'' |- | Past gerund
"having been" | бувши ''buvšy'' |} Similar to the Latin ''futurus'' are the Ukrainian words будучина (''budučyna'') and майбутність (''majbutnist′''), both meaning "the future", and both incorporating the root of to be (бути, ''buty''). Ukrainian also has the verb стати (''staty''), meaning "to stand" or "to become". Adding the suffix ''-sja'', meaning "onesself", makes the verb статися (''statysja''), "to happen". ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 05:53 Z'' :Michael, thanks for coming over to help so quickly. This is very interesting, and generally more regular than the Germanic and Romance languages. Looks like the present stem is from ''*es-'' and the rest is from ''*bheu-''. This article can't go into as much detail of the derived forms as you have given here, but we will certainly want to note how the suppletion works. Do you know anything about Russian? Old Church Slavonic would be good. Perhaps Polish? --User:Doric Loon 06:12, 23 May 2005 (UTC) :: Just thought I'd fill in everything I could. Feel free to just include what's most relevant, change the order and format, etc. It might also be interesting to include more information about ''staty'', which I think must come from ''*sta-''. :: I'm afraid I don't really know anything about those other languages. I'm not a linguist, just an interested Ukrainophone with a handy dictionary. Cheers. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 06:44 Z'' :: It just occurred to me that the present tense є (''je'') must indeed come from ''*es-'', because there's an archaic and/or Slavonic form єсть (''jest′''). ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 06:50 Z'' == Title == Wikipedia article titles don't usually use quotation marks in them, and they are generally kept as short as possible. I suggest that the article be moved to something like Indo-European copula. We have other articles called Copula and Romance copula, not The verb \"to be\" and The verb \"to be\" in Romance languages. — User:Chameleon 16:11, 23 May 2005 (UTC) :Fair enough, although in Celtic at least "copula" is used to mean one of the verbs translated "to be" and not the other one (which is called the "substantive verb"). --User:Angr/User_talk:Angr 16:35, 23 May 2005 (UTC) ::The verbs so labelled both seem to correspond to the copula in other languages. I think the page can be moved without problems. I shall do it tomorrow if nobody objects. — User:Chameleon 19:23, 24 May 2005 (UTC) No objection! --User:Doric Loon 21:58, 24 May 2005 (UTC) ==OCS symbols== Great to see so much input on the different branches. I think this will be a very interesting article precisely because of its potential breadth. I have a problem with the Old Church Slavonic table, though: there are various symbols which appear on my screen as a square. I have found this with other wiki pages where the IPA was being used. Is it a good idea to use symbols that cannot be read by all browsers? (Assuming that is the problem!) I'm using Internet Explorer 6.1 (2001). BTW, would those of you who know your way around the Slavonic field like to copy the above information on Ukranian (or the most relevant parts) into that table alongside OCS? --User:Doric Loon 21:58, 24 May 2005 (UTC) : The OCS in the article is actually transliterated using scientific transliteration, with the Cyrillic hard sign representing itself (this is a common convention). Do the characters show up for you in Template:Unicode: ? (I believe the Cyrillic Slavonic would look something like this: .) : In the Ukrainian table above, I've included everything in Cyrillic, with transliteration in italics (Ukrainian doesn't use the hard sign), although just using transliteration alone is probably appropriate for this article. : I'd love to copy the Ukrainian into the article, but I don't know enough about the grammar terminology to do it right (e.g., is "present perfective" the same as "perfective aorist"?). Maybe I'll start with the ones that are obvious to me. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-25 15:30 Z'' ::Yes, do it. I always feel I should go ahead with the thinks I know. Someone always corrects me if I blunder. (Usually Angr, bless him!) At any rate, whatever Angr has done, the squares have vanished and the table looks great. I wonder if it should be shortened, though; for present purposes we don't need ALL the inflections, and it is good if a table fits onto the screen. --User:Doric Loon 18:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC) :::I added theXXX at the bottom of the page, and lo and behold you have added the articles to category XXX. But categories are grouped into higher-level categories, and Wikipedia policy is to keep articles in the lowest possible (sensible) category only. So if :Category:Indo-European linguistics is a subcategory of :Category:Linguistics, then the page should only be in the former, not in the latter. --User:Angr/User_talk:Angr 23:20, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
== Old Church Slavonic transcription ==
I don't know enough to be sure, but I'm thinking that in the OCS, some Cyrillic T's (т) have been trascribed as Latin M's, and Cyrillic U's (у) as Y's. Also, I think it's common to transcribe the soft sign (ь) as an apostrophe (’), but the hard sign (ъ) as itself.
