Salvete omnes,
Why doesn’t the verb dare - to give not have a macron over the “a”? Does it have something to do with the word order? Does this occur in other conjugations as well?
thanks,
Deccius
Because the a is short in all parts except 2nd pers. sing. das. It’s just an irregularity you have to get used to.
Parthenophilus is correct. Another place where the A is long is in the pres sing 2nd pers imperative, da, but it is still short in the plurall date. The O in do is of course long, and the A in the present participle nom sing dans is long as in regular verbs.
This slight irregularity of the thematic vowel does not happen in any otherwise regular verbs that I can think of. Monosyllabic verb and noun stems (in this case DA-) tend to create some oddities when combined with endings.
do, dare and other such ‘root presents’ must be described as athematic, this particular verb being built upon *d(e)H3-. a long a can also be seen in the archaic 2nd pl. subj. duas (or long i in duis), and would have been heard in participial dans, the n often having a reduced nasal pronunciation; a long e is of course seen in des, demus and detis.
~D