Indo-European copula


A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English verb to be.

General features

This verb has two basic meanings:
  • In a less marked context it is a simple copula, a function which in non-Indo-European languages can be expressed quite differently.
  • In a more heavily marked context it expresses existence.
The dividing line between these is not always easy to draw.
Some languages have shared these functions between several verbs: Irish, Spanish and Persian all have multiple equivalents of to be, making a variety of distinctions.
Many Indo-European languages also use the verb "to be" as an auxiliary for the formation of compound tenses. Other functions vary from language to language. For example, although in its basic meanings, to be is a stative verb, English puts it to work as a dynamic verb in fixed collocations.
The copula is the most irregular verb in many Indo-European languages. This is partly because it is more frequently used than any other, and partly because Proto-Indo-European offered more than one verb suitable for use in these functions, with the result that the daughter languages, in different ways, have tended to form suppletive verb paradigms.
This article describes the way in which the irregular forms have developed from a series of roots.

The Proto-Indo-European PIE roots

''*h1es-''

The root *h1es- was certainly already a copula in Proto-Indo-European.
The e-grade *h1es- is found in such forms as English is, Irish is, German ist, Latin est, Sanskrit asti, Persian ast, Old Church Slavonic jestĭ.
The zero grade *h1s- produces forms beginning with /s/, like German sind, Latin sumus, Vedic Sanskrit smas, etc.
In PIE, *h1es- was an athematic verb in -mi; that is, the first person singular was *h1esmi; this inflection survives in English am, Pashto yem, Persian am, Sanskrit asmi, Bengali first-person verb ending -ām, Old Church Slavonic esmĭ, etc.
This verb is generally reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European thus:
PersonPresent
indicative
Imperfect
indicative
SubjunctiveOptativeImperative
1st singular*h1és-mi*h1és-m̥*h1és-oh2*h1s-iéh1-m
2nd singular*h1és-i*h1és*h1és-esi*h1s-iéh1-s*h1és, *h1s-dʰí
3rd singular*h1és-ti*h1és-t*h1és-eti*h1s-iéh1-t*h1és-tu
1st dual*h1s-uós*h1s-ué*h1és-owos*h1s-ih1-wé
2nd dual*h1s-tés*h1s-tóm*h1és-etes*h1s-ih1-tóm*h1s-tóm
3rd dual*h1s-tés*h1s-tā́m*h1és-etes*h1s-ih1-tā́m*h1s-tā́m
1st plural*h1s-m̥ós*h1s-m̥é*h1és-omos*h1s-ih1-mé
2nd plural*h1s-té*h1s-té*h1és-ete*h1s-ih1-té*h1s-té
3rd plural*h1s-énti*h1s-énd*h1és-onti*h1s-ih1-énd*h1s-éntu

The root bʰuH- or bʰuh₂- probably meant 'to grow', but also 'to become'.
This is the source of the English infinitive be and participle been. Also, for example, the Scottish Gaelic "future" tense bithidh; the Irish imperative , past bhí and future beidh; the Welsh bod ; Persian imperative bov, past bud and future bâš; and the Slavic infinitive and past, etc. for example Russian быть, был.
PIE bʰ became Latin /f/, hence the Latin future participle futūrus and perfect fuī; Latin fīō 'I become' is also from this root, as is the Greek verb φύω, from which physics and physical are derived.
bʰuH- was a preterite-present verb, i.e. imperfect endings for the present, and can be reconstructed as follows:
PersonIndicativeSubjunctiveOptativeImperative
1st singular*bʰúH-m*bʰúH-oh2*bʰuH-yéh1-m
2nd singular*bʰúH-s*bʰúH-esi*bʰuH-yéh1-s*bʰúH, *bʰuH-dʰí
3rd singular*bʰúH-t*bʰúH-eti*bʰuH-yéh1-t*bʰúH-tu
1st dual*bʰuH-wé*bʰúH-owos*bʰuH-ih1-wé
2nd dual*bʰuH-tóm*bʰúH-etes*bʰuH-ih1-tóm*bʰuH-tóm
3rd dual*bʰuH-tā́m*bʰúH-etes*bʰuH-ih1-tā́m*bʰuH-tā́m
1st plural*bʰuH-mé*bʰúH-omos*bʰuH-ih1-mé
2nd plural*bʰuH-té*bʰúH-ete*bʰuH-ih1-té*bʰuH-té
3rd plural*bʰuH-énd*bʰúH-onti*bʰuH-ih1-énd*bʰuH-éntu