E.g., in the present tense, ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-25 16:06 Z''
:No, the transcriptions are right. In OCS, (Cyrillic ) is 1st person singular 'I am'; the resultative participle is (Cyrllic ); it's related to Russian . Also, in OCS, and were vowels, not signs of softness or hardness, so the apostrophe isn't used. But there is an alternative to transcribing them as themselves: sometimes people use for and for . --User:Angr/User_talk:Angr 17:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
:: Thanks. Sorry to question the edit without real justification, but it just looked wrong given my knowledge of Ukrainian only. And I forgot all about transcribing the reduced vowels. Cheers. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-25 20:58 Z''
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Indo-European_copula:
Indo-European_copula
Indo-European_copula
Indo-European copula
A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English language verb ''to be''. ==General features== :''Main article: copula'' 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. In addition, many Indo-European languages use this verb as an auxiliary verb for the formation of Grammatical tense (''I'm working''; ''I was bitten by a hedgehog''). Other functions vary from language to language. For example, although in its basic meanings, ''to be'' is a stative verb, English puts it to work as a dynamic verb in fixed collocations (''You are being very annoying''). The copula is the most irregular verb verb in many Indo-European languages. This is partly because it is more frequently used than any other, and partly because Proto-Indo-European 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 suppletion. This article describes the way in which the irregular forms have developed from a series of roots. ==The Indo-European roots== ===''*h1es-''=== The root ''*h1es-'' was certainly already a copula in Indo-European. The e-grade (see ablaut) is found in such forms as English ''is'', Latin ''est'', while the zero grade produces forms beginning with /s/, German ''sind'' or French ''sommes''. In PIE, ''*h1es-'' was an athematic verb in ''-mi'', that is, the first person singular was ''*h1esmi''; this inflection survives in English ''am'', Sanskrit ''asmi'', Old Church Slavonic , etc. The present indicative of this verb is generally reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European thus: {| ! Person ! Singular ! Plural |- | 1 | *h1és-mi | *h1s-més |- | 2 | *h1és-si ''(already in PIE reduced to'' *h1ési'')'' | *h1s-th1é |- | 3 | *h1és-ti | *h1s-énti |} ===''*bhuH-''=== The root ''*bhuH-'' (where ''H'' stands for a laryngeal theory of unknown quality) probably meant "to grow", but also "to become". This is the source of the English infinitive ''be'' and participle ''been'' (Germanic participles have the suffix in ''-an''), as well as, for example, the Gaelic future tense ''bithidh''. PIE /bh/ becomes Latin /f/, hence the Latin future participle ''futūrus'' and perfect tense ''fuī''; Latin ''fiō'' 'I become' is also from this root, as is the Greek verb , from which ''physics'' and ''physical'' are derived. Jasanoff (2003: 112) reconstructs the present indicative of this verb as follows: {| !Person !Singular !Plural |- | 1 | *bhúH-i-h2e(i) | *bhuH-i-mé- |- | 2 | *bhúH-i-th2e(i) | *bhuH-i-(t)é- |- | 3 | *bhúH-y-e | *bhuH-y-énti |} ===''*wes-''=== The root ''*wes-'' may originally have meant "to live". 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/ result from grammatischer Wechsel.) See West Germanic strong verb#Class 4. ===''*h1er-''=== The root ''*h1er-'' meant "to move". This is probably the origin of the Old Norse present stem, the second person forms of which were borrowed into English as ''art'' and ''are''. Older authorities linked these forms with ''*es-'' and assumed grammatischer Wechsel (/s/→/r/), which however would be difficult to explain in the present stem. ===''*steh2-''=== The root ''*steh2-'' survives in English with its original meaning: "to stand". From this root comes the present stem of the so-called "substantive verb" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''tá'' and ''tha'' respectively. In Latin, ''stō, stare'' retained the meaning "to stand", until local forms of Vulgar Latin began to use it as a copula is certain circumstances. Today, this survives in that several Romance languages use it as one of their two copulae, and there is also a Romance tendency for a past participle derived from ''*steh2-'' to replace that of the main copula. ==The resulting paradigms== ===Germanic languages=== :''Main article: Germanic verb'' {| |- | ! Old Norse ! Swedish ! colspan=2 | Old English ! English ! Old High German ! German ! Gothic |- | Infinitive | vera | vara | wesan | bēon | be | wesan | sein | wisan |------ | Present | em
