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

mulgesimus), or to the palatalised present stem (benzesi, tendzesi,
balzesimus); for this multiplicity of forms compare modern Prov.
pouguère/pousquère and Gasc. pouscoui/poudoui/OGasc. pogui. There is
also a modern imperfect subj. in -essi created in imitation of Italian, which
usually has the stem of the present subj. (appessi, benghessi/bengessi); we
also find an earlier Gallurese (highly Italanised) aissi for appessi (Bec,
2/291), which is possibly the forerunner of the modern regional essi, and,
besides these, OSard. auissi/auesse occurring together (with fosse also) in
the same document. Dardel seizes on these last forms as “très rares et
précieux vestiges de l’ancien subjonctif”, which will support his theory of
alternation; Wagner, however, clearly explains them as Italianisms,
betrayed by the first e of auesse (and the o of fosse) and the
Sardinianisation of the same Italian vowel in auissi (he could also have
noted that the stem av- is Italian, as opposed to the Sard. app- or a-). In his
chapter on Sardinian, Dardel begins by conceding that he has difficulty in
finding any support for his theory here, but then goes on to achieve a
triumph of hope over experience by convincing himself that the modern
forms based on the root of the verb go back to old arrhizotonic perfect
forms without a suffix. True, there is no solid evidence with which to refute
his argument, but equally his theory is only conjectural, and the wide
extension of the strong perfect stem (found also in the present, as parfo,
balfo, dolfo) would seem to argue strongly against it. There are also some
slight traces of Dalmatian forms: ORagus. potì and subjs. pudis, avisi, p.p.
abudu, Vegl. subj. avás.
7. Videre, sedere, cadere and credere. Next I would like to consider
together three verbs from the PR -ēre conjugation and another which is
closely associated: videre, sedere, cadere and credere. The Romance
languages point to a PR inf. *cadēre, but credĕre remained, though OCat.
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