When the '-eix-' eclipses the '-esc-'

PalmaHave you ever heard of the inchoative increment? If it doesn't ring a bell, neither do false inchoative verbs... But if you have ever heard in Central Catalan a construction similar to 'No 'I know this boy' and the verbal conjugation has sounded strange to you, it’s a very good sign: implicitly you know that something is creaking (because the conjugation admitted by the regulations is precisely the one shared by all dialects: ‘conec’).

Indeed, ‘I know is a case of false inchoative, a verb that conjugates like inchoatives (for example, ‘patir’ from which we would say ‘pateixes’ and ‘pateixen’), without being the proper form of this verb. Likewise, this conjugation can be extrapolated to other verbs of the second conjugation (ending in ‘-er’), as to those derived from ‘parèixer’: ‘aparèixer’, ‘desaparèixer’ or ‘comparèixer’. In any case, it is worth remembering that –if they are used (‘I I appear, I disappear, I appear)– are exclusive forms of colloquial language and, therefore, it is essential that they do not carry over into formal registers.

Aspectual nuance

Once the intruders have been identified, inchoative verbs can be defined as verbs of the third conjugation (i.e., ending in '-ir') that manifest, depending on the dialectal variety, with the suffixes '-esc-', '-eix-', '-ix-', '-isc-'. Precisely, this particle acts, doubly, as a distinguishing feature with respect to the rest of the third conjugation verbs: on the one hand, by its meaning, because inchoative verbs – at least, originally – revealed an aspectual nuance, which marked the beginning of a growing process that led to a change of state (in fact, due to this gradual and ascending evolution, the phenomenon receives this name – inchoative increment). For example, if the 'inchoative increment' is added to -sc-’ to the Latin verb ‘rubbery, meaning ‘to be red’, ‘rubescere’ becomes 'to turn red', 'to redden'. On the other hand, inchoative verbs are characterized by the systematic absence of a thematic vowel, which is replaced by this inchoative increment, which is normally tonic. That is, in contrast, the other verbs of the third conjugation, the pure ones, such as 'to boil', 'to sew', 'to sleep', 'to die', 'to open', 'to fill', 'to go out', among others, do not need this increment thanks to the fact that they already have a tonic vowel segment incorporated in the root ('I boil', 'I sew', 'I sleep', 'I die', 'I open', 'I fill', 'I go out', etc.).

However, returning to the confusion that certain verbs cause when conjugating, there is a series of verbs that are more permeable than others and are governed by foreign morphological paradigms. Specifically, we are referring to those belonging to the second conjugation and the third pure conjugation, which are more susceptible to adopting improper forms than the verbs of the first conjugation (ending in '-ar') and those of the third inchoative conjugation. This phenomenon probably occurs because the last two verbal groups mentioned have the common characteristic of concentrating a higher number of verbs, which implies that they are more regular, invariable, and, therefore, this translates into greater productivity. For this reason, verbs of the second conjugation, such as 'créixer', 'merèixer', and 'néixer', are conjugated in the same way as those of the third inchoative conjugation, with the characteristic increment ('jo cresc', 'jo meresc', 'jo nesc').

Alternation

In parallel, it is not uncommon to find verbs of the third pure conjugation that alternate with the inchoative conjugation, such as: ‘acudir’, ‘escollir’ and ‘mentir’, of which double conjugation is accepted in the three most common dialectal varieties: in Central Catalan (‘acudeixo’ or ‘acudo’), in Valencian (‘escollisc’ or ‘escull’) and in the Balearic dialects (‘mentesc’ or ‘ment’). Otherwise, there are verbs (‘afegir’, ‘llegir’, ‘tenyir’, etc.) that in Western and Insular Catalan can present both forms (‘llegisc’, ‘llig’; ‘llegesc’, ‘llig’), but which in Central Catalan only present one: the inchoative (‘llegeixo’). More similar cases that can only be found in the Insular dialect are the verbs ‘ferir’ and ‘penedir-se’, which have both the pure form (‘Jo fer qualcú’, ‘Jo em penet de qualque cosa’) and the inchoative (‘Jo feresc qualcú’, ‘Jo em penedesc de qualque cosa’).

Following this line, however, among so many conjugation options, one should not mix apples and oranges; that is, on the one hand, it is important to emphasize that verbs such as ‘pertenèixer’ and ‘concebir’ are not admissible in any case, as they are calques from Spanish, and which lead to verbal forms that are equally inadequate from a normative point of view, such as ‘Això perteneix als veïnats’ and ‘No concebesc una vida sense ella’, which should be amended to ‘pertany’ (from the infinitive ‘pertànyer’) and ‘concep’ (from ‘concebre’).

On the other hand, even if it is not an interference, it must be taken into account that transfers between conjugations are not always normatively valid: thus, formally, we will not say ‘No m’interrompigueu mentre estic parlant!’, but ‘No m’interrompeu mentre estic parlant!’, but we can calmly say ‘Seguigueu pel bon camí!’ and ‘És impossible que dormigueu amb la persiana apujada!’. Similarly, if our dialect of Catalan is Balearic, we can use the increment ‘-esc-’ without any inconvenience in any register, as in ‘Ara et compartesc la ubicació’ and ‘Necessit que em transferesquis cinc-cents euros’. In this sense, one must be careful with overcorrections, because we can easily fall into the error of conjugating the false inchoative ‘conèixer’ like this: ‘Estic impacient perquè es coneixin’, instead of this other way, which is the correct one: ‘Estic impacient perquè es coneguin’.

In short, as a suggestion, we encourage you that, in case of any doubt as to whether a verbal form is accepted or not in Catalan and – above all – in your vernacular variety, to look it up, and you will be surprised to see the diverse possibilities we have regarding verbal morphology, legitimized by linguistic authority.