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The Historical Development of the Possessive Pronouns in Italian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2021

Louis Emil Menger
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Extract

These literary forms, as given, are found in the earliest texts. But a mere casual reading of the texts will reveal also many variants; this makes evident the fact that a succession of stages or steps was gone through before the above forms were adopted as the regular ones. The simplest method to be followed in discovering what these successive stages of development were must be to begin with the earliest texts in which the variants were sometimes the rule, and follow the occurence of these variants in chronological order down into those texts in which they are exceptions; thus finally arriving at literary monuments in which no variants occur, but where they have been merged completely into the prevailing literary forms.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , 1893 , pp. 141 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1893

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References

Note 1 page 146 Literaturblatt, Dec., 1891, col. 413.

Note 1 page 147 Nostro, etc., vostro, etc., are directly from nostrum, etc., vostrum, etc., with no intervening stage in the development, and they will therefore not be mentioned again.

Note 1 page 150 In looking for this reference it will be necessary to count three pages forward from the folio lettered Lbj. This system is observed in giving references to all editions divided according to folios.

Note 1 page 158 Cf. p. 155.

Note 1 page 162 Battaglie di Hienmimo Mutio, per difesa dell' Italica lingua. Vinegia, 1582.

Note 2 page 162 Paolo Beni, L' Anticrusca overo Il Paragone dell' Italiana Lingua. Padova, 1612.

Note 3 page 162 Grammatik der Italiänischen Sprache. Halle, 1844.

Note 4 page 162 Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, 4te Auflage. Bonn, 1876.

Note 5 page 162 Eneyelopœdieund Methodologie der romanischen Philologie. Heilbronn, 1886.

Note 1 page 163 Italienische Grammatik. Leipzig, 1890.

Note 1 page 164 Crestomazia Italiana dei Primi Secoli. Per Ernesto Monaci. Fascicolo Primo, Città di Castello, 1889.

Note 2 page 164 An example of such a lia may be seen in Crestomazia, p. 22, line 114.

Note 3 page 164 It will probably be objected to this that the process was the reverse of what I hare indicated and that l did not become l mouillé until after e had become i. If this is true, i is the factor that developed l mouillé, not l mouillé the one which developed i. The question cannot be decided until something more definite is known as to the history of this peculiar form lia.

Note 4 page 164 On p. 178 will be found an example of dia=dei (debes), which would be a closer analogy for mei than lei is. But it probably owes its existence to a confusion with the Subjunctive Present dia<dea < deva.

Note 1 page 165 Literaturblatt, iii, 467.

Note 1 page 166 Cf. p. 158.

Note 1 page 169 Cf. Meyer-Lübke, It Gr., 329 and 341.

Note 2 page 169 Cf. Zehle, Laut- und Flexionslehre in Dante's Divina Commedia. Marburg, 1886, p. 13: “Neben tuoi, suoi stehen bei Dante die Latinismen sui und tui.”

Note 1 page 170 Gram, i, 79.

Note 2 page 170 Corretione d'alcune cose del dialogo delle lingue di Varchi, et una giunta al primo libro delle prose di M. Pietro Bembo. Basilaea, 1572; p. 175.

Note 1 page 171 It. Gr. 375.

Note 1 page 172 It Gr. 96.

Note 2 page 172 Ibid. 141.

Note 3 page 172 In Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie. Herausg. von Gustav Gröber. Strassburg, 1888. i, 503, 15.

Note 4 page 172 Grundriss, i, 512, 26.

Note 5 page 172 Grundriss, i, 514, 29.

Note 1 page 173 Origini della Lingua Poetica Italiana. Firenze, 1880. 14.

Note 2 page 173 The numeral following a capital letter represents the number of times a form occurs in the given author.

Note 3 page 173 ‘Rule’ indicates that a given form is found to the exclusion of variants of the same.

Note 1 page 174 Purg. xvi, 35: reo: feo.

Note 2 page 174 fo. hiij: profecia: maria.