ert (est)
er (es)
erum
eruð
eru | är
är
är
är
är
är
| eom
eart
is
sint
sint
sint | bēo
bist
biþ
bēoþ
bēoþ
bēoþ | am
art
is
are
are
are | bim
bis(t)
ist
birum
birut
sint | bin
bist
ist
sind
seid
sind | im
is
ist
sijum
sijuþ
sind |- | Subjunctive | siá
sér
sé
sém
séð
sé | | sīe
sīe
sīe
sīen
sīen
sīen | bēo
bēo
bēo
bēon
bēon
bēon | be
be
be
be
be
be | sî
sîs(t)
sî
sîm
sî(n)t
sîn | sei
seist
sei
seien
seid
seien | sijau
sijais
sijai
sijaima
sijaiþ
sijaina |- | Preterite | var
var
var
várum
várum
várum | var
var
var
var
var
var
| colspan=2 | wæs
wǽre
wæs
wǽron
wǽron
wǽron | was
wast
was
were
were
were | was
wâri
was
wârum
wârut
wârun | war
warst
war
waren
wart
waren | was
wast
was
wesum
wesuþ
wesun |- | Past participle | verit | várit | colspan=2 | —— | been | —— | gewesen | —— |} Old English kept the verbs ''wesan'' and ''bēon'' separate throughout the present stem, though it is not clear that they made the kind of consistent distinction in usage that we find, for example in Spanish. In the preterite, however, the paradigms fell together. Old English has no participle for this verb. ===Latin and Romance languages=== {| |- | ! Latin ! French language ! colspan=2 | Spanish language ! Italian language |- | Infinitive | esse | être | ser | estar | essere |------ | Present tense | sum
es
est
sumus
estis
sunt | suis
es
est
sommes
êtes
sont | soy
eres
es
somos
sois
son | estoy
estás
está
estamos
estáis
están | sono
sei
è
siamo
siete
sono |- | Subjunctive mood | sim | sois | sea | esté | sia |- | Perfect tense
/ Preterite | fui | fus | fui | estuve | fui |- | Imperfect tense | eram | étais | era | estaba | ero |- | Future tense | ero | serai | seré | estaré | sarò |- | Past participle | n/a | été | sido | estado | stato |} :''Main article: Romance copula'' In several modern Romance languages, the perfect is a composite tense formed with the participle as in English, but the old Latin perfect survives as a commonly-used preterite in Spanish and Portuguese, and as a literary "past historic" in French, Italian and Catalan. In Spanish, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese (and, to a lesser extent, Italian) there are two parallel paradigms, ''ser/èsser/essere'' from Latin ''esse'' on one hand, and ''estar/stare'' from Latin ''stare'', "to stand" on the other. The distinction between these is covered at Romance_copula#Evolution_of_meaning. 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''. Again, see: Romance_copula#Evolution_of_meaning for greater detail. The table to the right has five verbs fully conjugated in the present tense, plus the first-person singular forms of other tenses. See Romance_copula#Conjugation for further data.
===Balto-Slavic languages=== {| border=2 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 class=Unicode style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px #aaa solid; border-collapse:collapse; font-size:95%; font-family:; font-family /**/:inherit;" | ! Old Church Slavonic ! Ukrainian language |- | Infinitive | byti | buty |- | Present | esmь
esi
estь
esmъ
este
sǫtъ | je
je
je
je
je
je |- | Imperfect | –
–
běaše
–
–
běaxǫ | |- | Imperfective aorist | běxъ
bě
bě
běxomъ
*běste
běšę | |- | Future | bǫdǫ
bǫdeši
bǫdetъ
bǫdemъ
bǫdete
bǫdǫtъ | budu
budeš
bude(t′)
budem(o)
budete
budut′ |- | Imperative | –
bǫdi
bǫdi
bǫděmъ
bǫděte
bǫdǫ | –
buvaj/bud′
–
buvajmo/bud′mo
buvajte/bud′te
– |- | Perfective aorist | byxъ
by(stъ)
by(stъ)
byxomъ
byste
byšę | |- | Present participle | sy ''m.''
sǫšti ''f.''
sy ''n.'' | buvajučyj ''m.''
buvajuča ''f.''
buvajuče ''n.'' |- | Resultative participle | bylъ ''m.''
byla ''f.''
bylo ''n.'' | |- | Past active participle | byvъ ''m.''
byvъši ''f.''
byvъ ''n.'' | |- | Past passive participle | | buvšyj ''m.'' ("former" adj.)
buvša ''f.''
