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Bulletin of Hispanic Studies The Spread of the Velar Insert /g/ in Medieval Spanish Verbs For Peer Review Journal: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies Manuscript ID: 05-09-BHS-0063.R1 Manuscript Type: Original Article velar insert, lexical diffusion, Medieval Spanish verbs, analogical Keywords: change Several verbs in Modern Spanish display a stem-final /g/ in first- person singular of the present indicative and all forms of the present subjunctive. The consonant is not part of the infinitive of these verbs and hence is said to be “inserted” in the conjugation. These verbs include asir, caer, oír, poner, salir, tener, traer, valer, and venir, as well as raer and roer which have /g/ optionally. While the velar element is attested from the earliest written records in tengo, vengo, and pongo, the adoption of /g/ in the remaining verbs occurred over an extended period of time. The phenomenon likewise affected other verbs, some currently obsolete and some that no longer contain /g/. This study contributes to our understanding of the velar insert by documenting its appearance in a corpus of 13th-, 14th-, and 15th-century Spanish texts and viewing its spread through the lens of the theory of lexical diffusion. Abstract: Varios verbos del español moderno contienen una /g/ al final de la raíz en la forma 1 del presente de indicativo y en todas las formas del presente de subjuntivo. La consonante no forma parte del infinitivo y por lo tanto se dice que es “insertada” en la conjugación. Estos verbos incluyen asir, caer, oír, poner, salir, tener, traer, valer y venir, además de raer and roer con /g/ opcional. Mientras que el elemento velar se documenta desde los primeros momentos en tengo, vengo y pongo, la adopción de /g/ en los verbos restantes ocurrió a lo largo de mucho tiempo. El fenómeno también afectó otros verbos, unos que han caído en desuso y unos que ya no contienen /g/. Este estudio contribuye a nuestro conocimiento de la inserción velar con su documentación en un corpus de textos españoles de los siglos XIII, XIV y XV y viendo su expansión a través de la perspectiva de la teoría de la difusión léxica. The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN Page 1 of 51 Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 For Peer Review 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN Bulletin of Hispanic Studies Page 2 of 51 1 2 3 The Spread of the Velar Insert /g/ in Medieval Spanish Verbs 4 5 6 1. Introduction 7 8 Many verbs in Modern Spanish display a stem-final /g/ in first-person singular of the 9 10 11 present indicative and all forms of the present subjunctive. Since the consonant is not present in 12 13 the infinitive of these verbs, it is said to be inserted in the conjugation and hence has been termed 14 15 the velar insert. These verbs include asir , caer , oír , poner , salir , tener , traer , valer , and venir , 16 17 18 whose first-person indicativeFor and subjunctivePeer forms Review are thus asgo , asga ; caigo , caiga ; oigo , oiga ; 19 20 pongo , ponga ; salgo , salga ; tengo , tenga ; traigo , traiga ; valgo , valga ; and vengo , venga . The 21 22 insertion of /g/ is optional in the verbs raer and roer whose first-person indicative forms can 23 24 25 therefore vary: rayo~raigo ; roo~royo~roigo . In addition to these, other Modern Spanish verbs 26 27 also exhibit a velar element that is absent from the infinitive but nonetheless present in the same 28 29 paradigmatic forms, e.g. decir and hacer : digo , diga ; hago , haga . To these two verbs one may 30 31 32 add yacer which has no less than three conjugational patterns in the present paradigms: 33 34 yazco~yazgo~yago, yazca~yazga~yaga (cf. Elson 1988). While the velar /g/ in digo , hago , and 35 36 Ī Ō Ō Ō 37 yago , which develop from Latin D C , FAC(I) , and IAC(E) , is etymological, in the other 38 1 39 group of verbs it is not. Much discussion has gone into attempting to explain the origins of the 40 41 non-etymological /g/ in verbs such as tengo , vengo , and pongo , however, the spread of the velar 42 43 44 insert from these verbs to the other non-etymological forms mentioned above has not been 45 46 thoroughly documented. This study will contribute to our understanding of the velar insert by 47 48 49 1 50 Malkiel (1974: 309-310), on the other hand, believes that * faço and * yaço would have been the 51 52 expected evolutions and that fago and yago are analogical. He proposes that the forms were 53 54 remodelled through influence of digo~dizes because of speakers’ desire for a more stark contrast, 55 56 57 the voiceless vs. voiced contrast of the affricate pair ç~z (e.g. * yaço~yazes ) being insufficient. 