Note 3 page 174 p. 184: Singular mia madonna ed alma dia. These are the only examples found of dia; in all other cases the Latin dea is preserved.

Note 4 page 174 Purg. xxxii, 3; Par. xxviii, 41.

Note 5 page 174 Ameto, pp. 11, 65, 86.

Note 6 page 174 p. 121: reo: fro.

Note 1 page 175 Also pii (plu. of pio): Purg. xxi, 24; Par. ix, 26.

Note 2 page 175 dei occurs also in V.

Note 3 page 175 Inf. xxii, 22: desii: rii: partis.

Note 4 page 175 p. 35.

Note 5 page 175 p. 41.

Note 6 page 175 p. 198.

Note 7 page 175 p. 3.

Note 8 page 175 pp. 56, 59, 80 (liei: miei), 109. In this author occur also, p. 76, coslei: piei; p. 78, costiei: miei; p. 82, coliei.

Note 9 page 175 Cf. Crestomazia, p. 161, line 10. Same line, stiei.

Note 10 page 175 Here also debi; cf. fo. b 3.

Note 11 page 175 First example is on p. 28. Occurrences of giudei, sei (sex), bei (bevi) have been noted, but they do not occur in any of the texts examined, under diphthongized forms.

Note 12 page 175 p. 267.

Note 13 page 175 pp. 69, 215.

Note 14 page 175 First ex. p. 5.

Note 15 page 175 Purg. xxv, 11.

Note 16 page 175 Decam. fo. Bb: tu sie il ben venuto.

Note 17 page 175 p. 86: tu sie la ben trovata; p. 87: sa' che tu sie si crudel.

Note 1 page 176 p. 55: d'onorar un tal giorno non sie ingrato.

Note 2 page 176 Purg. xx, 14: prima che (io) sie morto.

Note 3 page 176 Purg. xvi, 5: Guarda, che da me tu non sie mozzo; Par. xv, 16: benedetto sie tu; Par. xxix, 22: sie (tu) certo.

Note 4 page 176 Decam. fo. C (twice); fo. Lb; fo. Miij; fo. Y.

Note 5 page 176 fo. ez: fa (tu) che non sie polaco ne tedesco; fo. fq. 8: Fiolo mio, sie vago du dire cosa ecc.

Note 6 page 176 p. 58: che tu non sie veduto; p. 78: che tu sie nostra; vogliam che tu sie la nostra dama; p. 86: che tu sie benedetta.

Note 7 page 176 Purg. xxx, 36: Perchè sie colpa. Sie is the reading of three of the Mss., sia that of one.

Note 8 page 176 Decam. fos. Cij; Cbj 6; Xiij.

Note 9 page 176 Purg. xx, 4; one Ms. here reads: maladetta sia tu, the three others sie.

Note 10 page 176 Decam. fo. Obj 2: quanto tu sii da me amata; Ameto, p. 78: tu sola sii donna di me.

Note 11 page 176 tu sii la ben tornata. Cf. here Il Torto e il Diritto del non si I'uò, dato in giudicio sopra molte regole della lingua ltaliana. Esaminato da Ferrante Longobardi. Roma, 1655, p. 77: Tu sii e tu sia si dice ugualmente bene ne tempi che cotal terminatione ricevono. E simile delle altre maniere de' verbi che 'l soffrono; avegna che alcuni scrittori e infra gli altri il Boccaccio habbiano piu volentieri finiti così fatti tempi delle seconde persone in i che in a.

Note 12 page 176 pp. 25, 35.

Note 13 page 176 pp. 50, 457.

Note 14 page 176 Inf. xxxiii, 42: Innanzi ch'Atropos mossa le dea; Purg. xxi, 5: Dio vi dea pace.

Note 15 page 176 Decam. fo. Jbj 8, 9: Dio gli dea il buon anno; Dio mi dea la gratia sua: fo. Hjv: se Dio ti dea buona ventura, etc.

Note 16 page 176 Ameto, p. 50: innanzi che tu dii materia di turbamento.

Note 17 page 176 Dio ti die grazia.

