§ 396. Quérir (strong verb), and compounds (Lat. quaerĕre). (a) In all the dialects till the end of the thirteenth century, the Infinitive was regularly querre from quaerere. (Compare courir, $389.)

Then the form quérir, from Low Latin querere, appears side by side with querre.

This querre is used by La Fontaine :

Messieurs, dit-il, en ce lieu n'ont que querre.

But he never hesitated at making use of an archaic form, if he found it expressive or convenient, and in his time querre may be said to have been already superseded by quérir.

(B) In quérir, the Infinitive alone remains. The compounds acquérir, requérir, conquérir, have, on the contrary, all their forms. (7) The Future and Present Conditional forms acquerrai, conquerrai, etc., are obtained regularly from the old Infinitive acquerre, conquerre, etc.

(8) The tonic syllable is still strengthened as in Old French :

The addition of an accent is of course modern (see § 56).

§ 397. Mourir (strong verb) (Lat. mori, through moriri). (a) Je meurs: eu, as explained in § 82, was originally ue and a diphthong.

(B) Je mourrai: mourrai unlike courrai, acquerrai, etc., seem to be a contraction of mourir and ai. But apparently mourirai does not occur, the contracted form seems to have been always in use:

Murrez vous a honte.
Dont je mourrai.

(Chanson de Roland, 11th cent.) (Couci, 12th cent.)

§ 398. Mouvoir (strong verb) (movere).

Mouvrai: By the side of the Burgundian and Picardian forms in -oir, movoir and mouvoir, we find as usual Norman forms in -er: mover, mouver (see § 391). The latter forms may have given us mouvrai as recever, dever, veer, poer, etc., the Norman equivalents of recevoir, devoir, voir, pouvoir, etc., may have given us recevrai, devrai, verrai, pourrai. But as the Future in all the dialects varied but little in any of the verbs, it is almost certain that we owe these forms rather to a consistent rejection of the form in oi when the tonic accent changed its position (see § 392),

§ 399. Vouloir (strong verb) (velle, through L.L. volère). (a) Je veux, tu veux, il veut, nous voulons, vous voulez, ils veulent.

Je veuille, tu veuilles, il veuille nous voulions, vous vouliez, ils veuillent.

In these tenses we have ou, a vowel, changed when it bore the tonic accent, into ue a diphthong, and eventually deadened into eu (see § 82, eu).

The l of the strengthened syllable was often mouillé ; this the addition of i signified. Hence the forms with i and those without, were really identical in Old French :

Je veuil pour vous mon cors travailler et pener.

T

(Berte, 13th cent.) Je veus par votre amour ici en droit vouer (faire vœu). (Íd.) The Present Indicative has adopted the forms in which is not mouillé; the Present Subjunctive, the forms in which is mouillé.

(B) Veuillons, veuillez, and voulons, voulez compared. The forms veuillons, veuillez, in which we find strengthened syllables independently of any tonic accent, are more difficult to explain. They are old, whereas voulons, voulez, are modern.

Vueillez qui cors et ame et quont que j'ai soit vo (vôtre). (Berte, 13th cent.) The stem veuill- was in common use till the seventeenth century, not only in the Imperative, but throughout the Present Subjunctive.* (Compare puisse, § 403. 8.)

Ne croyez que nous veuillions vous effrayer. (FLÉCHIER.) Pourvu que vous m'en veuillez croire. (PIRON.) (y) To resume: the variations in Old French forms of this verb are so numerous, that it is impossible to speak with certainty, but the history of the forms above, seems to be this: 1. At first the tonic syllable was regularly strengthened, sometimes with, sometimes without mouillé l. 2. The motive of the change was forgotten, and this strengthened form was given irregularly to an atonic syllable. 3. A gradual return to the original principle has for some time been going on unconsciously. Hence, whereas now the stem veuill- is confined to tonic syllables in the Present Subjunctive, it is found side by side with voul- in the Imperative. The double forms are utilized to obtain a shade of difference in the meaning :

In voulons, voulez we have the genuine force of the verk to will. Voulez et vous réussirez

Have-the-will, and you will succeed.

In veuillons, veuillez, we have the softened meaning of (kindly) be willing.

* Bienveillant (well-wishing, kindly) is a corrupted form of bienveui'ant.

§ 400. Devoir, recevoir, concevoir, etc. (strong verbs). The first thing to be noticed in these verbs is, that the usual mode of speaking of them as verbs ending in -evoir, is misleading and etymologically false. The ev is a part of the stem, and does not belong to the ending any more than av in avoir, savoir, etc. This once understood, the rest is easy enough. There are two series of verbs:

1. Devoir and redevoir regularly obtained from debere.

2. Recevoir from recipere, through recipere

apercevoir, a compound of percevoir.

In all these verbs may be seen the common strengthening of the e into oi when it bears the tonic accent (§ 392. 3).

In Old French, recoivre, apercoivre, etc., the regular resultants of the Latin, often occur.

