origins of desu, gozaru, and -masu

[wombat1138]

Splitting off an overgrown chunk of working notes to put them in their own corner.

Intro: plain copula "da" <- "de aru" <- inanimate-existence verb "aru"? If so, Tomoe's polite copula, "desu", would similarly trace back to "de arimasu" from the polite form of "aru". The negatives of "da"/"desu" do follow the pattern "de wa [verb]", where [verb] is a negative form of "aru" or "arimasu", though sometimes the "wa" is left out of the middle or "de wa" contracts to "ja".

Kenshin's later ultrapolite/archaicish copula, "(de) gozaru", is sometimes explained as another mutant form of "aru", perhaps via internal scrambling of "go-arimasu" where "go" would be the same honorary prefix used in "gomen nasai", "gohan", and so on; oddly, the redundantly politeness-suffixed "gozarimasu" is still used in some contexts but "gozaru" per se usually isn't.

Kanji-based form of "de gozaru"-variant "de gozairu": で御座居る ? The first and last characters are just the kana for "de" and "ru"; the last kanji is actually the stem of the animate-existence [i]ru, which I've never seen written out that way before. The middle kanji can mean "seat" or "throne"; it's also used in "zazen", the name of the meditation position, and with a different pronunciation as the root of Kagome's "o[suwa]ri!" And yup, the first kanji is the honorific prefix which can also be pronounced as "o", so Kagome could also keep those first two kanji together as "[o][suwa]ri"?

Confirmed Google matches for both the above three-kanji cluster as well as the presumed inanimate-existence "御座有", which would yield the proper "de gozaru" (if you shorten the implied long A) with the above kana tacked back onto both ends. Yamaguchi (and I think Watsuki) always write it out in all kana, though... ISTR some muttering about how Watsuki sometimes messed up Kenshin's grammar, which may explain why I don't recall having ever encountered "gozairu" before; the main issue I recalled was the verblike adjectives not taking on the proper forms-- the morning greeting "o-hayou gozaimasu" literally means "it's early"; if you weren't using the stock phrase and just wanted to remark that something was early, the adjective would revert to its normal form "hayai".

Since the verblike adjectives are already, well, verblike, the "desu" copula isn't strictly necessary but does make a statement more polite. I don't think "kawaii da" would be a normal statement, as opposed to the plain observation "kawaii!", the polite "kawaii desu", or the unusually polite/humble "kawou gozaimasu". Presumably they're still supposed to use the special "gozaimasu" forms with "gozaru".

Some examples, drawn from Takeo Kamiya's adjectives/adverbs book--
"it's small": chiisai desu -> chiisou gozaimasu
"it's strong": tsuyoi desu -> tsuyou gozaimasu
"it's happy": ureshii desu -> ureshuu gozaimasu
"it's big": oukii desu -> oukyuu gozaimasu
"it's hot": atsui desu -> atsuu gozaimasu

There are several stock phrases used in conversation where the honorific prefix "o-" is tacked onto the front of the adjective as well: the aforementioned "ohayou", the weather-based comments "o-atsuu gozaimasu" and "o-samuu gozaimasu" (<- "samui", cold), and the congratulatory "o-medetou gozaimasu" (still trying to track this one down; like "gozaimasu", "omedetou" is almost always written out with hiragana, so I'm not sure yet what the root kanji might be).

"Arigatou gozaimasu" <- "arigatai" (worthy of gratitude)

Old Usenet discussion from sci.lang.japan (adjusted link) which spikes the "desu <- de aru" theory, as well as explaining more about "gozaru".

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Such an interesting information!
And thank you for the link - the discussion is pretty interesting and informative.