buvše ''n.'' |} ===Celtic languages=== In the earliest Celtic languages there was a distinction between the so-called substantive verb, used when the predicate was an adjective phrase or prepositional phrase, and the so-called copula, used when the predicate was a noun. This contrast is maintained today in the Goidelic languages but has been lost in the Brythonic languages. The conjugation of the Old Irish and Middle Welsh language verbs is as follows: {| | ! Old Irish substantive verb ! Old Irish copula ! Middle Welsh |- | Present tense | (at)·tó
(at)·taí
(at)·tá
(at)·taam
(at)·taïd
(at)·taat | am
at
is
ammi
adib
it | wyf
wyt
yw, mae, taw, oes
ym
ywch
ynt, maen(t) |- | Preterite | ·bá
·bá
·boí
·bámmar
·baid
·bátar | basa
basa
ba
bommar
''unattested''
batar | buum
buost
bu
buam
buawch
buant |- | Future tense | bia
bie
bieid, ·bia
beimmi, ·biam
bethe, ·bieid
bieit, ·biat | be
be
bid
bimmi
''unattested''
bit | bydaf
bydy
byd
bydwn
bydwch
bydant |} The forms of the Old Irish present tense of the substantive verb, as well as Welsh ''taw'', come from the PIE root *''stā-''. Welsh ''mae'' originally meant "here is" (cf. ''yma'' 'here'). The other forms are from the roots *''es-'' and *''bhū-''. In modern Gaelic, person inflections have almost disappeared, but the negative and interrogative are marked by distinctive forms. {| |- | ! Scottish Gaelic |- | Present
affirmative
interrogative
negative
negative interrogative |
tha
a bheil
chan eil
nach eil |- | Assertive present | is |------ | Past
affirmative
interrogative |
bha
an robh
|- | Assertive past | bu |- | Future | bithidh |} Gaelic ''(bh)eil'' is from Old Irish ''fil'', 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''). ==References== * Indo-European linguistics Historical linguistics
Indo-European copula
== Slavic == I compiled some information on Ukrainian language (an Eastern Slavic language) with the help of the notes on grammar in my English/Ukrainian dictionary. I'm no grammar expert, so there may be errors. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 05:39 Z'' {| |- ! ! Ukrainian language |- | Infinitive
"to be" | бути ''buty'' |- | Present
"I am" | є ''je''
є
є
є
є
є |- | Present continuous
"I am being" | буваю ''buvaju''
буваєш ''buvaješ''
буває ''buvaje''
буваєм(о) ''buvajem(o)''
буваєте ''buvajete''
бувають ''buvajut′'' |- | Conditional (Subjunctive, formed by adding particle би or б to past)
"I would be" | був би ''buv by''/була би ''bula by'' (m./f.)
був би/була би
був би/була би/було би ''bulo by'' (m./f./n.)
були би ''buly by''
були би
були би |- | Future
"I will be" | буду ''budu''
будеш ''budeš''
буде(ть) ''bude(t′)''
будем(о) ''budem(o)''
будете ''budete''
будуть ''budut′'' |- | Future imperfect
"I will be being" | бутиму ''butymu''
бутимеш ''butymeš''
бутиме ''butyme''
бутимемо ''butymemo''
бутимете ''butymete''
бутимуть ''butymut′'' |- | Past Participle | ? |- | Past
"I was" | був ''buv''/була ''bula'' (m./f.)
був/була
був/була/було ''bulo'' (m./f./n.)
