Indo-European copula
All Indo-European languages have a verb that performs the task of a copula.
The Latin word literally means simply
- 4.1 Germanic
- 4.2 Latin and Romance Languages
- Balto- Slavic languages 4.3
The object of the copula in the syntax
In syntax, the copula is either " double-digit " or used " digit ".
" Double-digit " applied the copula connects two elements with the meaning that they belong together conceptually equate each other ( identical). Examples:
- Socrates was a man. ( designated person belongs to the genus " man". )
- Fritz is my cousin. ( designated person belongs to the family " cousins". )
- The car is blue. ( Article is in the part of the color = "blue" )
" Single digit " applied (without a second element ) denotes a copula simply the presence, existence:
- I think, therefore I am.
Inflections (conjugation )
In their inflections, the copula is the most irregular verb of the Indo-European languages , on the one hand, because it is widely used and, secondly, because the Indo-European proto-language had several such verbs, which resulted in the daughter languages that with conjugated forms of various age verbs new verbs " multi-stem conjugation " were formed. "His" example, come in the German verb group forms " are, are, was" of the same strain as the infinitive, namely "to be", but the forms " am, are," by the former verb " birn " and the forms " was would have been " by the former verb " essential ".
The Indo-European roots
* h1es -
The root * h1es - on Urindogermanisch was definitely already a copula. The e- level ( see ablaut ) is in forms such as the German is, Latin est, again encountered, while the zero - level causes forms that begin with / s / start, as are German or French sommes. Was in the original language, * h1es - athematisches a verb in -mi, so was the first person singular * h1esmi; this inflection survived in English on Sanskrit asmi, Latin sum, Old Church Slavonic esmь, etc.
The present indicative is used for the Indo-European proto-language usually reconstructed as follows:
* bhuH -
The root * bhuH ( where H stands for a laryngeal unknown quality ) probably means "grow", but also " be ". This is the source of the English infinitive and the participle be completed ( Germanic participles end in- on ), as well as, for example, the Celtic bithidh future tense. Urindogermanisches / bh / is fui to Latin / f /, so comes the Latin participle FUTURUS and the perfect stem; Latin fio ' I will ' is coming ( with modification ) also from this root, as well φύω the Greek verb. The verb has been conjugated as follows:
* wes -
The root * wes - perhaps meant " live ". The e- stage shows have been in the German participle, the o- level (* wos ) survives in English and Old High German thing. ( The Germanic forms with / r / how were the result of a grammatical change. )
* h1er -
( The root * h1er - meant " move ." This is the origin of the Norse present tense stem. )
The Norse present stem may be * h1es - also derived from the root, which he much better inserted itself into the ranks of the other Germanic languages. This would also explain why the forms of the second and third person sg. have a s. The forms with r can be explained as the results of a rhotacism.
* steh2 -
The root * steh2 - means, as is readily apparent, "stand". Latin sto, stare, which comes from this root, retained the meaning "stand" until it was in certain circumstances to a copula in Vulgar Latin. This usage survives in some Romance languages and the Gaelic who use it as one of two copulas, and in some languages also replaces the past participle of the root * steh2 - do the actual copula.
The resulting forms
Germanic
Latin and Romance Languages
In Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Italian, there are two parallel forms, water / Esser / essere from eating and estar / stare out stare, "stand".
Balto- Slavic languages
Celtic languages
In the earliest Celtic languages , a distinction between the so-called Substantivverb and the so-called copula.
The conjugation in Old Irish and Mittelwalisisch goes as follows: