# Spanish "respuesta" etymology



## Testing1234567

I have come accross this common word with uncertain origin.

"Respuesta" should be related to "responder", but whose past participle is "respondido".

Perhaps it is affected by "poner/puesto", but they come from different words.

Es "responder" < La "respondere/responsum"

Es "poner" < La "pono/positum"

Would it be the case that it is really affected by "puesto"?


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## Riverplatense

I think it is, the more so as also other Romance languages show similar developments, cf. Ital. _rispondere _→ _risposto _(p. p.), _risposta _‹answer› : _porre _(PONERE) → _posto_.

I also don't think there is a problem with a second past-participle like exit of _responder_. Also in Italian there was the «regular»/analogical p. p. of _porre _(_ponuto_) and, of course, a number of verbs with two different p. p. in Romance languages.

By the way, older Spanish forms of _responder _still show a closer relationship to _poner_, like _respuso _instead of _respondió_, again like It. _rispose _: _pose_.

In any case «morphological contamination» does not happen rarely in Romance languages.


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## Testing1234567

Also Fr pondre (PONERE) → pondu, re(s)pondre → re(s)pondu, re(s)ponse


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## Riverplatense

Interesting, however, Romanian:

PONERE → a pune → *pus *(p. p., cf. Lat. POS(I)TUM)
RESPONDERE → răspunde → *răspuns *(p. p., cf. Lat. RESPONSUM)

Edit: The Lat. p. p. persists also in other Romance languages, like _responso_, _responsabilidad/risponsabilità_/_responsabilidade_.


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## Testing1234567

Interestingly, in Romanian, both "responded" and "response" are răspuns.


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## Testing1234567

Would anyone know what the Asturian terms are for these words?


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## CapnPrep

Testing1234567 said:


> Would anyone know what the Asturian terms are for these words?


Apparently _arresponder_ (regular) and _rempuesta_, with variants.


Riverplatense said:


> Edit: The Lat. p. p. persists also in other Romance languages, like _responso_, _responsabilidad/risponsabilità_/_responsabilidade_.


Those are all learned forms (so "persists" may not be the best choice of word). The regular outcome of _sponsum_ can be seen in _(e)sposo, époux_.


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## Testing1234567

CapnPrep said:


> Apparently _arresponder_ (regular) and _rempuesta_, with variants.


Where would I be able to see the conjugation of arresponder?


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## CapnPrep

Testing1234567 said:


> Where would I be able to see the conjugation of arresponder?


According to the Normes Ortográfiques of the ALLA, _responder_ is conjugated like _sorber_ (p. 221). It has _o_ → _ue_ diphthongization (which one may or may not consider to be an irregularity), but the past participle is regular, _respondíu_/_respondida_/etc.


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## mjb1005

Testing1234567 said:


> Would anyone know what the Asturian terms are for these words?



"arresponder" does not seem to exist in the DALLA (Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana) provided by ALLA (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana) online. "Rempuesta" does however, and is a variation of "respuesta". The Normes Ortográficques is a good source, but Dr. Ramón d'Andrés Díaz from L'universitá d'Uviéu and a bunch of other linguists recently came out with http://ast.oslin.org/
That site is great because it gives you morphological information, like conjugation tables.

-Mateo


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## Testing1234567

Would this mix be happening in the Vulgar Latin already, since many Romance languages show this phenomenon? Or perhaps, only in Iberian Vulgar Latin?


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## mjb1005

Testing1234567 said:


> Would this mix be happening in the Vulgar Latin already, since many Romance languages show this phenomenon? Or perhaps, only in Iberian Vulgar Latin?



I've been rethinking the original question in my head today. I looked up "respuesta" in the online dictionary for the RAE and it basically says that it comes from "respuesto", the older irregular past participle of "responder".  I don't study so much historical linguistics, but it sounds like the irregular use was eventually replaced with the regular use, which is why we have "respondido". This is common, as "impreso" is the irregular past participle of "imprimir", but it seems that it is slowly being replaced by the regular "imprimido", I've been told both versions are accepted. 

I'm looking at it from the point of view of having added the prefix "res-" that may have something to do with it, but I'm not sure so I don't want to take us down that path yet. 

Other than that, the short "o" from I believe Vulgar Latin, when tonic, tends to result in the "ue" diphthong in Spanish, i.e. duermo (dormir), puedes (poder), etc. "Responder" would be an exception in Spanish as we're left with "respondo, respondes, etc...", or there may be another factor I'm not considering right now. Italian maintained the "o", i.e. dormo (dormire), posso (potere). So did Portuguese I believe. Interestingly enough, it diphthongs in Asturian, i.e. respuendo, respuendes...

Is it that "respuesta" is related to the participle for "poner"? Is it vowel evolution? Was there another intermediary process? I'd be interested to hear more feedback about this.

Thanks for the great discussion!


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## Testing1234567

mjb1005 said:


> Other than that, the short "o" from I believe Vulgar Latin, when tonic, tends to result in the "ue" diphthong in Spanish, i.e. duermo (dormir), puedes (poder), etc. "Responder" would be an exception in Spanish as we're left with "respondo, respondes, etc...", or there may be another factor I'm not considering right now. Italian maintained the "o", i.e. dormo (dormire), posso (potere). So did Portuguese I believe. Interestingly enough, it diphthongs in Asturian, i.e. respuendo, respuendes...



See Vowel breaking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Only Spanish breaks the open "o" in closed syllables. Also, Asturian is quite related to Spanish.


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## CapnPrep

Testing1234567 said:


> Would this mix be happening in the Vulgar Latin already, since many Romance languages show this phenomenon? Or perhaps, only in Iberian Vulgar Latin?


Pretty much all languages with any degree of morphological complexity show a tendency towards paradigmatic leveling (regularization), and cases where similar paradigms blend together. So these phenomena were certainly present throughout Vulgar Latin, but the specific forms that triumphed varied from region to region.

In the case of _responsum_ → _reposĭtum_, this substitution seems to have happened quite early and to have caught on throughout Western Romance (including Italian). Romanian has _răspuns_ (both as the past participle of the verb and as the noun), but I don't know if this is an inherited form or a learned form. As far as learned forms go, the Western varieties have the noun _responso_, _répons_, etc.


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## Testing1234567

How come Spain and Italy were affected, but the land between them (i.e. France) was unaffected? Or perhaps French just borrowed réponse from Latin (which, to me, seems more probable)?


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## CapnPrep

Older French did have _resposte_ alongside _respons(e)_ for the noun.


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## Scholiast

Greetings all



CapnPrep said:


> Older French did have _resposte_ alongside _respons(e)_ for the noun.



Hence of course English "riposte". I am moved to wonder whether wiser souls than I can relate this to a late or vulgar Latin frequentative form *_responsitare_ (_vel sim._), > classical _respondere/responsum_.

Σ


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## CapnPrep

_Riposte_ (English and French) is from Italian _risposta_, but ultimately the same word, yes.

The doubly-suffixed frequentative _responsitare_ is well attested classically, alongside the simpler _responsare_. I can't think of any direct correspondents of either verb in Romance (whether popular or learned).


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## Scholiast

Greetings once more


CapnPrep said:


> The doubly-suffixed frequentative _responsitare_ is well attested classically...


Thanks, CapnPrep, so it is, but interestingly (as your link to L&S shows), with a specifically legal flavour.

Σ


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