The Future Perfect in Oscan and Umbrian, and theŌ‐Perfect in South Picene

Abstract

Oscan and Umbrian have a future perfect suffix -us-/-ur-. Although various sources for this suffix have been suggested, none satisfactorily explain its origin. This article evaluates these previous attempts and makes a new proposal: the Oscan and Umbrian future perfect can be identified as a perfect suffix *-o-plus the future suffix *-s-. The perfect suffix *-o-, although not directly attested in Oscan and Umbrian, is found in the related language South Picene. The origin of the *-o-suffix is traced back to inherited perfects of the type 3sg. *Ce-CoH-e, e.g. *de-doh 3 -e 'gave' > *ded o ? Umbrian te rust '(s)he will have given', with subsequent reanalysis of the root vowel *-o-as a suffix. A parallel for this development is found in Gaulish.

Lingue sabelliche

“…/kt/, /pt/ > /ht/), anche con assimilazioni (es. -nd-> -nn-), la riduzione del carico sillabico in sede finale con conseguente ristrutturazione di paradigmi, l'incidenza di procedimenti analogici, avviati già in epoca arcaica, quali, ad es., la generalizzazione della vocale tematica /o/ nel perfetto sudpiceno: opsút, adstaeoms, adstaiúh (Rix 2003a;Zair 2014), l' estensione di morfi flessionali a paradigmi diversi (dai temi in vocale a quelli in consonante o all'inverso). Alcuni fenomeni come la riduzione del numero dei connettori frasali, l'impiego della particella condizionale nelle interrogative indirette, l'uso modale del verbo 'potere' , fatti lessicali come la diffusione di verbi come portare e ambulare in luogo di ferre e ire, alimentano un flusso di latino "sommerso" che riemerge nella fase tarda e nelle lingue romanze (Prosdocimi 2000).…”

The Oscan Perfect in ‐TT‐

“…Like Skutsch (: 295), Beeler (: 3), and Xodorkovskaja (: 61), Zair (: 372‐3) finds that fust / fust can have future as well as future perfect meaning, but the three passages in which our form occurs all suggest a future perfect interpretation.…”

“… Pace Prosdocimi & Marinetti (: 299‐303); the South Picene perfect in *‐ō‐ ( ‐ú‐ ) has nothing to do with the Latin perfect marker (cf. now Zair : 377‐82).…”

“…For a survey of relevant theories, see Beeler (: 3‐6), Piwowarczyk (: 114‐15), and especially Zair (: 369‐76). Zair (: 376‐82) presents an elegant alternative, which – like its closest competitor (Jasanoff : 180) – is of a non‐periphrastic kind.…”

Old Irish gniid ‘makes, does’, Middle Welsh gweinydaf ‘serve’, and i-presents

“…*u̯ reh₁-). The Oscan future perfect ϝουρουστ '(s)he will find' (McDonald & Zair 2012[2013) could go back directly to an old perfect *u̯ e-u̯ roh₁-, but the future perfect suffix *-ōs-is productive, so could have been added to the reduplicated aorist *u̯ e-u̯ r̥ h₁-e/o-also found in Greek and Avestan (on the origin of the Sabellic future perfect see Zair 2014). The Greek perfect εὕρηκα reflects the zero grade *u̯ e-u̯ r̥ h₁-before a consonant.…”