були ''buly''
були
були |- | Past imperfect
"I was being" | бував ''buvav''/бувала ''buvala''
бував/бувала
бував/бувала/бувало ''buvalo''
бували ''buvaly''
бували
бували |- | Imperative (imperfect/perfect)
"be being!/be!" | -
бувай! ''buvaj''/будь! ''bud′''
-
буваймо! ''buvajmo''/будьмо! ''bud′mo''
бувайте! ''buvajte''/будьте! ''bud′te''
- |- | Present perfective
various prefixes indicating completion change the meaning and create new verbs | відбути ''vidbuty'' ("to accomplish/to attend"), перебути ''perebuty'' ("to remain/to suffer"), добути ''dobuty'' ("to gain [weight]"), здобути ''zdobuty'' ("to acquire"), набути ''nabuty'' ("to accumulate"), збути ''zbuty'' ("to get rid of"), забути ''zabuty'' ("to forget") |- | Present active participle
"being" adj. | буваючий ''buvajučyj'' m./буваюча ''buvajuča'' f./буваюче ''buvajuče'' n. |- | Present passive participle | ? |- | Past active participle | ? |- | Past passive participle
"had been being" adj. | бувший ''buvšyj'' m./бувша ''buvša'' f./бувше ''buvše'' n. ("former" adj.) |- | Present gerund
"(while) being" | буваючи ''buvajučy'' |- | Past gerund
"having been" | бувши ''buvšy'' |} Similar to the Latin ''futurus'' are the Ukrainian words будучина (''budučyna'') and майбутність (''majbutnist′''), both meaning "the future", and both incorporating the root of to be (бути, ''buty''). Ukrainian also has the verb стати (''staty''), meaning "to stand" or "to become". Adding the suffix ''-sja'', meaning "onesself", makes the verb статися (''statysja''), "to happen". ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 05:53 Z'' :Michael, thanks for coming over to help so quickly. This is very interesting, and generally more regular than the Germanic and Romance languages. Looks like the present stem is from ''*es-'' and the rest is from ''*bheu-''. This article can't go into as much detail of the derived forms as you have given here, but we will certainly want to note how the suppletion works. Do you know anything about Russian? Old Church Slavonic would be good. Perhaps Polish? --User:Doric Loon 06:12, 23 May 2005 (UTC) :: Just thought I'd fill in everything I could. Feel free to just include what's most relevant, change the order and format, etc. It might also be interesting to include more information about ''staty'', which I think must come from ''*sta-''. :: I'm afraid I don't really know anything about those other languages. I'm not a linguist, just an interested Ukrainophone with a handy dictionary. Cheers. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 06:44 Z'' :: It just occurred to me that the present tense є (''je'') must indeed come from ''*es-'', because there's an archaic and/or Slavonic form єсть (''jest′''). ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-23 06:50 Z'' == Title == Wikipedia article titles don't usually use quotation marks in them, and they are generally kept as short as possible. I suggest that the article be moved to something like Indo-European copula. We have other articles called Copula and Romance copula, not The verb \"to be\" and The verb \"to be\" in Romance languages. — User:Chameleon 16:11, 23 May 2005 (UTC) :Fair enough, although in Celtic at least "copula" is used to mean one of the verbs translated "to be" and not the other one (which is called the "substantive verb"). --User:Angr/User_talk:Angr 16:35, 23 May 2005 (UTC) ::The verbs so labelled both seem to correspond to the copula in other languages. I think the page can be moved without problems. I shall do it tomorrow if nobody objects. — User:Chameleon 19:23, 24 May 2005 (UTC) No objection! --User:Doric Loon 21:58, 24 May 2005 (UTC) ==OCS symbols== Great to see so much input on the different branches. I think this will be a very interesting article precisely because of its potential breadth. I have a problem with the Old Church Slavonic table, though: there are various symbols which appear on my screen as a square. I have found this with other wiki pages where the IPA was being used. Is it a good idea to use symbols that cannot be read by all browsers? (Assuming that is the problem!) I'm using Internet Explorer 6.1 (2001). BTW, would those of you who know your way around the Slavonic field like to copy the above information on Ukranian (or the most relevant parts) into that table alongside OCS? --User:Doric Loon 21:58, 24 May 2005 (UTC) : The OCS in the article is actually transliterated using scientific transliteration, with the Cyrillic hard sign representing itself (this is a common convention). Do the characters show up for you in Template:Unicode: ? (I believe the Cyrillic Slavonic would look something like this: .) : In the Ukrainian table above, I've included everything in Cyrillic, with transliteration in italics (Ukrainian doesn't use the hard sign), although just using transliteration alone is probably appropriate for this article. : I'd love to copy the Ukrainian into the article, but I don't know enough about the grammar terminology to do it right (e.g., is "present perfective" the same as "perfective aorist"?). Maybe I'll start with the ones that are obvious to me. ''—User:Mzajac User talk:Mzajac 2005-05-25 15:30 Z'' ::Yes, do it. I always feel I should go ahead with the thinks I know. Someone always corrects me if I blunder. (Usually Angr, bless him!) At any rate, whatever Angr has done, the squares have vanished and the table looks great. I wonder if it should be shortened, though; for present purposes we don't need ALL the inflections, and it is good if a table fits onto the screen. --User:Doric Loon 18:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC) :::I added the
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
I
IA | IB | IC | ID | IE | IF | IG | IH | IJ | IK | IL | IM | IN | IO | IP | IR | IS | IT | IU | IW | IX | IY | IZ |Words begining with Indo-European_copula:
Indo-European_copula
Indo-European_copula
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