THE STRONG PERFECTS IN THE ROMANCE ... - Page ON

with Dardel in his assertions, while at the same time enlarging on and
modifying my previous paper.
To define my terms, I wish to treat all the perfects except those
ending in -āvi, -īvi added to the unchanged root (I am marking the long or
short vowels only where necessary), as amāvi, sentīvi, in which all the
forms are arrhizotonic (arrhizotonic -ēvi did not survive and need not
concern us), that is, to treat those perfects in which, with a few exceptions,
certain of the forms are rhizotonic, to wit, reduplicated perfects (dedi, steti),
perfects in which the perfect stem is marked by a lengthened vowel (vīdi,
fēci), perfects with the endings added direct to the root of the verb
(prehendi, descendi), perfects in which the stem is marked by the addition
of an -s- to the root (dixi, clausi), other perfects similarly marked by the
addition of -u- (which I will write as -v- when it is consonantal; tenui, posui,
crēvi, cognōvi, quaesīvi), and those of the compounds of dare, which end
in -didi (vendidi). I am conscious that this last class has given rise to a new
weak perfect in Romance, as It. vendei, but its history is so closely linked
with that of the other strong verbs with which it originally belongs that it
needs to be considered in connection with them.
These perfects underwent many changes throughout the history of
Latin, especially in late Latin, and in the modern languages they have,
where they have not disappeared altogether, largely been replaced by weak
forms, especially in the patois. These weak forms are mostly based on the
stem of the imperfectum, but there are some formed on a special perfect
stem, as MCat. poguí, tinguí, Fr. valus, Rum. batui (these last two with a
-u- that does not appear in the imperfectum), while in French those that are
strong in origin now behave like weak perfects, so dis, conclus as finis,
valus. Italian, again, exhibits another pattern of rhizotonic perfect stem
forms alternating with arrhizotonic present stem forms in the same
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