§ 402. Faillir and falloir (strong verbs). Both these verbs are derived from fallĕre through fallēre. 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.) (3) About the end of the thirteenth century the became mouillé and fuill- appeared (§§ 392 o, 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. (7) In faillir the forms je faux, tu faux, il faut, je faudrai, je faudrais, are almost, if not altogether, superseded by je faillis, tu faillis, il faillit, je faillirai, je faillirais, etc.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) Pouvoir: $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 (poonia). (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.) (B) 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) (facere). (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. § 406. Dire (strong verb) (dicere). (a) Dire, redire and contredire, médire, dédire. (8) Maudire. (7) Bénir. (a) The difference between dire, redire and contredire, médire, dédire, is small. In the two former we have still dites from dicitis like faites from facitis. But contredire, médire, dédire make contredisez, médisez, dédisez, after the model of the first person, which has cast off the Latin. In Old French médire and contredire followed dire. Ne medittes mie. (E. DESCHAMPS, 15th cent.) Contredites has been used in Modern French : Si vous me contredites. (FÉNELON.) In the Misanthrope, Act iii., 4, dédisez is now printed, but in the earliest edition, 1669, Molière wrote dédites: Puisque je l'ai promis, ne m'en dédites pas. (3) Maudire ( mal dire) has wandered still further from dire; it has assume, ss like finir, instead of s. Whether it is some fancied analogy between it and the inchoative conjugation in -ir, or the accidental adoption of a form occasionally found in Old French in dire, is not clear: probably it is the former. (y) The verb bénir, from benedicere, has changed still more: it follows finir throughout. In bénit, one of the two participles in use, we see the connecting link. The distinction between béni and bénit is now this: Béni blessed consecrated. = bénit = Les armes qui ont été bénites par l'église, ne sont pas toujours bénies du ciel, sur le champ de bataille. (LITTRÉ.) $407. Savoir (strong verb). (a) Savoir is from sapere, through sapere. For ere=oir, see recevoir, etc. (B) Sachant, je sache, etc. The ch in these words is obtained through the gradual 'consonification' of the i in sapientem, sapiam. In such Latin words as these, where i is followed by a vowel, i is a semi-consonant. It had in Latin the sound of Y in English yes, or j in German ja. To represent this sound the symbol j was introduced in late Latin. To this symbol was given in the Middle Ages the sound it now has, viz., that of a soft aspirated sibilant having a corresponding hard aspirated sibilant ch (see § 95). As only similar consonant sounds will stand together, j in the above words underwent a further change, and became ch between p and t. Eventually the p yielded. Remain sachant, sache. § 408. Seoir, messeoir, surseoir, asseoir, rasseoir (strong verbs). Seoir and its compounds, messcoir, surseoir, asseoir, rasseoir, now form perhaps the most irregular series of verbs in French. SEOIR is from sedere, like voir, from videre. In Old French, the dialectic differences which have been noticed in voir, etc. (§ 390), were found in this verb. In all the dialects the radical d vanished early in most forms; the Infinitive was seoir, seir, seer, etc. Assieds, asseois : Only in the Present tense Indicative and Present Imperative, does the radical d remain. The forms in ie are those found in Old French. The e has been diphthonged like the e of tenir, venir: je tiens, je viens; or of acquérir, j'acquiers (§ 392). Asseois is of later manufacture; it was probably obtained directly from the Infinitive asseoir. This certainly is true of asseoirai, surseoirai, etc. Neither form is older than the sixteenth century. Assoyez-vous la. (RABELAIS.) Puis le chirugien s'asseoira sur le banc, vis-a-vis du patient. (PARE.) The other forms of the Future are also anomalous. They arise from the attraction of the form in ie. § 395.) (Compare tiendrai, In Old French the Future was regularly asserrai, surserrai, like verrai. Even these forms are now of very rare occurrence. * In the seventeenth century the whole verb was in common use. *They are given on Littré's authority. il sied il seyait il siéra PRESENT CONDITIONAL il siérait PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE il siée PRESENT PARTICIPLE séant, seyant SEOIR has no compound tenses in either sense. (B) Asseoir, rasseoir. On the con Asseoir and rasseoir are not at all defective. trary, most of their tenses have more than one form. j'assieds or j'asseois or j'assois j'asseyais or j'asseoyais INDICATIVE CONDITIONAL SUBJUNCTIVE IMPERATIVE INFINITIVE j'assis j'assiérai, j'asseyerai, j'asseoirai, or j'assoirai j'assiérais, j'asseyerais, j'asseoirais, or j'assoirais j'asseye or j'asseoye j'assisse assieds, asseois, or assois asseoir asseyant, asseoyant, or assoyant assis. J'asseois or j'assois, j'asseoirai or j'assoirai, are common in familiar conversation, but rare in books: Il s'asseoit où me voilà. (BÉRANGER.) Both asseoir and rasseoir have all their compound tenses. They are usually reflexive. (y) Surseoir. Surseoir is not defective, but it has no double forms like asseoir, rasseoir. |