Un nuevo rasgo de la lengua de los Refranes y Sentencias de 1596

Abstract

In this article an important archaic morpho-syntactic feature of the language used in Refranes y Sentencias from 1596 is given the protagonism it has unduly been denied to date in Basque linguistics in general. This concerns the "impersonal value" (equivalent to the Castilian reflexive se dice) of synthetic verbal forms using the 1- prefix. The intention is, at the same time, to seek parallels to this impersonal use of the 1- prefix forms beyond the text of Refranes y Sentencias, and thereby make evident the importance of the aforesaid feature in any reconstruction of pre-Basque's synthetic verbal system. Finally, the probable later evolution of this phenomenon until its eventual disappearance from the language is presented, without ignoring the traces still found in modernday Biscayan.