''*h2wes-''

The root *h2wes- may originally have meant "to live", and has been productive in all Germanic languages. The e-grade is present in the German participle gewesen, the o-grade survives in English and Old High German was, while the lengthened e-grade gives us English were. See Germanic strong verb: Class 5.

''*h1er-''

This has been claimed as the origin of the Old Norse and later Scandinavian languages' present stem: Old Norse em, ert, er, erum, eruð, eru; the second person forms of which were borrowed into English as art and are. It has also been seen as the origin of the Latin imperfect and future tenses.
However, other authorities link these forms with *h1es- and assume grammatischer Wechsel, although this is not normally found in the present stem. Donald Ringe argues that the copula was sometimes unaccented in Pre-Proto-Germanic, which would have then triggered the voicing under Verner's law. He explains the Germanic first person singular form immi as such, deriving it from earlier ezmi, since -zm-, but not -sm-, was assimilated to -mm- in Germanic. Furthermore, the third person plural form sindi shows that this word, too, was unaccented. If the accent had been preserved, it would have become sinþi, but that form is not found in any Germanic language. In this view, it is likely that stressed and unstressed varieties of the copula existed side by side in Germanic, and the involvement of a separate root h₁er- is unnecessary.
The Latin forms could be explained by rhotacism.

''*steh2-''

The root *teh2- meant "to stand". From this root comes the present stem of the so-called "substantive verb" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and tha respectively, as well as taw in Welsh. On the absence of the initial s- in Celtic, see Indo-European s-mobile.
In Latin, stō, stare retained the meaning "to stand", until local forms of Vulgar Latin began to use it as a copula in certain circumstances. Today, this survives in that several Romance languages use it as one of their two copulae, and there is also a Romance tendency for a past participle derived from *steh2- to replace the original one of the copula. See also Romance copula.
Although in Dutch this verb retains its primary meaning of "stand", it is used in an auxiliary-like function that only has a secondary meaning of "standing", for example: ik sta te koken. While it is not a full copula, it does have shades of meaning that resemble that of the Italian sto cucinando. The intransitive verbs zitten, liggen and lopen are used in similar ways.
In Swedish, which usually lacks gerund forms, the corresponding stå is often used similarly, along with sitta, ligga and .
In Hindustani the past tense of the copula honā "to be" which are «tʰā», «tʰe», «tʰī» and «tʰī̃» are derived from Sanskrit «stʰā». Gujarati has a cognate verb «tʰavũ» "to happen"; cf. Bengali aorist «tʰā-» as well.

