Romance Copula

Romance Copula

The copula or copulae (the verb or verbs meaning "to be") in all Romance languages largely derive from the Latin verbs esse "to be" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es-, as in English is); stāre "to stand" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-, as in English stand and German stehen); and sedēre "to sit" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed-, as in English sit). The verb esse was an irregular, suppletive verb, with some of its forms (e.g. fuī "I was") taken from the Proto-Indo-European verb *bhuH- (as in English be).

A number of developments occurred in the Romance languages:

• The irregular infinitive esse was remodeled into *essere.
• *essere, stāre and sedēre were phonologically similar in Latin, and became even more so in Vulgar Latin, where stāre became *istāre and sedēre was reduced to *seēre. As a result, parts of the conjugations of stāre and sedēre became integrated into the conjugation of *essere.
• At the same time, stāre remained as a separate verb, originally with the meaning of "to stand" or "to stay". Increasingly, however, in the Western Romance languages stāre evolved into a second copula, with a meaning of "to be (temporarily"); *essere was then narrowed to mean "to be (permanently)".

The development of two copular verbs in this manner occurred most completely in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. In other languages, most usages of English "to be" are still translated by *essere:

• In Italian, stāre has the primary meaning "to stay" and is used as a copula only in a few situations: to express one's state of physical health (sto bene "I am well"); to form progressive tenses (sto parlando "I am speaking"); and (especially in the south of Italy) with the meaning of "to be located".
• In Old French, the verb ester < stāre still had the original Proto-Romance meaning of "to stand, stay, stop". In modern French, this verb has disappeared entirely, although the compound rester "to remain" still exists, and some parts of the conjugation of ester have become incorporated into être "to be" < *essere.

Portuguese also developed an additional copular verb ficar, with the meaning "to be located" and "to become".