On the use of the gerund in –č in the Slovene dialects contiguous with friulian*

Abstract

With the following observations on the use of present gerunds in Slovene, promp­ ted by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay's Dictionary of the Ter Dialect (BdC Mss), and by Stanko Škerlj' s Syntaxe du participe présent et du rondif en vieil italien (Škerlj 1926), we wish to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of the participle-gerund constructions in Slovene. The Aspect of the problem raised in the discussion links, symbolically as it were, the Slavic and Ro­ mance evolutions in the microcosm of little known Slavic--Rhaeto-Romance language contacts, and may be of interest to both Slovene and Friulian philology.