I don’t have a time for when be
showed up, but I’m sure it’s because it’s always the first to appear in a “new”
language. In Old English, be is beon, beom, or bion, meaning be, exist, become, or happen. It comes from the Proto Germanic biju, “I am, I will be”, and can be
traced to the Proto Indo European bheue, be, exist, or grow.
Is, the most common word for those
of us who write in present tense, comes from the Old English is and can be traced to the Proto Indo European
es, to be. This word is still apart
of many languages, from the German ist
to the French est to the Latin esse. It can also be found in English words
like essence.
So originally, it was another word for be, or bheue, and now they’re both the
same word.
Was comes from the Old English wesan, waes, and waeron (the origin word for the plural
were),
which are actually forms of the word wesan,
to remain. Wesan comes from the Proto Germanic wesanan and the Proto Indo European wes, remain or dwell. Although it used to be its own word, sometime
between Proto Germanic and Old English it turned into the past tense of be.
Am comes from the Old English eom, to be or remain,
and Proto Indo European esmi. Back in
Old English, it only appeared in the present tense and until the thirteenth
century meant something like “come to be” while existence was expressed with
wes up there. There’s also are, which was earun/aron
in Old English and probably came from the Proto Germanic ar,
a possible variant of es. I guess
people started combining the various definitions of be until they found forms
that worked.
You can bet I
Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Wow! You never really think about how such tiny little words you use all the time actually came from somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNever really thought about how all those forms of the to be verb came together. Always just kind of figured since it is the go to verb, it never got normalized like the others. Shows what I know.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. Wait'll you see my grammar post on Monday. People are going to think we planned this. (Or that I copied you. 0_0) Truly, I didn't. My GPM posts are pre-scheduled one to two months ahead. LOL
ReplyDeleteLanguage history is interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn the Scandinavian languages "er" is the word for "is", or "are", which sounds more similar. The same word "er" is used for both singular and plural. Not sure how this fits into the the proto-language theories >:)
Cold As Heaven
Eom strikes me as the kind of archaic word that could be used for a character name or alias. Interesting in how it morphs into am.
ReplyDelete