uton

uton

See also: utoń and úton

Ladin

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin autumnus (“autumn, fall”), of uncertain etymology. The Latin etymon is directly continued by Romanian toamnă, Aromanian toamnã (unless these reflect the variant in a-), Italian autono (Northern Italy, 15th c.), Romansch utuon (Engadine), Spanish otoño (→ Logudorese Sardinian atónzu, Campidanese atógniu), Portuguese outono, and via Vulgar Latin *atumnus by Friulian atum (“october”), Romansch atun (Sursilvan), aton (Surmiran). Provençal autoun (“autumn harvest”) could be Latin-influenced; French autonne is likely, and Catalan autumne certain to be a borrowing from Latin.

Noun

uton m (plural utons)

1. (Fascian) autumn, fall

Alternative forms

• autonn (Gherdëina)
• altonn (Badiot)

See also

• (seasons) sajons; ansciuda,‎ instà,‎ autonn,‎ inviern ^{(Category: lld:Seasons) [edit]}

Seasons in Ladin · sajons (layout · text) · category
ansciuda (“gherdëina”), aisciöda (“badiot”), aisciuda (“fascian”)	instà (“gherdëina”), isté (“badiot”), istà (“fascian”)	autonn (“autumn”), altonn (“badiot”), uton (“fascian”)	inviern (“gherdëina”), invern (“badiot, fascian”)

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Old English

Alternative forms

• wutum, wutun, wuton

Etymology

Usually said to originate from a form of witan (“to know”). Ringe explains it as an allegro form of PWGmc 1pl. *(ga)wītum (“we're going, we'll go”) which escaped the North Sea Germanic displacement of 1pl. endings because speakers reinterpreted it as a separate word.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈu.ton/

Adverb

uton

1. let's
   • late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History

     Uton ealle bīeġan ūru cneowu.

     Let's all bend our knees.

Usage notes

Uton is often described as a defective verb with only a sort of first-person plural imperative inflection remaining. However, there are several striking ways it does not behave like a verb:[2][3]

• It rarely pushes the following infinitive to the end of the sentence. Instead the infinitive usually comes directly after, except a weakly stressed word like an adverb or object pronoun often goes sandwiched in between: Uton nū brūcan þisses undernmetes (“Now let's enjoy this breakfast”).

• Finite verb endings are frequently replaced with -e when they directly precede wē, ġē, wit, or ġit. But though the phrase uton wē occurs, *ute wē does not. Even Ælfric, who uses the reduced endings almost 95% of the time, never writes *ute wē, while uton wē appears in his works ten times.

• Uton has a fixed place within the sentence, being usually clause-initial and never clause-final. Even imperatives are occasionally final, especially in a conjunct clause, but uton never is.

• In the phrase "let's not," ne goes directly before the infinitive: Uton ne forlǣtan ġīet þās bōc (“Let's not leave this book yet”). Ne only does this when there is no finite verb to negate; otherwise it always goes before the finite verb, yet there are no instances of *ne uton.

References

1. Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 371
2. Linda van Bergen, 2012. "Ne + infinitive constructions in Old English." English Language and Linguistics 16(3), 487-518. pp. 501-503
3. Linda van Bergen, 2013. "Let's Talk about Uton." pp. 157-183 in Meaning in the History of English: Words and texts in context, Studies in Language Companion Series, edited by A. Juckert, D. Landert, A. Seiler, and N. Studer-Joho. Amsterdam: John Banjamins.