Q: source of modal particle

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
This is a question about the historical source of a puzzling modal particle
in Basque.

The universal Basque word for 'road', 'way' is <bide>, recorded from 1090
-- very early, by Basque standards.  Like English 'way', this word commonly
also means 'way', 'manner' (of doing something), and it also commonly
expresses 'means' (of doing something).  No problem here.

In the eastern dialects (only), it forms a compound verb <bide izan> 'be
licit', 'be proper' (+ <izan> 'be'), a sense recorded from our first
published text, in 1545.  I find this semantically puzzling, but that's not
really my question.

In the central dialects, there exists a modal particle <bide> 'apparently',
'probably', 'undoubtedly'.  Example:

  <Zoratu da.> 'He has gone crazy.'

  <Zoratu bide da.> 'He has apparently/probably/undoubtedly gone crazy.'

This use too is recorded from 1545.

Now, the lexicographers commonly treat modal <bide> as a separate item from
the noun <bide>.  The few linguists who have considered the modal particle
are all inclined to see it as being the same word as the noun, but their
proposals about the semantic development are sketchy and speculative, for
lack of material.  The only possibly relevant examples I've been able to
dig up date from the 16th and early 17th century.  We have one text in
which
<bide> occurs just once with the sense of deontic 'must': the sense of the
phrase containing it is 'as one must', 'as is necessary'.  And we have one
other text in which <bide> occurs just once with the sense of epistemic
'must': the sense of the expression this time is 'I must have gone crazy'.

These two examples must be relevant to the history of modal <bide>, but
they seem perhaps to muddy the waters more than otherwise.

So, my question is this.  Does anybody know of another case in which a word
meaning 'road' (or something similar) has developed a modal sense
comparable to that of Basque <bide>?

Please reply to me directly, and I'll post a summary if I hear anything.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)