Question about "desu"
Akira
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Gerald B Mathias
: Is the copula "desu" actually a contraction of "de arimasu"?
The most-favored hypothesis the last I knew was that it is a
contraction of "de gozaimasu." Probably no one will ever know
for sure, but presumably there are good reasons to suppose it
was "gozaima" rather than "arima" that got elided.
Bart
Bruce Tomlin
Mathias) wrote:
Well, I've a strange idea lately. Strange because it makes for circular
logic. What if the "de" in "de arimasu" was the te form of "desu"? :)
TAKASUGI Shinji
> Is the copula "desu" actually a contraction of "de arimasu"?
According to "A history of the Japanese language",
published by the University of Tokyo Press,
there are five theories for "desu".
1. de + arimasu
2. de + gozaimasu
3. de + su
4. de + owasu
5. de + sourou
In my opinion, theory 3 is strange
because I've never seen "de" + "su".
There is an evidence that "de" + "sourou" became "desu",
but it is not clear whether the "desu" from the "de" + "sourou"
and the modern "desu" are the same thing.
TAKASUGI Shinji
t...@sf.airnet.ne.jp
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/index.html
(a Japanese language site)
muchan
> In article <6vb5pd$l...@news.Hawaii.Edu>, mat...@Hawaii.Edu (Gerald B
> Mathias) wrote:
>
> > Akira (ak...@clark.net) wrote:
> > : Is the copula "desu" actually a contraction of "de arimasu"?
> >
> > The most-favored hypothesis the last I knew was that it is a
> > contraction of "de gozaimasu." Probably no one will ever know
> > for sure, but presumably there are good reasons to suppose it
> > was "gozaima" rather than "arima" that got elided.
>
> Well, I've a strange idea lately. Strange because it makes for circular
> logic. What if the "de" in "de arimasu" was the te form of "desu"? :)
"-de" in "-de arimasu" as well as in "-de" in "desu" is from "-ni-te (ari)".
:)
muchan
Roger Morris
: Is the copula "desu" actually a contraction of "de arimasu"?
For what it's worth, the following short quote appears
to be all "An Historical Grammar of Japanese", G. B.
Sansom, 1928, says about "desu":
page 220...
Reviewing the above account of the auxilary verbs, we
see that while the early (pre-Nar) language apears to have
had a copula, it became obsolete and was replaced not by
one by by many locutions. Setting these forth in tabular
form we have:
Modern
Archaic and
Medieval Written Colloquial
ni ari nari
nari
masu
owasu
to su to su
tari tari
haberu
saurau sourou
imaru
owasu
nite ari de aru, da
de arimasu
gozaru gozaru
nite gozaru de gozaru
de gozarimasu
de gozaimasu
desu
Yasuaki NAKANO
> Is the copula "desu" actually a contraction of "de arimasu"?
No, perhaps.
I heard a strange story. In Edo era, "desu" was a word used by
special class people, such as geisha. In Meiji era, many samurai
came to Tokyo as the ruling class and learned Edo dialect from
geisha. They believed "desu" as a standard particle and this word
invaded into usual families.
"De arimasu" may have been used in Yamaguchi (Choshu) dialect.
In Imperial Army, this "de arimasu" was a standard particle. I
think the reason was in that the mainstream of Army came from
Choshu.
Yasuaki Nakano