Záhadný morfém [-t] a slovesná paradigmata v sarkézské normanštině

Abstract

In this article, we present one of the principal findings in the field of Sark Norman (or Sarkese) verbal morphology. The data on which the present article is based were obtained during three seasons of field research on the island of Sark in 2016, 2018, and 2019, with the help of the last four native speakers of Sark Norman, and via analysis of now lost idiolects recorded in the 20th century. We focus primarily on the verbal paradigms of the present and preterite indicative and the related system of desinences with regard to 1SG. In the first part, after an introduction to the context, we summarize the occurrence of the morpheme [-t] in 1SG verbal forms, which, although recorded in several secondary sources in the past, had never been systematically analysed prior to the present study. In the following part, we compare documented conjugation patterns with the verbal paradigms presented in Liddicoat (1994), demonstrating fundamental differences in our respective observations. Finally, for each of the main verbal groups and several subgroups, we can present at least a partial paradigm based on our data, to illustrate where and when the morpheme [-t] occurs as a standard 1SG verbal desinence in Sark Norman.