As explained in mouvoir (§ 398), the oi has been logically discarded in the Future and Conditional; je recevrai, devrai, etc. But as with mouvoir, it may perhaps be owing to the influence of the Norman dialect, which had in Infinitive recever and recevre, that this form has not yielded to the artificial formation seen in surseoirai, prévoirai, pourvoirai.

$401. Valoir (strong verb).

(a) The old Present Indicative singular forms of this verb were val, vals, valt.

They remain with the usual change of l into u, and consequent change of s into x (see § 210).

In the latter part of the thirteenth century the 7 was mouillé, and i was added, as in vouloir, throughout the tense.* This form, vaill-, was employed eventually for the purpose of strengthening the tonic stem. With this object it remains in Modern French, but in the Present Subjunctive only. Compare vouloir.

(B) Prévaloir has discarded the mark of the mouillé 1, and has now in Present Subjunctive: prévale, prévales, prévale, prévalions, prévaliez, prévalent.

* Of the old forms, vaillant remains as an adjective.

§ 402. Faillir and falloir (strong verbs). Both these verbs are derived from fallĕre through fallère. Faillir is the older verb.

(a) Il faut :-The Present tense Indicative singular was originally fal, fals, falt, whence were obtained je faux, tu faux, il faut. Of these the two first are obsolete, and il faut has gone over to falloir. (See below.)

(B) About the end of the thirteenth century the became mouillé and faill- appeared (§§ 392 8, 399). This stem has been utilized in two opposite directions:

(1) The whole of the verb faillir has it.

(2) It is employed in falloir to strengthen the Present Subjunctive, il faille.

(y) In faillir the forms je faux, tu faux, il faut, je faudrai, je faudrais, are almost, if not altogether, superseded by je faillis, tu faillis, il faillit, je faillirai, je faillirais, etc. So défaillir. There is a strong tendency to conjugate faillir entirely like finir, especially in the sense of faire faillite, (to) become bankrupt. (Compare saillir, § 384.)

(a) Pouroir:

§ 403. Pouvoir (strong verb).

Pouvoir is from posse, through possere and potere. The oldest French form is podir.

In all the dialects the medial consonant was dropped. The Infinitive in Burgundy became poor, pooir, in Normandy puer, poer. About the fourteenth century the v was added to prevent hiatus. Compare pleuvoir (pluere), pivoine (pœonia).

(B) Je pourrai:

Pourrai has been regularly obtained from the old Infinitives, through porai and porrai. (See, however, § 398.)

(y) Je puis and je peux:

The first person singular Indicative Present of some verbs was strengthened in Old French in a different way from the remainder of the singular.* Of these Old French secondary forms, puis alone remains in Modern French. Je peux was obtained later on, by the attraction of tu peux, il peut.

(8) Je puisse:

In Old French the ui seems to have been selected by the Present Subjunctive as its special diphthong. It is now (as apparently in Old French) used without regard to any tonic accent puisse, puisses, puisse, puissions, puissiez, puissent.

* See Burguy, p. 360, vol. ii.

§404. Avoir (strong verb).

(a) The Infinitive was avoir in the Burgundian and Picardian dialect, aver in the Norman. (Compare § 398.)

(6) The Future was first averai, then by contraction avrai, afterwards by confusion of v and u, aurai.

(y) In j'ai, j'aie, tu aies, il ait, ils aient, we have remains of the strengthened tonic syllables (§ 392). This diphthonged syllable was found also in Old French in Present Indicative, tu ais, il ait. In Modern French these two words have dropped to tu as, il a.

(8) Il ait (Present Subjunctive):

In two verbs only, avoir and être, does the Latin t remain in Present Subjunctive (see § 370): il ait (habeat), il soit (sit). (e) Ils ont:

This form is exceptionally irregular. The radical is absorbed.

§ 405. Faire (strong verb) (facère).

(a) Fai- and fe- compared:

In Modern French we find two Present stems in this verb, fai (faire) and fe (ferons). Fai- represents the usual strengthened tonic syllable, and fe- the simple atonic syllable. Their distinctive use has been forgotten, and the two forms are now mixed up. Thus, on the one hand, we find correctly faire, fais, fait, but incorrectly faisons, faisais, faisaient; and on the other hand, fasse (= Old French face), fasses, fassions, fassiez, fassent.

But that the original object of the ai was to strengthen the tonic syllable is proved by the pronunciation, which the various uncalled-for protests of grammarians have not been able to abolish: in all atonic syllables in this verb, whether fe or fai be written, the pronunciation is always that of fe (§ 68).

Some authors, and Voltaire amongst them, have attempted to restore to all the parts possessing an atonic syllable the spelling fe of the Future Indicative: fesant, fesons, etc. But the example has not been followed.

(B) Vous faites:

The strong form vous faites (facitis) had in Old French its corresponding first person: nous faimes, as dites had dimes. Compare sommes, which alone remains of the strong first persons, Present Indicative of Latin origin.

(y) Ils font:

Font was in Old French a mere variation of funt, like ont of unt, vont of vunt, sont of sunt. The form in o was Burgundian; in u, Norman.