verto me

§ 372. Why "être " is used with Reflexive Verbs. 1. In Latin the passive like the Greek middle voice has often reflexive power: lavor = lavo me je me lave; vertor = je me tourne; armatus sum = armavi me = 2. In very early French a separation took place.* (a) For the Passive, the Participle with être was employed as before.

je me suis armé.

(b) For the Reflexive, the Participle with être was also employed, but the Reflexive Pronoun of the other Latin form was superadded.

The forms je m'en suis allé, je me suis fait mal, etc., in which the verb is intransitive, were formed later on, after the same model.

§ 373. Repartir and répartir.

Repartir, to set out again, a compound of partir, to set out, is like sentir; but répartir, to divide or distribute (from the obsolete verb partir, to divide), is like finir:-Il repartait quand je suis arrivé. Ces adjectifs se répartissent en deux ou trois classes.

Similarly, ressortir, to go out again, is like sortir; but ressortir (to be in the jurisdiction of) is like finir. (Compare saillir, etc.)

§ 373A. Rire (strong), ridere through ridĕre.

Riant and disant.-The hiatus in riant, riais, etc., is worth notice. It is old. Dire seems to have leaned towards a similar hiatus, but the c of the Latin has fixed the orthography disant, disais, etc. The Present Subjunctive forms die, dies, die, diions, diiez, dient, are found as late as the seventeenth century. The well-known "Faites la sortir, quoi qu'on die," of Molière is only one example of many.

Notre ardeur vous séduit, mais quoi qu'elle vous die.

(CORNEILLE.) Mais quoi que je craignisse, il faut que je le die. (RACINE.)

§ 373B. Mettre (strong).

Mis: But few verbs have s in the Past Participle:

(missus)
(acquisitus)

(prensus)

(assessus)

(clausus)

In each case the atonic syllables have been lost; it is the s of the Latin root which ends the words. Several other verbs have dropped even this s: conclusus, conclu; ri, risus, etc. The above is often true of t: compare fait, confit, with suffi, nui (§ 380).

*Even in the tenth century, we find il se erent convers (Fragment de Valenciennes), literally illi se erant conversi. See Littré, Histoire de la Langue Française, pp. 311-320.

Je vécus:

§ 374. Vivre (strong verb) (vivĕre).

In the seventeenth century is to be found je véquis by the side of je vécus.

Jamais homme ne véquit si bien dans son domestique.
(FLÉCHIER.)

Ce fameux conquérant, ce vaillant Sésostris qui jadis en Egypte au gré des destinées, véquit de si longues années, n'a vécu qu'un jour à Paris.* (RACINE.) The origin of this véquis is plainly vixi, through the older forms, vesqui, veski, veqi: apparently the attraction of the past participle vécu was too strong; hence, je vécus. But the past simple of naître, je naquis, (no doubt formed after je véquis,) still exists.

§ 375. Lire (strong verb) (legĕre).

Lisant, lisais:

Burguy ascribes the medial 's' to a permutation of g into s, and compares it to the change of c into s in faisant, conduisant.

The confusion which would have arisen between liant (lier, ligare) no doubt assisted the persistence of s, and prevented the hiatus which is to be noticed in the older forms of dire and in rire (§ 373).

$ 376. Taire, plaire (strong verbs).

The regular form from tacere was taisir. It was common in Old French side by side with taire, from tacère.

The same is true of plaire and plaisir, from placere and placere respectively.

Mieux me voudrait taiser.

(Coucy, 12th cent.)

Ici de Charlemaine (je) me doi ore (maintenant) bien taire.

Diex! pourquis l'aim (l'aimé -je)
Quant je ne lui puis plaire?

testes trencher.

(Sax, 12th cent.)

(Couci, 13th cent.)

Comment purrad-il a sun seigneur plasir mielx que par nos

(Rois, 12th cent.).

Plaisir remains as a noun, taisir is obsolete.

It is usual to put a circumflex accent over tû to distinguish

it from tu the pronoun.

Compare dû and du.

* Epigram on the Sésostris of Longpierre.

§ 377. Verbs in -aître and -oître (strong verbs). There are five series of verbs in -aître and -oître.

1. connaître and compounds (cognoscère).

2. paraître and compounds (parere through L.L. parescère). and compounds (crescere).

3. croître

4. naître

5. paître

and compounds (nasci through L.L. nascere). and compounds (pascère).

They differ in various respects:

(a) Use of the circumflex accent:

The circumflex accent has in each verb arisen from the same cause; viz., the omission of s. But its use is irregular and fitful :

1. Connaître, paraître, paître, are alike thoughout in the

use of accent.

2. Croître (see § 345) employs the circumflex accent in several places where paraître and connaître do not employ it. The main object is doubtless to prevent any confusion between its forms and those of croire.

3. Naître employs the accent in Present Infinitive, Future Indicative and Present Conditional only, and not in Present Indicative: naître, je naîtrai, je naîtrais, but il nait, not il naît

(B) Connaître and paraître have rejected the older spelling in oi croître still retains it (see § 85).

