Searching for a Rara Avis : The History of Basque Optative
Language
en
Communication dans un congrès avec actes
This item was published in
Actas do XIII Congreso Internacional de Lingüística Xeral, XIII Congreso Internacional de Lingüística Xeral, 2018-06-13, Vigo. 2018p. 693--699
Universidade de Vigo
English Abstract
Though all languages are able to convey hopes and desires, only some among them have a specific verbal inflection for this purpose, the optative mood. Up to now, every grammatical description of Souletin Basque (easternmost ...Read more >
Though all languages are able to convey hopes and desires, only some among them have a specific verbal inflection for this purpose, the optative mood. Up to now, every grammatical description of Souletin Basque (easternmost dialect) has emphasized the existence of the optative mood, with verbal forms showing the prefix ait-. In historical Basque, such forms are attested also in western and central dialects; thus, the optative mood undoubtedly was a feature of common Basque. The aim of this paper is to offer a diachronic description of Basque optative. After a basic conceptualization (§1), we will address the Basque optative forms throughout both grammarians’ works (§2) and texts (§3), their extension in space and time (§ 4), and we shall propose a hypothesis on the origin of the prefix ait- (§5). Finally, we will succinctly describe other means to express hopes and desires in Basque (§6).Read less <
Origin
Hal importedCollections