Newsgroups: sci.classics,sci.lang,alt.gobment.lones
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!alderson
From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: ire + vadere
In-Reply-To: dasher@netcom.com's message of Tue, 19 Dec 1995 16:31:37 GMT
Message-ID: <aldersonDJuJxH.2rC@netcom.com>
Followup-To: sci.classics,sci.lang,alt.gobment.lones
Reply-To: alderson@netcom.com
Fcc: /u9/alderson/postings
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <rte-1112951151290001@mac-118.lz.att.com> <4aptq2$pi9@babyblue.cs.yale.edu>
	<4b0l1h$d19@news.netvision.net.il> <4b4f10$144@babyblue.cs.yale.edu>
	<dasherDJuDwp.EM4@netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 18:41:40 GMT
Lines: 30
Sender: alderson@netcom22.netcom.com
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.classics:9899 sci.lang:46993

In article <dasherDJuDwp.EM4@netcom.com> dasher@netcom.com (Anton Sherwood)
writes:

>Michael OBrien <mikeob%/etc/HOSTNAME> says:

>:I have a question. There are probably books I can look into on this, but Iwas
>:just wondering about the evolution of the verb eo. Where did the va forms
>:come from ? How did Ille it turn into Il va?

>From _vadere_, whose meaning was near enough to _ire_ that it could substitute
>when the monosyllable became ambiguous.  French, Italian and Spanish all
>combine va(d)- forms with i- forms; French of course also uses all-, and
>Italian uses and-, which are apparently contractions of ambula-.

Cf. the novel title _Quo Vadis?_ "Whither goest thou?"

I can't speak to the French _aller_ off hand, but there is no reason to expect
that Italian _andare_, Spanish _andar_ should derive from _ambulare_.  The
phonology is just wrong.

>The forms of `be' show a similar cooperation of three ancient roots: _es_ `be
>(timelessly)', _wes_ `remain' and _bhu_ `become'.

Although this goes all the way back to Indo-European, rather than being a
development in the later languages.
-- 
Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_