Note 1 page 177 Decam. fo. Dbj 2.

Note 2 page 177 pp. 10, 13: non piaccia che l'anima stea in prigione.

Note 3 page 177 Inf. xxxiii, 41: Come il mio corpo stea; Purg. ix, 48, Quando a cantar con organi si stea; Purg. xvii, 28: Se i piè si stanno, non stea tuo sermone; Par. ii, 33: Fa che ∗ ∗ ∗ ti stea un lume; Par. xxxi, 15: E spera già ridir com' ello stea.

Note 4 page 177 A melo, p. 39: che seguer i suoi piacer, convien che stea

A tal dover con l'animo suggetto,

Che quel che se non vuole, altrui non dea.

ibid. p. 43: voi dovete imaginare come egli stea. ibid. p. 61:

Et di quel caldo tal frutto si crea

Che se ne acquista il conoscere iddio

Et come vada, & venga, & dove stea.

ibid. p. 77: sia adunque ∗ ∗ ∗ et dea al vero effetto. Decam. fo. Hbj 4: luna qui si stea dentro; also fos. Pbj 2, Qbj, Xiij, Yb, Aaiij, Aabj 9.

Note 5 page 177 xxix, 26.

Note 6 page 177 p. 8: non vo' che tu stii.

Note 7 page 177 Decam. fo. Xiij.

Note 8 page 177 p. 61.

Note 9 page 177 p. 24: vostra fine non di' essare There is a note to this as follows Intendi, di' per die, o dee, o de'. Come qui presso ed altrove: de' essare.

Note 10 page 177 dere, dee and de' do not occur in this text.

Note 11 page 177 First example, p. 36.

Note 12 page 177 p. 12: si die pensare; p. 34: gli porti '1 censo che gli die dare; p. 37: uomo die morire.

Note 13 page 177 che die venire.

Note 1 page 178 An evident contraction of diei.

Note 2 page 178 p. 100: dea: Citerea; p. 120: come dea far chi vuol prender dottrina.

Note 3 page 178 The variants of different Mss. of the canzoni of this author read alternately dee, die, dia and dea. The two latter are equivalent to deve in meaning, but the -a shows that they must be substitutions of Subjunctive for Indicative.

Note 4 page 178 priego che tu mandi colui che tu dia mandare.

Note 5 page 178 p. 9: parolle non dei usare chi, etc. p. 12: ti dei muovere; p 66: s'ella si fae sì come non dei: p. 66. (egli) non dei curare.-Aside from any phonetic reason that may be assigned for this form, a reasonable explanation may be found in the indiscriminate use of dei for both second and third person singular. On the same page occurs a direct admonition: “tu non dei ecc.,” and immediately afterward follows an indefinite statement: “egli non dei, ecc.”

Note 6 page 178 p. 200: le gioie che d'amore diano venire.

Note 7 page 178 Purg. xiii, 7: Esser dien sempre li tuoi raggi duci.-In various texts occur the forms beo (bevo), creo (credo), veo (veggio). In N are many examples of bee, bea (cf. pp. 158, 471) which are always printed with the circumflex accent, bée béa, as is also dée.

Note 8 page 178 p. 5: dia: mia; p. 31: dia: partia; die also occurs in a few casses.

Note 9 page 178 p. 15: Die ti mantenga.

Note 10 page 178 p. 72: che Die gli dia.

Note 1 page 179 The proportional use in the Bandi Lucchesi del sec. XIV. Bologna, 1863, is: neuno, 42, neuna, 118.

niuno, 9, niunu, 3.

Note 1 page 180 Aseoli, Archir. Glot. Ital., iii, 455.

Note 2 page 180 Cf. p. 176.

Note 3 page 180 Cf. p. 201.

