Los modos impersonales del verbo vasco [The impersonal moods of Basque verbs]

Abstract

Basque impersonal moods used the 3rd person singular of the nominative and the ergative of the past to name verbs, i.e. as infinitive, and not the contrary, as has recently been suggested. The verbal root would have been used as the infinitive in the earliest days, but then gave way to the 3rd person singular of the nominative and ergative of the past, formed only by the radical. The ancient impersonal moods were, therefore, the infinitive, formed by the radical alone (the prefix e- plus the root, with morpheme ø), to which the derivative suffix -te was added for the verbal substantive; the suffix -i to form the participle or verbal adjective, given that the suffix -i had the function of making other words adjectives and is present in many old adjectives; and the inessive case of the verbal substantive, with the suffix -n added to the -te, was used as gerund.