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Re: Suppletory forms

From:Pablo Flores <fflores@...>
Date:Friday, February 19, 1999, 14:38
Carlos Thompson <chlewey@...> wrote:
> > Even in Valluno (Cali region), the regular _vos_ imperative of _ver_ is > commonly used: _ve_. >
Oh! Here we have another suppletory form. In Argentina you never hear _ve_ (imp. of _ver_). You say _mira'_, which is the imperative of _mirar_ "look"; just as _ve'_ (imp. of _ir_) becomes _anda'_. I guess for some reason we can't stand monosyllabic imperatives. That would also explain why the imperative of _ser_ "be", which is _se'_ is rarely used -- the speakers use some other phrase (such as "portate bien" = "behave well" instead of "se' bueno" = "be good"). --Pablo Flores