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Re: Natus



--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Roger Mills" <romilly@e...> wrote:
> I wrote:
> >> Where do all those forms with -u- come from
> >> anyway???
> >> Fr., Ital, Romanian?, Catalan
> 
> Adam Walker wrote:
> >Are you asking me?  If so I don't think I understand
> >the question.
> 
> What I meant was, how did they develop historically?  Latin
> didn't have regular pp's in -utus.  Yet Ital. regularly has
> -uto for -ere verbs:  devere 'must', devuto; cadere 'fall'
> caduto, avere 'have', avuto, veduto 'seen' etc.; and unexpected
> venire 'come' venuto.   Likewise Catalan AFAIK and perhaps
> Romanian; and French, though there it's always hard to tell how
> "regular" they are-- venir, venu but devoir, dû (?) connaitre
> connu etc. (And Provençal?)

Latin had a class of verbs with principle parts like
 -eo:, -e:re, -ui:, -itum, and another smaller subclass like
 -uo:, -uere, -ui:, -u:tum. The perfect stem caused confusion
between the two classes and the participle -itum (which was
awkward anyway) was replaced through analogy.

Jeff

> 
> Perhaps there was a Latin pseudo-participial ~adjectival -utus, 
that seems
> to survive in Span. barbudo 'bearded', peludo, Fr. poilu 'hairy'.  
But it
> seems a limited usage.........  Well, I'll consult Elcock and see 
what he
> has to say.