The Latin Legacy

339

which it also contributed formed the basis of a fiesh flesional tense-
form (pp 105 and 106) This new analytical future makes its appear-
ance in the first century A D Its predecessor had two entirely different
forms Qfdico (I say) the future was dtccan (I shall say)5 and oflavo (I
wash) it was lavabo (I shall wash) In the second century A D the
classical future had lost caste, and people resorted to affective cir-
cumlocutions such as wlo la&are (I will wash), debetu lavare (you

THE FUTURE TENSE OF A ROMANCE VERB

ENGLISH
FRENCH

love (infin )
aimer

I have I shall

j'ai j'aimerai

thou hast thou wilt

tu as tu aimeras

he has he will
Iryrrp,
il a il aimera

we ^ we shall
^lUVC
nous avons nous numerous

you Xhave you will

vous avez vous aunerez

they J they will

ils ont ils aimeront

SPANISH
ITALIAN

amar
amare

yo he yo amare
10 ho 10 amer6

tu has tti amards
tu hai tu amerai

el ha el amara
egli ha egh amera

nosotros hemos nosotros amaremos
noi abbiamo noi ameremo

vosotros habeas vosotros amareis
voi avete voi amerete

ellos han ellos ajnar<in
essi hanno essi ameranno

shall wash)., vado (or eo) lavaie (I am going to wash), or lavare hdbeo
(I have to wash) Of these helpers., habere prevailed in all of the written
Romance languages except in Rumania, where we hear to-day voiu
cdnta Elsewhere hdbere, which usually followed the infinitive, got
glued to it, as explained on p. 106.
In our outline of Classical Latin nothing has been said about nega-
tion To give a statement a negative meaning, ne was used in archaic
Latin, but it could also kbel a question* as such. In Classical Latin,
it is replaced by the stronger nony a contraction of ne and unum (lit not
one). In daily speech, Latin-speaking peoples used to strengthen the
particle by adding another word for something small or valueless They
said / can't see a speck (Latin punctum)> we haverft had a crumb (Latin
micam)> I worft dnnk a drop (Latin guttani). In the modern Romance
languages the negative particle is still the Latin non (Italian non> Spanish
* Cf You have noi undeistood this?