Re: Methods of Question-Forming

Joe Fatula wrote:
>  And it just occured to me that "would" doesn't
>take an "s" today, either.  Interesting.
That's because it's a past tense form, and you don't append endings to
preterites, e.g. "thou loved", not "thou lovedest".

The verb belongs to the class of verbs known as the "Preterite-Present
Class" in other Germanic languages, along with should, could and might
(there are more of them in other Germanic langs, about ten in Old Norse,
IIRC). They're anomalous verbs which don't have participles or an
infinitive and are often used as modal verbs. IIRC, they go back to PIE's
aspect system, before the perfective aspect became solely a past tense.
Certain Latin and Greek (and Aredos </plug>) also come from this source,
such as odi and memini (sp?), which are present tense in meaning but past
perfect in form (from the PIE perfective aspect).

Dan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ath yw dyned can pob den o rydhad o voenyth, cynanaf â chraveth.

            o Raeth 18 o Gorlavaraed Vethysadec an Dynedad Dyneth

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