[YG Conlang Archives] > [romconlang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
On 02 Oct 2009, at 06:12 , Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
Just a quickie: does anyone know where the ending -sh in Latin- derived English words like "accomplish", "perish", "relinquish" etc. comes from? This thought just occurred to me, and I haven't the faintest idea myself.
Bizarrely enough, it comes from the -isc- of inceptive verbs in Latin (which may have some cunning PIE background, though I'm not cunning enough to know what it might be; I'd have to root around in Sihler or something to try to find out!). This was extended analogically through original Latin -ire/-ere verbs in Gallo-Iberic Romance -- critically, for English, for -ir verbs in French (e.g. perir "to perish") where it was reflected as -iss- in forms like the present participle (perissant) and 3rd person plural present indicative (perissent). From here, it seems to have been adopted/adapted into English as part of the English verb stem, as -is(s)(e) (e.g. "to peris(s)", "to peris(s)e", etc.), usually later becoming -is(c)h(e), whence the regular Modern English form -ish. In Scots, the earlier forms developed to -eis or -eise (before usually being analogically replaced by standard English -ish), and indeed some standard English verbs of French origin of this type (-ir) have -ise/-ize instead of - ish. Other French verbs borrowed into English from other French verb classes have been assimilated to this -ish pattern (e.g. distinguish, relish, publish, etc.).
So when we need to "publish or perish" (in English) we have borrowings into English of different forms of Romance verbs that have nevertheless ended up with the -ish ending for different reasons (the former essentially "etymologically", while the latter essentially analogically).
And, of course, it goes without saying that this -ish is different from the adjectival -ish from Germanic *-iskaz. :)
Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson http://www.carlaz.com/