1 6 J. A. Fontaine, 



from Latin habere is perfectly clear and well understood 

 The different tenses of the French verb etre have been taken 

 from those of the corresponding Latin verb, esse, sum, fui, etc., * 

 save the imperfect etais from stabam, the present participle 

 e'tant from stantcni, and the past participle /// from statum. 

 The Old French possessed two imperfects, ere and estoie. 

 The first was used more frequently in early French docu- 

 ments, and very likely continued to be employed during the 

 next two centuries with decided preference, and we find it 

 still in the prose of Villehardouin and Joinville ; but at the 

 end of the thirteenth century estoie had become the more 

 important, and in the next hundred years rose to be a rival of 

 ere, and even began to usurp its place. Now why did the 

 French reject ei-avi for the sake of stabam ? The reason is 

 similar to that given in explanation of the preference given 

 by the Spanish to tenere as contrasted with habere. Stare 

 bore about the same relation to esse as tenere to habere. 

 Stare in Latin could be used and was used to indicate exist- 

 ence, being thus synonymous with esse. Esse has an abso- 

 lutely abstract meaning, and expresses a permanent and inti- 

 mate state or condition of existence of the subject, while 

 stare implies a more descriptive, more external, and more 

 transient one. It is especially to this last meaning of stare 

 that the Spanish and Portuguese have given a particular 

 development, hi French, stare has entirely supplanted esse 

 in its imperfect use, the imperfect being the descriptive tense 

 par excellence ; the keeping of etant and /// is due rather to 

 a lack of corresponding forms in the Latin verb esse than to 

 anything else. 



The future ser-ai is generally taken from essere habeo. But 

 essere habeo ought to have given us estr-ai. This form is 

 actually found in Saint Leger, 



tos consilier ia non estrai (l6), 



and in the Alexis, 



Chambre, dist ele ia mais v^estras paiede (29). 



Could not, then, serai be derived from other sources .'' We 

 shall see when we come to the Spanish. 



46 