58 59 60 The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN Page 3 of 51 Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2 1 2 3 documenting its appearance in a corpus of 13th-, 14th-, and 15th-century Spanish texts and 4 5 6 viewing its spread through the lens of the theory of lexical diffusion. 7 8 1.1 Origins of analogical /g/ 9 10 11 Before describing the methodology of the present study, it would be beneficial to look at 12 13 the development of verbs with stem-final /g/ in Old Spanish to provide some background to the 14 15 problem. Given the variable fate of the development of Latin velar consonants before front vs. 16 17 18 back vowels, many -er For and -ir verbs Peer in Old Spanish Review displayed a velar /g/ in first-person singular 19 20 of the present indicative and the entire present subjunctive and a non-velar element in the rest of 21 22 the present paradigm. Thus we see that in decir , hacer , and yacer , which were mentioned above, 23 24 25 and in others that displayed vowel + /k/ in Latin, e.g. COQ(U) Ō, ADD ŪCŌ, the /k/ voiced 26 27 before the /o/ of the first-person-singular indicative ending and the /a/ of the present subjunctive 28 29 endings, thus producing digo , diga vs. dizes ; fago , faga vs. fazes ; yago , yaga vs. yazes ; cuego , 30 31 32 cuega vs. cuezes ; adugo , aduga vs. aduzes . Likewise affected were -er and -ir verb forms with 33 34 stem-final /rg/ and /ng/ such as those of esparzir and verbs from Latin -NGERE such as tañer , 35 36 37 ceñir , and plañer~plañir . Regular development of Latin /g/ before /o/ and /a/ vs. /e/ produced the 38 39 same paradigmatic alternation seen in the previous verbs: first-person-singular present indicative 40 41 forms and all six present subjunctive forms displayed /g/ while the other present forms did not, 42 43 44 thus: espargo , esparga vs. esparzes ; tango , tanga vs. tañes . It is worthy to underscore the fact 45 46 that this development only affected -er and -ir verbs in Old Spanish since paradigmatic levelling 47 48 characterized the -ar present conjugations. Witness llegar whose present indicative and 49 50 51 subjunctive forms all display /g/: llego , llegas …; llegue , llegues … (Penny 2002: 177-179). 52 53 In addition to these verbs, the velar insert is attested in the earliest texts in forms of tener , 54 55 venir , and poner whose paradigms thus display the same consonantal alternation with regard to 56 57 58 59 60 The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZN Bulletin of Hispanic Studies Page 4 of 51 3 1 2 3 the presence or absence of /g/: tengo , tenga vs. tienes ; vengo , venga vs. vienes ; pongo , ponga vs. 4 5 6 pones . Tengo , vengo , and pongo do not evolve etymologically from Latin TENE Ō, VENI Ō, and 7 8 PŌNŌ, but rather exhibit an analogical influence of some kind. While scholars agree that the /g/ 9 10 11 in these forms is due to analogy, there are some disagreements in the explanation regarding the 12 13 impetus and sources of the analogy, as well as on the forms posited prior to the analogical 14 15 change. While most scholars depart from the premise that the base forms for tengo and vengo are 16 17 18 *teño and * veño , thereFor are some thatPeer posit * teno andReview * veno as the primitive forms, including 19 20 Urrutia and Álvarez (1983), Alvar and Pottier (1983), Lenfest (1978, 1993), and Mondéjar 21 22 (1995).2 The point of contention regarding the underlying forms revolves around the variable 23 24 25 results of the development of flexional yod in Spanish verbs. Those who argue for * teno and 26 27 *veno believe flexional yod was lost before palatalization which can be seen, for example, in the 28 29 results of SALIAM > sala and VALE Ō > valo whose Old Spanish forms reveal the loss of the 30 31 32 palatalized element (cf. Lenfest 1993: 635-636). On the other hand, those who support *teño and 33 34 *veño believe flexional yod survived long enough to palatalize the stem-final consonant as is 35 36 37 revealed in Portuguese tenho , venho , in Old Italian tegno , vegno , as well as in Old Provençal 38 39 tenh , venh (Grandgent 1905: 126).