§ 389. Courir (strong verb).

The

Je courrai: Courir is from currere, through currere. strong infinitive courre, from currère, was in common use till the seventeenth century.

De ces jeunes guerriers la flotte vagabonde allait courre fortune aux orages du monde. (Malherbe, 16th cent.) Pour s'encourager à courre dans la carrière.

Ce sera à lui à courre, et il courra.

We have of this strong infinitive:

(BOSSUET, 17th cent.)

(SÉVIGNÉ, 17th cent.)

(a) The phrase courre le cerf (hunt the stag).

(b) The Future Indicative and Present Conditional, je courrai, je courrais.

§ 390. Voir and compounds (strong verbs).

(a) Je verrai, je rcverrai, je prévoirai, je pourvoirai. In the thirteenth century the present infinitive was veoir (compare asseoir) in the Burgundian dialect, veir in the Picardian dialect, veer in the Normandy dialect. Veoir has given us voir and the different forms in oi and oy. The other forms of the infinitive may have left us je verrai, je verrais; but see § 398. Revoir follows voir. Prévoir (foresee) and pourvoir (provide), have je prévoirai, je pourvoirai; but both are modern. In Old French préverrai and pourverrai were more correctly employed. (See $398.)

Dieu y pourverra.

(CALVIN, 16th cent.) The future je voirai occurs in comparatively Modern French. Et ne la voirait ou si fière ou si belle.

(REGNIER, 17th cent.) (B) Il vit, il prévit, and il pourvut. In all the dialects il vit (vidit), etc., is found till the latter part of the thirteenth century, when il viut is occasionally seen.* The older and more correct form vit is retained in voir and prévoir, but pourvoir has pourvut.

§ 391. Envoyer, renvoyer and dévoyer, fourvoyer, convoyer (weak verbs).

Envoyer, to send, renvoyer, send away again, make j'enverrai, je renverrai. Dévoyer, to place the wrong way, fourvoyer, to mislead, louvoyer, to tack, make dévoyerai, fourvoyerai, louvoyerai. Both forms are regular. It is perhaps as with voir, je verrai, prévoir, je prévoirai, mainly a question of dialect. The Burgundy dialect had as infinitive envoier, the Normandy dialect enveer. Envoyer and renvoyer have preferred the Norman; the other three the Burgundian. See, however, § 398, for a more probable explanation.

* See Burguy, vol. ii., p. 70.

§ 391A. Cueillir.

Cueillir is from colligere, through colligere, or colligire. The verb in Old French was commonly conjugated as a non-inchoative verb of the second conjugation. But we find also je cueille, etc., and cueiller. These forms remain in:

(a) Je cueille, tu cueilles, il cueille.

(b) Je cueillerai, je cueillerais.

§ 392. Variations in Present Stem depending on Tonic Accent.

1. Use of accent or double consonant in tonic syllable. (§ 353. ii. b.)

The only living modes of strengthening the tonic syllables are (a) the addition of a grave accent, (b) the addition of a second consonant.

The verbs in -eler, -eter, in which it is usual to employ an accent instead of doubling the consonant, are:

2. The strengthened syllable in the Future and Conditional. (§ 353. ii. a.)

Only the last sounded syllable of a word bears the tonic accent, but every medial syllable which is followed by a mute syllable really bears a minor accent (§ 79 note). Hence such modifications in the orthography as lèverai, jetterai, are correct in principle, although, as the grave accent or doubled consonant is employed for the full accent, they exceed the necessities of the case; strictly speaking, an intermediate symbol is needed. Whether we write je répéterai or répèterai seems indifferent, for either accent marks imperfectly the semi-tone. In some verbs it would seem better not to strengthen in any way the medial syllable preceding a mute syllable, for the sonant character of the syllable preceding the one which would be strengthened, destroys practically the semi-tone; hence j'épousseterai, moucheterai, etc., are defensible forms, and are sometimes used. But they in no way authorize épousete, étiquete, where it is no longer a question of semi but of full tone.

3. Strengthened syllable in Old French (diphthongaison).

In Old French the number of verbs which varied their present stem, according as the tonic accent was on that stem or on the ending, was much greater than at present. The mode of strengthening differed according to the dialect and according to the century. Without entering into details, it may shortly be stated that, except in the Normandy dialect, where the simple vowel was preferred (§ 28),

a became ai

e

ie, oi

ue and eventually eu (see § 82), or
ui, or
oi.

(a) Amongst others, the following verbs of Modern French have adopted the diphthonged stem of some one dialect or some one period, either as the stem of the verb, or as the present stem only:

faille, etc.

