Romance convergences and divergences. From Latin Do "habēre" and "tenēre" to contemporary forms in PE, PB, Italian and Neapolitan

Abstract

In addressing the linguistic divergences and convergences in Romania, the German Romanist Harri Meier (1948) argued that the divergent developments of Latin in Romania would derive from the dialectal division of that language already in the Italian peninsula. As regards the linguistic relations between the Italic and Iberian peninsulas, the author suggests that the substitution of the continuers of the Latin verb habēre, in a greater or lesser part of their functions, by the verb tenēre in Portuguese and Spanish would have an analogy in dialects of southern Italy, especially those grouped under the label of Neapolitan. Based on this hypothesis, the uses of the verbs habēre and tenēre in classical Latin and their continuers in the contemporary varieties of Portuguese (European and Brazilian), standard Italian and Neapolitan were investigated in a comparative way. This research aimed to identify possible semantic motivations for the convergences and divergences between Latin and the neolatine varieties cited in relation to the use of the verbs in question. The research was carried out based on written, dated, literary, prose and narrative texts.