Urindo-European copula

All Indo-European languages have a verb that acts as a copula . The Latin word Latin copula "connector, the connecting band, the line" in this context means "Linking" or "unifying".

Definition and task of the copula in sentence structure

In linguistics , the copula is used to link the subject of a sentence to a predicate . The word "copula" comes from the Latin noun for a "connection or coupling" that connects two different things.

In the sentence structure , the copula is used either “two-digit” or “one-digit”.

Examples

Applied “two-digit”, the copula connects two elements with the meaning that they belong together, are to be equated (identical).

• Socrates was human. (named person belonged to the genus "people".)
• Fritz is my cousin. (named person belongs to the family "cousins".)
• The car is blue. (The object has the = belongs to the color "blue")

Applied "single-digit" (without a second element), a copula simply denotes the presence:

• I think therefore I am.

Inflection forms (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 Indogermanisch had several such verbs, which in the daughter languages meant that from conjugated various forms of age verbs new verbs " multi-stem conjugation ”. For example, in the German verb group “sein” the forms “are, are, be” come from the same stem as the infinitive, namely “sein”, but the forms “am, bist” come from the former verb “birn” and the forms “was,” would have been ”from the previous verb“ be ”.

The English verb "to be" also forms an irregular special form with eight possible conjugations. These are: “be, am, is, are, being, was, were, been.” (To be, am, is, are, being, was, were, been) and also other older personal forms “art, wast, worth , beest “. "Be, being, been and beest" are to be assigned to the former verb "birn" as well as "was, wast, were and worth" to the verb "wesen".

The Indo-European roots

* h₁es-

The root * h₁es- was definitely a copula in Urindo-European. The e stage (see ablaut ) is in forms such as the German is , Latin est , again encountered, while the zero grade produces forms that / start / sec as German are or French sommes . In the original language, * h₁es- was an athematic verb ending in -mi , so the first person was singular * h₁esmi ; this inflection survives in English am , Sanskrit asmi , Latin sum , Old Church Slavonic esmь , ... etc.

The present indicative for the Indo-European original language is usually reconstructed as follows:

person	Singular	Plural
1	* h₁és-mi	* h₁s-més
2	* h₁és-si	* h₁s-th₁é
3	* h₁és-ti	* h₁s-énti

* bʰuH-

The root * bʰuH- (where H stands for a laryngeal of unknown quality) probably means 'grow, flourish', then also 'arise, will'. This is the source of the English infinitive be and the participle been (Germanic participles end in -an ) and, for example, the Celtic future tense form bithidh . Urindo-European / bʰ / becomes Latin / f /, hence the Latin participle futūrus and the perfect stem fuī ; Latin fiō ‚I will '(with a modification) also from this root, as well as the Greek verb φύω. The verb was conjugated as follows:

person	Singular	Plural
1	* bʰuH-yó-h₂	* bʰuH-yó-me-
2	* bʰuH-yé-si	* bʰuH-yé-th₁e
3	* bʰuH-yé-ti	* bʰuH-yó-nti

* h₂ues-

The root * h₂ues- might mean 'stay, live, stay overnight'. The e stage shows in the German participle been that o stage ( * h₂uos- ) survives in English and Old High German thing . (The Germanic inflections with / r / wie were result from a grammatical change .)

person	Singular	Plural
1	* h₂ues-mi	* h₂us-mes
2	* h₂ues-si	* h₂us-th₁e
3	* h₂ues-ti	* h₂us-enti

* h₁er-

(The root * h₁er- means 'move'. It is the origin of the old Norse present stem.)

person	Singular	Plural
1	** h₁er-mi	** h₁r-mes
2	** h₁er-si	** h₁r-th₁e
3	** h₁er-ti	** h₁r-enti

The Old Norse present stem can also be derived from the root * h₁es- , with which it fits into the ranks of the other Germanic languages ​​much better. This would also explain why the second and third person forms are so called have an s. The r forms can be explained as the results of a rhotacism.