Note 4 page 180 Examples of sea may be found in the Crestomazia: pp. 86, 1. 44; 102, 1. 20; 105, 1 147; 112, 1. 113; 113, 1. 134; 135, 1. 15; 137, 1.28; 141, 1.87; 145, 1. 14, 20; 146, 1. 41. 48, 55; 147,1. 65, 66.-A statement as to the dislike of the Tuscan for the e-forms is found in Ampliatione della lingua rolgare by M. Vitale Papazzoni. Venetia, 1587, p. 5: “Dea per dia dal Verbo dare, usano aleuni moderni contra ‘l commun’ uso degli altri, & non so perchè. Nè io per me lascierei il mio & degli altri solito dia, salvo se non volessi parer piu tosto Napolitano che Toscano o Lombardo ragionevole.”

Note 1 page 181 It. Gr. 96. Rule quoted above, p. 172.

Note 2 page 181 cf. Scheler, Dictionnaire d' Etymologie Francaise. 3me Ed Paris et Bruxelles, 1888. p. 476.

Note 1 page 182 None of the words thus far treated are covered by Meyer-Lübke's rule (It. Gr. 96) since the beginning of the rule—“Im Hiatus steht für e”— implies that all words mentioned under it were either originally e or e < i; in either case, he supposed an e-stage to have preceded any later change. The rule would even seem to imply that the ï in thium developed zeo, then zio, as this example is found among those given under the rubric.

Note 2 page 182 Arch. Glot. It. ix, 35-37.

Note 3 page 182 Die Aussprache des Latein. Heilbronn, 1885, p. 79.

Note 4 page 182 Origini, p. 219, 215.

Note 1 page 183 And in F leuno is found.

Note 2 page 183 Dieno is not to be supposed as analogical to forms like sieno or conditionals like sarieno, for in these cases the preceding stage was siano, sariano; the point to be noted in dieno is not the ending -eno but the fact that e > i before this ending, however the latter may have originated. (Cf. Grundris, i, 540. 94: Ist ea ia von einem konsonanten gefolgt, so ensteht daraue ie also avia, avieno, atc.“)

Note 3 page 183 Cf. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr. 123.

Note 4 page 183 Cf. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr., 461.

Note 5 page 183 Ibid., 403, 404.

Note 1 page 184 The numerals to the right of author mentioned refer, as usual, to the number of times this form occurs in the given author.

Note 2 page 184 And Castelvetro in his Conditional gives Infinitive with -ibam, ect. Cf. Modern Language Notes, vii, 243: “ Lebrija and the Romance Future Tense ” (A. M. E).

Note 1 page 185 Arch. Glot. It., ix, 35.

Note 1 page 186 Cf. Grundriss, i, 544, 103: “Dialekte bewahren i Sg. noch rein: brese. bol. portareve.”

Note 1 page 188 Cf. p. 197.

Note 2 page 188 Grammaire des Langues Romaaes. par W. Meyer-Lübke. Paris, 1890, i, 246, 276.

Note 1 page 189 Cf. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr., 447.

Note 2 page 189 Ibid., 339.

Note 1 page 190 The form mie‘ has been noted as occurring in the Tavola Ritonda in the expression per nie’ fè, where it was supposed to be equivalent to an old miea. It is a curious fact that the same locution occurs several times in Cellini. Now it is not to be supposed that the latter had any idea of an old miea when he used mie‘, for two hundred and fifty years had elapsed since the writing of the Tavola and the form had disappeared in the meantime. But there is a fact that may account for its use by both, without supposing it equivalent to miea; that is, both were French imitations. Cellini often uses French expressions; why these authors supposed this mie‘ (=mia) to be the Italian equivalent of the French possessive, however, is not apparent.

Note 1 page 191 Cf. Meyer-Lübke, Gr. d. Langues Ram., i, 276: “le singulier męus se règle sur le pluriel męi.”

Note 1 page 192 Gr. d. Lang. Ronn., i, 276.

Note 2 page 192 Grundriss, i, 532, 74. Cf. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr., 270.

