Use of Auxiliary Verbs in Roniance Languages. 45 



mon. For instance, it would not be rare to hear some one 

 say, ye inavais tronipe, il s'avait sauve, je mavais plaint, il 

 sa bien donne de la peine, etc. The use of avoir is extended 

 also to neuter verbs, like il a tombe, etc. 



Compare also the Franco -Venetian in Romania, XIV., 177. 



Avec lui m'avero corucer Berta e Milone 



Que a lui plu s'avoit aprosmer Berta e Milone 



Ni an iMilon no se soit consoler Berta e Milone 



Dapois que de Franca ni'avi sevrer . Orlandino . 



Mai vero I'ore q'i s'en aura sevrer Orlandino . . 



Mere fait il porqe vos ert envier GHandino . 



251 



274 



399 

 234 

 232 



But besides that tendency of analysis on the part of modern 

 languages, there must have been another, not less powerful, 

 which may be termed the Latinistic, by which is meant the 

 tendency to conjugate deponent or reflexive verbs in accord- 

 ance with the system prevailing in the Latin language. Par- 

 tior had given in the preterite under the influence of the ana- 

 lytical tendency, yV m ai parti ; the same verb will give under 

 the Latin influence, je suis parti {partitus sum). The table 

 on pp. 46 and 47 will illustrate the effect of the two tendencies. 



This table shows us the analytical or active tendency of 

 the modern languages, which tendency, had it not been 

 checked by another, would have caused that all the com- 

 pound tenses of Romance reflexive and neuter verbs should 

 be conjugated with habere, just as they are at present in 

 Spanish and Portuguese. These two languages have carried 

 out thoroughly the analytical tendency, though not without 

 at first yielding to the syntactical influence of the Latin verb- 

 system. Thus we see that the analytical and conservative 

 tendencies have been working side by side, the one overrul- 

 ing the other in different languages ; and as a result of that 

 struggle we have a double system of conjugating reflexive 

 verbs in the Romance languages, just as the struggle between 

 the strong Latin conjugation and the weak Romance conju- 

 gation resulted in the development of two classes of verbs. 

 Which one of these tendencies was the stronger at the begin- 

 ning is difficult to say ; but I am inclined to think that the 



75 



