Example 39-182
- Comment:
- The form sabiŋ is by far the most common Past form of the verb sabe 'to know'. The distribution of the Past suffix -iŋ, on the other hand, is highly constrained, as it has been recorded for only four high-frequency verbs (tiŋ 'had/AUX.PST', kiriŋ/keriŋ 'wanted', pudiŋ 'could', and sabiŋ 'knew'). Regular sound correspondences with Standard Portuguese suggest this suffix to be derived from the sequence -inha present in Ptg. tinha '`have.PST.IMP.1/3sg' - the ancestor of the Diu Indo-Portuguese form tiŋ. Its extension onto the paradigm of the other three verbs was probably facilitated by the fact that the 1/3sg Past Imperfective forms of their corresponding Portuguese etyma end in -ia (queria 'want.PST.IMP.1/3sg', podia 'can.PST.IMP.1/3sg', and sabia 'know.PST.IMP.1/3sg'). It is therefore not surprising that in acrolectal Diu Indo-Portuguese speech the form sabi sometimes competes with sabiŋ.
- Type:
- naturalistic spoken
- Source:
- Cardoso 2009: 111