Note 3 page 192 It. Gr., 321. I have taken the liberty here of correcting this section as it reads in Meyer-Lübke's Grammatik; it stands there: “-e kann nur auf -ae, -i auf -a rurückgehen, da -as zu -e, -os zu -o geworden wäre.” “-i auf -a ” is incorrect since the Nom. Plu. of the second Lat. Decl. in -i is referred to, and the meaning is evident: just as -ae (of the first Decl.) >-e, so -i (of the second Decl.) >-i; “da-as zu-e” evidently does not express the author's meaning, for if -ae> -e and -as > -e this would not show in itself whether the Acc. or Nom. of the Latin was preserved in Italian. But -as >-i regularly; cf. ibid., 106, amas>-es >-i.

Note 1 page 193 Dell' Ortografia Italiana. Roma, 1670, p. 101.

Note 1 page 194 Gram, ii4, 90.

Note 2 page 194 Encye. iii, 652.

Note 3 page 194 tno‘, suo’; tuoe, suoe are given above (p. 156).

Note 1 page 196 Origini, 55.

Note 2 page 196 Grundriss, i, 626, 65.

Note 3 page 196 Literaturblatt, 1882, col. 468.

Note 4 page 196 Cf. Schwan, Grammatik des Altfranzösischen. 2te Aufl. Leipzig, 1893. 21, 2; 33, 2 and 409, 3.

Note 1 page 197 Origini della volgar Toscana favella Siena, 1604, p. 16.

Note 2 page 197 I had noted the same example in C, where it is placed among the rhymes of Cino da Pistoja.

Note 3 page 197 Gr. d. Lang. Rom. i, 276.

Note 1 page 198 Cf. above p. 188, where the example of diei (= dei= dēbes) seems to indicate that ę also (before i) becomes open and diphthongizes.

Note 2 page 198 Grundriss, i, 525, 52.

Note 1 page 199 Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil., ix, 542.

Note 2 page 199 In FF, p. 125, is found suoli (sőles); in BB, pp. 34 and 60, occurs toi (tőlles)—these forms are mentioned for comparison.

Note 3 page 199 Cf. in P voli (vőles) Inf. xxix, 34; suoli (sőles) Inf. iv, 6; duoli (dőles) Inf. xxi, 44.

Note 1 page 200 bue occurs in T, X, GG, II, LL; bove in T, X; bo in LL (p. 184: che come il bo la notte voi facciate).

Note 2 page 200 Diet. d' Et. Fr., p. 86: canot.

Note 3 page 200 Körting, Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch. Paderborn, 1891. col. 127, no. 1283.

Note 4 page 200 And is Genoese. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr., p. 42, 59.

Note 5 page 200 Cf. p. 156.

Note 1 page 201 In N (p. 2) occurs là due (= là dove). Here the process was probably dove > doe > due.

Note 2 page 201 For in the latter case, after the fall of the v, the Ő > o. Cf. Hiatus law, p. 198.

Note 3 page 201 Archiv. Glot Ital., ix, 44, note 1.

Note 1 page 202 Which was suggested by d'Ovidio, cf. p. 199.

Note 2 page 202 Arch. Glot It., ix, 40, note 2.

Note 1 page 203 For a e > e, cf. Meyer-Lübke, It. Gr. 106: “ae [atonic] wird e: le aus illae, etc.”

Note 2 page 203 Or one might easily see here afeminine plural formed on the singular tuα.

Note 3 page 203 Cf. Crestomazia, p. 126, line 234, where one Ms. reads sovo fulio. another suo.

Note 1 page 204 Perhaps also frui frūctus should be mentioned here; it occurs in P, Par. xix, 1, rhyming with cui : lui.—One exception to the rule just given is found; in FF occurs fuoi: p. 118: non so si fuoi portato o s'io sognai; p. 127: io fuoi falconier del re; p. 127: di Capouana fuoi; p. 129: i' fuoi Sanese; p. 130: i' fuoi quel Baldassare; p. 131: i' fuoi bon soldata, etc. pp. 133, 135, 136, 138, 145, 161. But foi does not occur here or elsewhere, and fuoi must be considered as analogical to vuoi (voles), puoi (potes), which

Note 2 page 204 Does this not prove, so far as Italian can show, that u in cui is long ? cf. Körting, Wtb. no. 6570.