Sur "suis," la conjugaison de "être"

Jiacheng Liu

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Je ne peux pas comprendre pourquoi "sum" en Latin s'est devenu a "suis" en Français, et le existence de "-s" me confond. Je sais que, par example, les -s finales de "je bois," "je finis," etc, ont été influencés par les conjugaisons similaires du second personnel tu. Mais est-ce que le "-s" final de "je suis " s'est aussi transfert de "tu es," même que les deux formes soient extrêmement différentes? Est-ce que, dans une forme ancienne de Français, le conjugaison de "je suis" était différent?
 
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Agrippa

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It doesn't really answer that question, either, though. It offers some speculation that the -s might have developed in analogy to je puis from possum. That's all.
 

Agrippa

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Isn't etymology very often often nothing but speculation?
 
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That's true ... I was mainly pointing out that the book doesn't offer any comprehensive discussion or explanation on that topic, either, in case the OP doesn't know German.
 

Issacus Divus

H₃rḗǵs h₁n̥dʰéri diwsú

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Fwiw, in Old French, sui was suis, but estois was "I stand".
 
 

Imperfacundus

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As Agrippa mentioned, the best we can do is speculate.

It isn't the only unexpected -s in Old French either. The derivative of vado 'I go' was, surprisingly enough, vois (pronounced as spelled).
Cross-linguistically, very commonly used words tend to show more irregularities. That's been my experience, at least.
 

Serenus

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Je ne peux pas comprendre pourquoi "sum" en Latin s'est devenu a "suis" en Français, et le existence de "-s" me confond. Je sais que, par example, les -s finales de "je bois," "je finis," etc, ont été influencés par les conjugaisons similaires du second personnel tu. Mais est-ce que le "-s" final de "je suis " s'est aussi transfert de "tu es," même que les deux formes soient extrêmement différentes? Est-ce que, dans une forme ancienne de Français, le conjugaison de "je suis" était différent?
In Old French, verbs had the endings you'd expect in the 1st person singular form, without the -s.

sum > je sui (> now je suis)
vādō > je vai
dēbeō > je doi
crēdō > je croi
fugiō > je fui
morior > je muir (> now je meurs)
valeō > je vail (> now je vaux)
legō > je li
scrībō > je escrif (> now j'écris)
moveō > je muef (> now the very literary je meus)
jungō > je joing (> now je joins)
prendō > je preing (> now je prends)
audiō > je oi (now obsolete)
gaudiō > je joi (> now je jouis)
redimō > je raiem (now obsolete)
sedeō > je sié (now je m'assieds or je m'assois)
cadō > je chié (> now the very literary je chois)

Now, there were many verbs that happened to end in -s in the 1st person singular due to the regular sound changes from Latin to Old French, typically involving /t k/ > [ts] (> [ s]), or a stem with /s/ somewhere near the end in Latin.

-āre > -er verbs:
laxō > je lais
pretiō > je prois
pēnsō > *pēsō 'I weigh' > je pois
*dis-pettiō > je dépez (pronounced [depets])
spōnsō > je espos
captiō > je chaz (pronounced [tʃats])

-ere, -īre > -re, -ir verbs:
faciō > je faz (pronounced [fats]), or je fai
taceō > je tais (cf. tacēre > *tacīre/tacere > taisir/taire)
jaceō > analogized je gis (expected: *jais, cf. jacēre > *jacīre > gesir/gisir)
nāscor > je nais
crēscō > je crois
cognōscō > je conois
fīniō > *fīnīscō > je finis
exeō > je is
cōnsuō > late Old French je keus

Now, the above being the case in the mid and late 12th century, -āre > -er verbs began (re-)gaining an -e in the 1SG form afterwards as an analogy with the -e of the 2SG and 3SG forms (tu aimes, il aime(ṭ)). What was amō, cantō, laxō > je aim, chant, lais before then became je aime, chante, laisse. This did not affect -re, -ir and -oir verbs as they lacked the -e (tu escris, il escrit; tu finis, il finit).

Then, the -s of the 2SG was analogized to the 1SG throughout -re and -ir verbs, and also -oir verbs, on the basis of verbs like crēscō crēscis > je crois tu crois. Thus, sum, dēbeō, legō > je sui, doi, li became then je suis, dois, lis.
 
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Jiacheng Liu

Member

Location:
Sina
In Old French, verbs had the endings you'd expect in the 1st person singular form, without the -s.

sum > je sui (> now je suis)
vādō > je vai
dēbeō > je doi
crēdō > je croi
fugiō > je fui
morior > je muir (> now je meurs)
valeō > je vail (> now je vaux)
legō > je li
scrībō > je escrif (> now j'écris)
moveō > je muef (> now the very literary je meus)
jungō > je joing (> now je joins)
prendō > je preing (> now je prends)
audiō > je oi (now obsolete)
gaudiō > je joi (> now je jouis)
redimō > je raiem (now obsolete)
sedeō > je sié (now je m'assieds or je m'assois)
cadō > je chié (> now the very literary je chois)

Now, there were many verbs that happened to end in -s in the 1st person singular due to the regular sound changes from Latin to Old French, typically involving /t k/ > [ts] (> [ s]), or a stem with /s/ somewhere near the end in Latin.

-āre > -er verbs:
laxō > je lais
pretiō > je prois
pēnsō > *pēsō 'I weigh' > je pois
*dis-pettiō > je dépez (pronounced [depets])
spōnsō > je espos
captiō > je chaz (pronounced [tʃats])

-ere, -īre > -re, -ir verbs:
faciō > je faz (pronounced [fats]), or je fai
taceō > je tais (cf. tacēre > *tacīre/tacere > taisir/taire)
jaceō > analogized je gis (expected: *jais, cf. jacēre > *jacīre > gesir/gisir)
nāscor > je nais
crēscō > je crois
cognōscō > je conois
fīniō > *fīnīscō > je finis
exeō > je is
cōnsuō > late Old French je keus

Now, the above being the case in the mid and late 12th century, -āre > -er verbs began (re-)gaining an -e in the 1SG form afterwards as an analogy with the -e of the 2SG and 3SG forms (tu aimes, il aime(ṭ)). What was amō, cantō, laxō > je aim, chant, lais before then became je aime, chante, laisse. This did not affect -re, -ir and -oir verbs as they lacked the -e (tu escris, il escrit; tu finis, il finit).

Then, the -s of the 2SG was analogized to the 1SG throughout -re and -ir verbs, and also -oir verbs, on the basis of verbs like crēscō crēscis > je crois tu crois. Thus, sum, dēbeō, legō > je sui, doi, li became then je suis, dois, lis.
Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response! Sounds like a lot of analogies were involved.
 

Clemens

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French verb stems and endings also went through tremendous leveling after the period known as Old French.
 
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