French gerunds

<delurks>

Hi folks,

A question popped up in my last French lesson (as we were learning about
the gerund), and I thought this could be a place to find an answer. It kind
of concerns historical linguistics, so:

Is there any theory of why the gerund of the verb _avoir_ is _ayant_? The
other irregulars are, after all, not really irregular (if you use the
imparfait to supply the stem, that is). Do you know why this happened? My
original theory was that _avons_ < **_ayons_ in the present tense by
influence from _avez_, but this seems to be disproved by the imperatives
(_ayons_, _ayez_). Oh, my amateur linguistics.

::leaves room for the experts and crosses fingers::


Simen Rustad

When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why are the poor
hungry, they called me a communist.
  - Dom Helder Camara (archbishop of São Paulo)

Replies