(y) Paître is defective. It has no Past Simple tense, nor has it a Past Participle in its ordinary sense, to graze. Puis employed in falconry only: le faucon a pu (feast upon). Repaître is not defective, and follows connaître in its conjugation.

(8) The anomalous form né is only an orthographical expedient for neit (natus). Other old forms are nestre, nest, nez, neiz. For naquis see § 374.

§ 378. Conclure and Clore (strong verbs). Conclure (concludere) and clore (claudere), have a common root, but their modes of conjugation in Modern French differ in many particulars.

etc.

1. Conclure has preferred the hiatus in concluant, concluais, Clore has inserted an s, closant, closais, etc. This s arises no doubt from the attraction of the Past Participle clos (clausus.) In Old French the hiatus was maintained: Ou ils cloyaient la plus part de l'ost (camp). (COMMINES, 15th cent.) 2. Conclure has conclu (conclusus), but clore has clos (clausus). 3. Clore, éclore are defective, conclure is not.

§ 379. Verbs in -vrir and -frir (weak verbs).

1. Ouvrir is the correct resultant of aperire or operire; couvrir that of cooperire. Offrir, souffrir, which in French follow ouvrir, are, on the contrary, anomalous. They are from offerre, sufferre, through Low Latin offerēre, sufferēre.

2. The Present Indicative forms j'offre, tu offres, il offre ; j'ouvre, tu ouvres, il ouvre; je couvre, tu couvres, il couvre, seem to be remains of offrer, ouvrer, couvrer, Norman forms of offrir, ouvrir, couvrir.

3. Recouvrir and recouvrer have not the same origin. Recouvrir is recouvrir, recouvrer is recuperare. The two words exist in English in recover.

He recovered his sofa

He recovered my esteem

(recouvrir)
(recouvrer)

The confusion between recouvrir and recouvrer was common till the sixteenth century. Ménage and Vaugelas say nothing against this blunder. Even the careful Malherbe writes :(Ils) ont recouvert leur santé.

§ 380. Verbs in -uire.

(a) There are four series of verbs in -uire.

1. duire and its compounds conduire, déduire, réduire, traduire, produire, introduire, which have a common origin, ducère.

2. Cuire from coquère.

3. The compounds of struire (itself not used) from struĕre: construire, instruire, détruire.

4. Luire, nuire, from lucere, nocere, through L.L. lucere,

nocère.

(B) The Perfect Participle is their only point of difference: lui, nui, but conduit, cuit, construit, etc. Compare confit and suffi,

conclu and clos, etc. (§ 373 B).

(y). The s of conduisant, luisant, nuisant, is the c of the Latin. The s of instruisant has been inserted by false analogy.

(8) Duire from ducere is almost obsolete. It occurs in the e of trained, etc. Ane bien duit. It is more often imper

sonal. Il me duit Il me convient, it suits me. It is often found in the 17th century. Genre de mort qui ne duit pas à gens peu curieux de trépas. (LA FONTAINE.)

§ 381. Ecrire (scribĕre).

(a) To words beginning with such difficult consonantal sounds as sc, sm, sp, st, was added, in the popular words of most of the Romance languages, an initial vowel to facilitate the pronunciation.* Sometimes the s has dropped out, sometimes not:

sperare, espérer; status, état.

(B) Ecrire has a strong Infinitive, and a strong Past Participle, écrit (scriptus); but its Simple Past tense, écrivis, is weak. It is modern. The strong resultant of the Latin Perfect is often found in Old French.

Les quiex enseignemens le roy escript de sa sainte main. (JOINVILLE, 13th cent.) Et escript le pape au roi Charles. (FROISSART, 14th cent.) For the v in écrivant, écrivais, see avoir, § 404.

§ 382. Peindre, plaindre, joindre, etc. (weak verbs). Verbs in -eindre, -aindre, -oindre differ in various particulars from other verbs in -ndre. This difference is for the most part traceable to the Latin.

1. Vendre, tendre, etc., are from Latin vendere, tendĕre; in them the d is a part of the root, and persists throughout the verb.

2. Peindre, éteindre, joindre, etc., are from Latin pingere, extinguere, jungere, etc. In them the d has only been inserted between the two liquids for strength,† and is no part of the root.

3. The stem of the vendre series has maintained its root consonant d throughout the verb; that of the peindre series returns to the root consonant g of the Latin in the following parts :

peignant
peignais
peigne

4. Vendre has a weak Past Participle, vendu; but peindre has a strong Past Participle, peint (pinctus).

* Compare (French) étable, échelle, épée, estimer, estomac, espace, escalier, (Spanish), estar, escribo, espero (Provençal), estable, escala, espada. For other examples see Diez, p. 241, vol. i.

† Other examples of a similar insertion of d between n and r are: cendre, gendre, moindre, pondre, tendre, vendredi, tiendrai, viendrai (§ 40).