* stand₂-

The root * stand₂- means, as can be easily seen, 'stand'. Latin stō, stare , which comes from this root, kept the meaning 'stand' until it became a copula in Vulgar Latin in certain circumstances. This usage survives in some Romance languages ​​and Gaelic, which use it as one of two copulae, and in some languages ​​the past participle of the root * stand₂- replaces that of the actual copula.

person	Singular	Plural
1	* stand₂-mi	* sth₂-mes
2	* stand ₂-si	* sth₂-tste
3	* stand ₂-ti	* sth₂-enti

The resulting flexions

Germanic

	Old Norse	Swedish	Old English		English	Old High German	German	Gothic	Dutch
infinitive	vera	vara	wesan	bēon	be	wesan	be	wisan	zijn
Present	em ert (est) he (es) erum eruð eru	har har har har har har	eom eart is sint sint sint	bēo bist biþ bēoþ bēoþ bēoþ	am are ( † art) is are are are are	bim bis (t) is sum (es), birum sīt, birut sint	am are is are are are are	im is is sijum sijuþ are	ben bent is zijn zijn zijn
conjunctive	siá sér sé sém séð sé	vore vore vore vore vore vore	sīe sīe sīe sīen sīen sīen	bēo bēo bēo bēon bēon bēon	be be be be be be	sī sīs (t) sī sīm (es) sī (n) t sīn	was seist should be seiet were	sijau sijais sijai sijaima sijaiþ sijaina	† zij † zij † zij † zijn † zijn † zijn
preterite	var vast var várum váruþ váru	var var var var var var	wæs wǣre wæs wǣron wǣron wǣron		was were ( † wast) was were were were	what wāri what wārum wārut wārun	was were was were waiting were	was wast was wesum wesuþ wesun	what what what were were were
past participle	verit	varit	been	ġebēon	been	giwesan	been	Gewesuþ	been

Latin and Romance languages

	Latin		French		Spanish		Italian
infinitive	eat	stare	être	ester	ser	estar	eat	stare
Present	sum es est sumus estis sunt	sto stas stat stamus statis stant	suis es est sommes êtes sont	este estes este estons estez estent	soy eres es somos sois son	estoy estás está estamos estáis están	sono is è siamo siete sono	sto stai sta stiamo state stanno
conjunctive	sim	stem	sois	este	sea	esté	sia	stia
preterite	fui	steady	fus	estai	fui	estuve	fui	stetti
Past tense	he at	stabam	étais	estais	era	estaba	ero	stavo
Future tense	ero	stabo	serai	esterai	seré	estaré	sarò	starò
past participle	n / A	statum	été	esté	sido	estado	† suto	stato

In Old French , Spanish , Catalan , Portuguese and Italian there are two verb formations, ser / èsser / essere from esse ' to be' and estar / stare from stare ' to stand'.

Balto-Slavic languages

	Old Church Slavonic	Ukrainian	Upper Sorbian	Lower Sorbian	Czech	Slovak
infinitive	byti	buty	być	byś	být	byť
Present	esmь esi estь esmъ este sǫtъ	each each each each each each	sym sy je smy sće su	som sy jo smy sćo su	jsem jsi, jseš je jsme jste jsou	som si je sme ste sú
Past tense	- - běaše - - běaxǫ		běch běše běše běchmy běsće běchu	běch běšo běšo
Past tense aorist	běxъ bě bě běxomъ * běste běšę		běch bě bě běchmy běsće běchu
Future tense	bǫdǫ bǫdeši bǫdetъ bǫdemъ bǫdete bǫdǫtъ	budu budeš bude (t ′) budem (o) budete budut ′	budu budźeš budźe budźemy budźeće budu	budu buźoš buźo buźomy buźośo budu	budu budeš bude budeme budete budou	budu budeš bude budeme budete budú
imperative	- bǫdi bǫdi bǫděmъ bǫděte bǫdǫ	- buvaj / bud ′ - buvajmo / bud′mo buvajte / bud′te -	- budź - - budźće -	- buź - - buźćo -		- buď - - buďte -
Perfect aorist	byxъ by (stъ) by (stъ) byxomъ byste byšę			bych, book by, bu by, bu
Present participle	sy m. sǫšti f. sy n.	buvajučyj m. buvajuča f. buvajuče n.		buducy
Participle Resultative	bylъ m. byla f. bylo n.		był m. była f. było n.	był m. była f. było n.	byl m. byla f. bylo n.	bol m. bola f. bolo n.
Participle perfect active	byvъ m. byvъši f. byvъ n.
Participle perfect passive		buvšyj m. ("former" adj.) buvša f. buvše n.				byvší, byvšia, byvšie (obsolete)