3. nasci (Low nasso'ns

Originally ai was always a diphthong, as it is now in aille,

4. cognoscere

nai't

naître

nai'ssent

croi're croi'e croit

croire

croyant

6

*

Littré, in his Histoire de la Langue Française, ascribes all these changes to the conflicts of dialects, and sees no leading principle (see vol. i., pp. 65, 127, 338; vol. ii., pp. 102, 115).

Brachet, Grammaire Historique, follows Littré, but has since gone over to Diez, who apparently first noticed that most short accented vowels were thus strengthened.

In all probability neither view is wrong; we owe our variations in spelling and pronunciation to both influences, but mainly perhaps to the power of the tonic accent.

Burguy, in his Grammaire de la Langue d'Oil, has given numberless examples of the strengthened syllable. He recognises somewhat the same principle as Diez. Unfortunately he has given the name of strong' to the verbs which change the vowel, and weak' to the others. This classification is open to serious objection. (See G. Paris, L'Accent Latin, p. 103.)

(B) Faire, voir, envoyer, etc., hold an intermediate place; in some tenses the diphthong has been consistently rejected, in others it is retained. Compare faisons and ferai, voyant and verrai, envoyer and enverrai. See each of these verbs for details.

(y) The following verbs vary the tonic syllable in Modern French much as in Old French. But the exact form in modern use depends upon the dialect chosen, or upon the period.

eu is now in reality less sonant than ou, but it must be recollected that it has arisen from ue, which once was a diphthong. (See § 82.)

In puisse the attraction of the strengthened syllable has apparently been too great. The diphthong is carried through the tense.

(8) In the three following verbs, it is probable that the introduction of i was only intended originally to symbolize the mouillé l, and not to strengthen the tonic syllable. But the two motives were not distinctly separated, and confusion was the result. This confusion is most strikingly seen in valoir and vouloir. For further details see each verb.

1. alle'r

2. falloir

3. valoi'r

4. valo'ns

a'ille
fa'ille

va⚫ille

(a) veux, veulent

(b) je veu ille, veuillent.

(e) Fragmentary remains of diphthonged forms are seen in sais (sapes), vais (vado), ai (habeo), sois, soit (sis, sit), suis (Old French, sui, Lat. sum).

§ 393. Verbs in 'oir.'

All verbs in -oir resemble each other in one respect, they are derived from weak Latin Infinitives in ere. Most were weak in classical Latin, but some were strong, and underwent a change in conjugation from ĕre to ĕre in Low Latin. It has been explained above, how the tonic stem was often strengthened by diphthongaison.' If for "stem" we read "ending," we have at once explained the origin of the syllable -oir.

§ 394. Boire (strong verb), bibère.

The Infinitive boire is a contracted form of the Old French boivre, the regular resultant of the Latin bibere. The medial b of the Latin has, as usual, become v. Compare habere, avoir; scribentem, écrivant, etc. Boire is one of the few verbs which has the strengthened form oi in the Present Infinitive stem; recevoir, concevoir, décevoir, etc., had it once, reçoivre, conçoivre, deçoivre.

§ 394. Prendre (prehendere).

In Modern French the d is regularly dropped in all the weak forms of the Present stem: prenant, prenons, prenais. We doubtless owe the absence of d in some forms, and its presence in others, to a mixture of the dialects. The d was maintained in Picardy and Normandy: prendre, prendons, prendant. In Burgundy the d was dropped: je pren, prenant. In some strong forms of the Present stem we find double n: je prenne, tu prennes, il prenne, ils prennent. For this spelling in Old French no object is apparent. It seems to have been a mere variation in the orthography. But it has been utilized in Modern French to strengthen the tonic syllable as in jette, ancienne, etc.

§ 395. Tenir, Venir (strong verbs).

(a) Je tiens, je viens:

tiens, tient, are forms strengthened according to the principle explained in § 392. The forms tienne, tiennent, are only variations in the spelling of this strengthened tonic syllable. Compare prenne, § 394A.

(B) je tiendrai, je viendrai :

In this form two things claim notice:

(1) The d.

(2) The diphthong -ien.

1. The d in tiendrai, viendrai, was inserted between the liquids, as in voudrai, vaudrai, faudrai, etc., to give more substance to a weak word (§ 40. d).

2. With d inserted, the two words appeared thus: tendrai, vendrai. This no doubt caused confusion with tendrai, vendrai, the future of tendre and vendre, and the i of the diphthonged tonic stem was superadded.