Augment
In four Indo-European Langues - Greek old (and Greek modern when augment tonic is ), Sanskrit, Armenian and Phrygien) - there exists a flexional Préfixe invariable functioning in pair with normal endings and being used for the time past of the indicative ; it is named augment .
Thus, from same the root *bʰer- , “to carry”, one obtains the following Forme S of the past (“it carried”):
- Greek: ἔ-φερε E-phere ;
- Sanskrit: á-bharat ;
- Armenian: e-ber .
To classify augment among the prefixes is a point of view which does not gain the unanimity (in extreme cases, speech of a Infixe would be sometimes righter; to see low). Besides the process points out the redoubling, which raises the same problem for the Indo-European languages.
Operation
One considers that there exist two forms of augments, according to the nature of the first phoneme of the word or the radical.
Syllabic Augment
He adds a Syllabe to the word when this one starts with a consonant. In Greek, for example, the Imparfait is built by means of augment the ἐ- E and of the desired endings, as in ἐ-λάμϐαν-ον e-lámban one “I took” (imperfect λαμϐάν-ω lambán-O ).
Temporal Augment
In the verbs with initial vocalic, however, augment is asyllabic and consists of a lengthening of the first vowel radical E (one speaks about a augment temporal ; it is an internal case of inflection): thus in Sanskrit, the imperfect one of the verb aś- “to eat” (built with infix alternating - nā- / - nī- ) is āś-nā-m . In the facts, the dichotomy augment syllabic/augment temporal is secondary: in the beginning, there existed only one augment syllabic. When the verbal radical starts with a vowel, it is by Contraction that one obtains a long vowel ( āś-nā-m comes simply from *a-aś-nā-m ).In the verbs starting with a vowel ι- I or υ- U in Greek, however, the augment temporal one is a simple lengthening which cannot go back to a contraction with the prefix έ- E . It is certain that this lengthening is analogical of that which the other verbs undergo. For example, the verb ὑφαίνω hŭphaínô , “to weave”, uses a topic ὕφην- hū́phên- with the Aoriste.
Place de l' augment
Not notable: augment the root precedes and functions like an inseparable préverbe. Thus, in a compound verb, augment places itself after possible Préfixe S. For example:- Sanskrit: imperfect present apa-bharati → apā-bharat , “it carried” (i.e. *apa-a-bhar-at , with Sandhi by Contraction between the final vowel of the préverbe apa- and augment);
- Greek: meadows. ἀπο-φέρω apo-phérô → impft ἀπ-έ-φερον ap-E-pheron , “I carried” (with elision of the final vowel of the préverbe ἀπο- apo- in front of augment).
In these two languages, to place a vowel between two morphemes of a verb very often involves modifications due to the rules of sandhi. For example, in Greek the verb συλ-λέγω sul-légô made συν-έ-λεγον sun-E-legon , “I joined together”, with imperfect because the préverbe συν- sun- , “with” (as in synonymous ), passed with συλ- sul- in front of the λ L of the radical by regressive Assimilation regains its etymological shape once augment intercalated itself.
Origins
One cannot affirm with certainty that this process is well of origin Indo-European, considering with share in these four languages, augment does not appear nowhere elsewhere. It is possible to think that augment in the beginning a temporal particle was, which associated with the verb by Univerbation.
Article related
- Redoubling;
- Affix;
- morphology;
- Conjugations of the old Greek;
- Conjugations of the Sanskrit.
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