	Latvian	Lithuanian
infinitive	būt	būti
Present	esmu esi ir esam esat ir	esù esì yrà ẽsame ẽsate yrà
preterite	biju biji bija bijām bijāt bija	buvaũ buvaĩ bùvo bùvome bùvote bùvo
Past tense		būdavau būdavai būdavo būdavome būdavote būdavo
Future tense	būšu būsi būs būsim būsit, būsiet būs	būsiu būsi bùs būsime būsite bùs
imperative	it I! esiet!	būk! būkime! būkite

Celtic languages

In the earliest attested Celtic languages , a distinction was made between the so-called verbum substantivum and the copula .

The inflection in Old Irish and Middle Welsh goes as follows:

	Old Irish verb subst.	Old Irish copula	Central Welsh
Present	(at) tó (at) taí (at) tá (at) taam (at) taïd (at) taat	am at is ammi adib it	wyf wyt yw, mae, taw, oes ym ywch ynt, maen (t)
preterite	Bá bá boí bámmar baid bátar	basa basa ba bommar not used batar	buum buost bu buam buawch buant
Future tense	bia bie bieid, bia beimmi, biam bethe, bieid bieit, biat	be be bid bimmi not used bit	bydaf bydy byd bydwn bydwch bydant

literature

• Michael Meier-Brügger, Matthias Fritz, Manfred Mayrhofer: Indo-European Linguistics. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-025143-2 .
• Norbert Oettinger: In Emil Forrer's footsteps: The diathesis of Indo-European h1e: s-, h1es- "sit" and others. In: D. Groddek (Ed.): Sarnikzel. Hittite studies in memory of Emil Orgetorix Forrer. Techn. Univ., Dresden 2004, (= Dresden contributions to Hittitology. Volume 10), pp. 487–494.

Web links

• Rosemarie Lühr: Copular sentences in ancient Indo-European languages. In: Ljudmila Geist, Björn Rothstein (Hrsg.): Copula verbs and copula sentences Interslingual and intralingual aspects. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2007, special print from LA 512, ISBN 978-3-484-30512-0 , pp. 181–199 ( online, PDF )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dictionary Upper Sorbian-German. ISBN 3-7420-0419-0 , p. 36.
2. ↑ Lower Sorbian-German dictionary. ISBN 3-7420-1096-4 , p. 57.
3. ↑ Ernst Mucke: Dictionary of the Dutch language and its dialects. Volume I, ISBN 978-3-7420-2091-8 , p. 102.
4. ↑ Pocket dictionary of Czech. ISBN 978-3-468-11363-5 , p. 38.
5. ↑ gibberish. Volume 32, Czech word for word. 7th edition 2004, ISBN 3-89416-058-6 , pp. 30, 33-35.
6. ↑ gibberish. Volume 81, Slovak word for word. 4th edition 2002, ISBN 3-89416-272-4 , pp. 31, 36, 38.
7. ^ Berthold Forssmann: Dictionary Latvian-German, German-Latvian. ISBN 978-3-934106-58-1 , p. XXXV.
8. ↑ The Baltic languages. ISBN 3-324-00605-8 , pp. 315-320.
9. ↑ The Baltic languages. ISBN 3-324-00605-8 , pp. 169-172.