Etymological Dictionary of Basque - Cryptm.org

22 R. L. Trask
Every non-finite form of a verb bore the prefix *e-. This prefix is of unknown function,
though Trask (1990) suggests that its function was to nominalize the verbal root, producing a
verbal noun. The simplest possible free form of a verb consisted of this prefix attached to the
root, producing the form called the “radical infinitive” or “radical” by Basque grammarians.
This form survives in speech down to the present day in northern varieties, where it has a
variety of syntactic functions, including serving as the object of a postposition and serving as
the non-finite part of a non-indicative periphrastic form. In southern varieties, the radical is
now, apart from a few fossilized expressions, confined to elevated styles, and its syntactic
functions have been taken over by the perfective participle. The radical also functions
everywhere as the stem of a verb in word-formation; in this position it behaves like any other
lexical item, and it can be followed by word-forming suffixes or by other lexical items in
compounds. This was (and is) the only way for an ancient verbal root to appear inside a nonverbal
lexical item.
The prefix *e- has developed variously in the historical period, yielding any of e-, i-, j- or
zero, according to the phonological nature of the following material, as described in
****{section 6: P36}.
The next simplest form is the perfective participle, which consists of the “radical” followed
by the suffix -i, which in origin is probably the same ancient suffix -i which forms adjectives
from nouns. The perfective participle is the syntactically central form of a verb in all
varieties throughout the historical period: it is the most frequent form, and the one with the
greatest number of functions, even in northern varieties retaining the radical. Almost all
native speakers take the perfective participle as the citation form of a verb, and the same
choice is usual in linguistic and lexicographical work, including this dictionary – though note
that a few eastern speakers prefer the radical as the citation form. Accordingly, the
reconstructed form of an ancient verb is cited in this book in the form *e-Root-i.
Certain ancient verbs exhibit peculiarities in their forms. These are mainly the verbs whose
participles end in /n/ or in /o/; for discussion of these, see M{11} and M{12} in section
**{8}.
No other non-finite forms can be confidently reconstructed for Pre-Basque. In the historical
language, the perfective participle gives rise, by suffixation, to a large number of further nonfinite
forms of varying functions, but these formations, all of which are transparent, may be
of no great age.
In the historical language, there is a future participle, formed variously by suffixing either -ko
or -en (both of obvious origin; see the dictionary) to the perfective participle, but the regional
variation in the choice of suffix (in the west only -ko; in the east only -en; in the centre -ko
after a vowel but -en after a consonant) points to recent formations.
The other vastly important non-finite form in the historical language is the gerund, which is
formed by adding a suffix to the radical (the stem), and which retains the verbal syntax of its
source verb. But there are several reasons for supposing that the gerund is a recent creation
in the language: (1) the very substantial regional variation in the choice of suffix for this
purpose (western -te; west-central -keta; far eastern -ta; otherwise -tze and -te in
complementary distribution according to various phonological and morphological criteria);
(2) the transparent origins of these suffixes as noun-forming suffixes of known functions; (3)
the observation that these suffixes can also be added to verb-stems to produce ordinary verbal
nouns with no verbal properties; (4) the observation that, in northern dialects, the gerund
retains, in certain circumstances, the nominal property of taking its logical object in the