Saturday, February 13, 2010

Old Italian fie, fieno


On pg. 525 I say that erō is the only Latin future to survive into Romance in OFr. ier, OOc. er, and Sp. 2nd sg. pres. eres. But this is not correct.  The Latin future of fiō, fiam, fiēs etc. did survive into Old Italian, and beyond as an archaism as an alternative future for essere 'to be'. The expected forms should have had an alternation between an a proper to the first singular and an e proper to all the other persons. However, the a allomorph was generalized to the other persons pretty early.  Here are some examples:

3rd sg. fie: (Albertan. cap. 22): dopo me avrò erede lo quale io non so s'egli fie savio ovvero stolto, e fie signore del mio acquisto, e delli miei beni.

3rd sg. fia (Vita dei santi. padri. (S. Antonio, Abate, pag. 25): allora certo fia diritta l'anima nostra, quando la naturale sua integritade non sia maculata da peccato.

3rd pl. fien(o) (Petr. Canz. 127.4): Quai  fien ultime, lasso, e qua' fien prime?

3rd pl. fian(o) (Tass. Ger. 20.16): Fian per lo piu senza vigor, senz'arte.

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