XPost: alt.usage.english
From: Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it

Christian Weisgerber hat am 02.09.2024 um 21:48 geschrieben:
> On 2024-09-02, Peter Moylan  wrote:
>
>> Some southern Italian dialects have dropped a few final vowels, but
>> this does not extend to northern dialects or the mainstream version of
>> the language.
>
> Okay, this opportunity is as good as any to mention something I've
> been burning to post ever since I re-read it in Akire/Rosen:
>
> Have you ever wondered why the third person plural present tense
> forms of Italian verbs are so strangely stressed, e.g., pàrlano
> instead of *parlàno?  And where is that -o from anyway?  Spanish
> doesn't have it and if you look at Latin (-ant), there's no source
> for it.
>
> Oh, you haven't wondered? ;-)
>
> Apparently Old Italian had the expected ending -an, so what happened?
> The blame goes to the 'to be' word.  The Latin first singular "sum"
> and third plural "sunt" both ended up regularly as "son" in Old
> Italian.  But that was the only first person form that didn't have
> -o, so eventually it picked one up, producing "sono".  Now, since
> the first singular and third plural had already merged, "sono" also
> became the third pural.  And from there the -o spread to the third
> plural of all other verbs, but as a latecomer it didn't move the
> stress.

Please note, however, that the first singular and third plural present
forms merged only in "sono".


> It's an intriguing explanation, especially since it includes two
> developments that ran in opposite directions: First the addition
> of -o from many forms to one, then the spread of -o from one form
> to many.  I would guess the strong overall tendency toward open
> syllables in Italian had something to do with it.

I would guess the strong overall tendency toward open syllables in
Italian was the main reason for this development.

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