The resulting paradigms

Indo-Iranian languages

Indic languages

Sanskrit
The Vedic Sanskrit root as is derived from the Indo-European root *h1es-.
bhū is derived from Indo-European *bʰuH-.
Hindi-Urdu
In modern Hindi-Urdu, the Sanskrit verb अस् ' which is derived from the Indo-European root *h1es- has developed into the present indicative forms of the verb होना ہونا '. The infinitive होना ہونا ' itself is derived from the Sanskrit verb root भू ' which is derived from Indo-European root bhuH-. The indicative imperfect forms of होना ہونا ' comes from Sanskrit स्थित ' "standing, situated" which are derived from the PIE root *steh₂-. होना ہونا is the only verb in Hindi-Urdu to have the present indicative, imperfect indicative, presumptive mood and the present subjunctive conjugations, and all the other verbs in Hindi-Urdu lack them.
The verb होना / ہونا can be translated as "to be", "to exist", "to happen" or "to have" depending on the context, and when used in the third person it could also be translated as "there is/are". Many verbs conjugations in Hindi-Urdu are derived from participles and hence are gendered and numbered, and they agree with either the object or the subject of the sentence depending on the grammatical case of the subject of the sentence. When the subject is in the ergative or the dative case the verb agrees in gender and number with the object of the sentence and with the subject when the subject is in the nominative case.
Bengali
Bengali is considered a zero copula language, however there are notable exceptions. In the simple present tense there is no verb connecting the subject to the predicative but when the predicate expresses ideas of existence, location, or possession, for such cases the verb আছ- can be roughly translated as "to exist" or "to be present".
  • In the past tense, the incomplete verb আছ- ' is always used as the copula, regardless of the nature of the predicative.
  • For the future tense and non-finite structures, the copula is supplied by the verb হওয়া, with the exceptions being the possessive and locative predicatives for which the verb থাকা is utilized.
  • Bengali does not have a verb for possession. Instead, possession in Bengali is expressed by the verb আছ- ' and the verb থাকা inflected with the possessed object and a genitive case for the possessor.
Bengali verbs are highly inflected and are regular with only few exceptions. They consist of a stem and an ending; they are traditionally listed in Bengali dictionaries in their "verbal noun" form, which is usually formed by adding -a to the stem: for instance, করা is formed from the stem কর. The stem can end in either a vowel or a consonant.
Nepali
The copula verb of Nepali has two sets of conjugations. The हो set is used in sentences that equate two things, like त्यो किताब हो The छ set is used in sentences that describe something, or locate where something is, like त्यो ठूलो छ. Singular present tense forms of the copulas in Nepali are shown in the table below:

Iranic languages

Persian
With regard to the function of the verb ‘to be’ as a copula, the most conspicuous feature of Modern Persian language is the evolution of an existential be, hast, out of ast. In fact, when studying the forms and functions of ‘to be’, one might find certain characteristics specific to Persian that are worth pondering upon— i.e. even without considering the diachronic evolution of Modern Persian language and its relation to Ancient Iranian languages whose usage of the verb ‘to be’ seems more close to Sanskrit. Paradoxically, despite the fact that Persian is apparently the only Indo-European language that has created an existential be out of the copula, it has simultaneously made an extreme use of the latter to produce a general paradigm for conjugating all Persian verbs.
Historically speaking, like most of Indo-European languages that make use of suppletive roots to denote ‘to be’, Persian integrates Proto-Indo-European verbs *h1es- and *bhuH . Hence, while Persian infinitive būdan < PIE *bhuH forms the past stem of the verb or acts as an auxiliary verb in formation of pluperfect of other verbs, its present tense is solely based on the derivatives of PIE *h1es-. It is, in fact, from the declension of PIE *h1es- that six present stems have been created and assigned to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular and plural to act as the present-tense conjugation of Persian būdan, as shown in the following table.
PersianEnglishPersianEnglish
1st Person-am am-īm are
2nd Person art-īd are
3rd Personast is-and are

As an example, in the following sentences, the present forms of the verb 'to be' are used as copulas or predicates:
PersianEnglish
man doxtar-e to am.I am thy daughter.
īn barādar-e man ast.This is my brother.
to pedar-e man ī.Thou art my father.

Furthermore, as endings added to the stem of the verbs, these declensional forms have been grammaticalized to shape a general paradigm for the grammatical conjugation of all other verbs; these endings were once auxiliary verbs which evolved into an enclitic. This generalized conjugational paradigm is also applied to the past tense of the verb būdan. However, what is linguistically notable, is the emergence of an existential be out of the copula, viz hast out of ast. The evolution of this exceptional form, might go back to ancient Iranian languages, where ast could have two variants. In the next phase, what we may call a pseudo-verb appeared, vis. the verb hastan has been analogically evolved from hast and has been conjugated like any other Persian verb.
The simple past conjugation of the verb
būdan is in fact formed by a double-copula, in the sense that both the stem and the ending are copulas: the past stem of the verb būd
-
is derived from PIE *bhuH-, while the endings are from the suppletive form of PIE *h1es- with the exception of 3rd person singular which has zero ending for the all Persian verbs in the past tense.
SingularEnglishEnclitic copulaPluralEnglishEnclitic copula
būdamI wasام -ambūdīmwe wereايم -īm
būdīthou wastاى -ībūdīdyou wereاید -īd
būd he/she/it wasØ būdandthey wereاند -and

