The supine is alive and well in Romanian

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Introduction

We were taught Latin grammar at school, and I recall that the Latin master was not satisfied with a single-word answer when he asked for the Latin translation of an English verb. For example, if he asked for the Latin for to love, we had to chant amo, amare, amavi, amatum. This was particularly important with words like the Latin for to bring - fero, ferre, tuli, latum, which is clearly irregular. Actually, I am glad we learnt fero, etc., because it helped me understand that the words refer and relate have the same origin, that an oblation is an offering and that a prelate is a clergyman who has had preferment. The four forms are known as the principal parts of a verb and they enable us to conjugate it. The fourth principal part is the supine.

The supine

Strangely, although we had to learn this form, we were never expected to use it in a Latin prose composition and it was later that I found out how it could be used. I recall that it was explained that the phrase mirabile dictu contained the second form of the supine, but it was much later that I found out that the first form was used to express a purpose. So we are told that Hannibal "invictus patriam defensum revocatus bellum gessit adversus P. Scipionem" - he was recalled in order to defend the homeland.^[1]

Now the supine does not occur in most of the Romance languages which I have studied. In French, for example, purpose is expressed by pour followed by the infinitive. However, in Romanian, which was isolated from the West Romance languages for many centuries, a supine is in use. It has the same form as the past participle and this explains a strange piece of English from one of my Romanian students. She had a dissertation to submit and was remaining at her lodgings in the university city over a weekend "for finished it". I was glad I knew there was a supine in Romanian, since otherwise that usage would have been very puzzling.

I had imagined that this supine was a survival from the Latin taken to Dacia by Roman colonists, but I found this surprising, since the supine does not seem to have been used to any extent in Late Latin. Well, Canadian academic Virginia Hill seems to have the answer. This supine is a relatively recent development, and she has observed its beginnings in documents of the 16th to 18th centuries. See this paper or, if it is not available, click on the attachment below.

The supine in modern Romanian

The supine is used in various ways, but is always preceded by a preposition such as de, la, pe, or de la. Here are some examples from Romanian: An Essential Grammar by Ramona Gönczöl:

Am de terminat o compunere.^[2]

I have to finish a composition.

E ușor de zis,^[3] dar greu de făcut.

It is easy to say, but hard to do.

mașină de spălat

washing machine

pe ascuns^[4]

in secret

Notes
1. Thank you to Linda Webb for pointing me in the right direction.
2. Compunere is an example of the "long infinitive", which behaves like a feminine noun.
3. The verb a zice (to say) has the past participle and supine zis.
4. This is the supine of a ascunde (to hide).

Posted August 2017