be 動詞の話題は，本ブログでも多く取り上げてきた．今回は Lass の古英語に関する手引き書を参照して，とりわけ b- 系列の形態に関する雑記的な洞察を何点か紹介したい．
まず，be 動詞の諸屈折形の起源による分類を，Lass (170) より引用する．
(a) an s-root (eom, eart, is, sindom = L s-um, e-s, e-s-t, s-unt);
(b) a b-root (bēo, bist, biþ, bēoþ, cognate to Skr bhu- 'remain', Latin perfect of 'be' fū-ī, OCS byti 'be', Gr phú- 'become';
(c) a w-root, in the inifinitive wesan, pres part wesende, preterite wæs, wǣron; this is cognate to OIr feiss/foss 'remain', Skr vásati 'he dwells'. Wesan is a defective cl V verb (as wesan/wæs/wǣron suggest), whose PRET1/PRET2 serve as the only past for the other stems.
このなかで b- 系列に使用は西ゲルマン語群での発達であり，相対的にいって遅めの系列であるという (Lass 171) ．
The incorporation of the b-root into this group seems to be a WGmc innovation.
また，以下に言及される古英語の現在分詞や過去分詞も b- 系列に属するが，これも古英語期内においてだが，やはり遅咲きだという (Lass 171) ．
. . . until the eleventh century the only present participle is wesende, and there is no past participle. After this pres part bēonde and pp be-bēon (> ModE been) appear.
一方，古英語の b- 系列を含む命令形については，方言分布などもやや複雑で，次のようにある (Lass 171) ．
The imperative is usually in b- in earlier texts: sg bēo, pl bēoþ; later wes, wesaþ appear (wes remains buried in wassail < wes hāl 'be healthy'). There is some regional differentiation, with b- imperatives in WS and Merc, and wes Northumbrian, though wes also occurs in WS and Mercian.
ひるがえって現代標準英語における b- 系列の勢力はどうかというと，歴史的には衰退しているとみることができそうだ (Lass 171) ．
The standard ModE system suggests more radical loss of the b-forms than was actually the case; as late as the 1950s some conservative rural varieties in old West Mercian and West Saxon territory (e.g. the W Midlands and West Country) preserve paradigms like I bin, thee bist, Her is (Cheshire and Shropshire), I be, you be, her is, they be (Warwickshire, Somerset), or be for all persons and numbers (Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Somerset).
b- 系列の形態に焦点を当てた歴史を描いてみるのもおもしろそうだ．
・ Lass, Roger. Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion. Cambridge: CUP, 1994.
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