Utonとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

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.

発音

• IPA: /ˈu.ton/

副詞

uton

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

     Uton ealle bīeġan ūru cneowu.

     Let's all bend our knees.

使用する際の注意点

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:

• 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.

参照