The present perfect conjugation of the verb būdan is a double copula paradigm as it is produced by addition of all enclitic copulas to the past participle of the verb: būde.
SingularEnglishEnclitic copulaPluralEnglishEnclitic copula
būdeamI have been-ambūdeīmwe have been-īm
būdeīthou hast beenbūdeīdyou have been-īd
būde ast he/she/it has beenast būdeandthey have been-and

The pseudo-verb hastan has only simple present tense; in addition, it is truly and purely existencial only in the case of third person singular. The fact is that the verb has been the product of this very case, as an "existential is", hast. For other persons the conjugation has to use enclitic copulas. These copulas are, in turn, derived from the declension of PIE *h1es- ; as if the predicative "to be" has been an auxiliary verb turned into enclitic, to provide six endings for 1st/2nd/3rd person. However, as it is said, the 3rd person singular has no ending in the case of hastan. That is to say that the existential hast, which is like the alter-ego of the copula ast, takes no ending, while the present stem of all other verbs take an archaic ending -ad in their 3rd person singular.
SingularEnglishEnclitic copulaPluralEnglishEnclitic copula
hastamI exist-amhastīmwe exist-īm
hastīthou existesthastīdyou exist-īd
hasthe/she/it exists > Ø hastandthey exist-and

Hellenic languages

Greek

The Ancient Greek verb eimi is derived from the Indo-European root h1es-.
Dual is not shown in the table.
The participles are based on the full-grade stem ἐσ- in Homeric, according to Smyth.

Italic languages

Except for Latin, the older Italic languages are very scarcely attested, but we have in Oscan set, fiiet, fufans and fust, and in Umbrian sent. This section will explain Latin, and the Romance languages that have evolved from it.
Esse and the forms beginning with s- are from the root *h1es-, while the forms beginning with f- are from the root bʰuH-. For the forms beginning with er-, see h₁er-. Stāre is derived from the root *steh2-.
In Spanish, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and to a lesser extent, Italian there are two parallel paradigms, ser/èsser/essere from Latin esse "to be" on the one hand, and estar/stare from Latin stare, "to stand" on the other.
In several modern Romance languages, the perfect is a compound tense formed with the past participle as in English, but the old Latin perfect survives as a commonly used preterite in Spanish and Portuguese, and as a literary "past historic" in French, Italian and Catalan.
There is a tendency for a past participle derived from stare to replace that of the main copula derived from esse. For example, the French participle été comes from statum.

Germanic languages

The proto-Germanic verb for 'to be', *wesaną, and its conjugations are mostly derived from the Proto-Indo-European verb *h2wes. The present subjunctive stem is derived from the optative of *h1es-. West Germanic languages also have an additional stem *bi-, which is thought to derive from the PIE stem *bʰuh₂-. Proto-Germanic retained the dual, but only in the first and second person.
  • Old English kept the verbs wesan and bēon separate throughout the present stem, though it is not clear that the kind of consistent distinction in usage was made that we find, for example in Spanish. In the preterite, however, the paradigms fell together. Old English has no participle for this verb.
  • The plural forms in Modern Swedish were in common use in formal written language until the mid-20th century, but are now no longer in use except in deliberately archaising texts. The preterite subjunctive is also increasingly being replaced by the indicative, or past participle.
  • Dutch, like English, has abandoned the original second-person singular forms, replacing them with the second-person plural forms. However, while in English the old forms are still in limited and deliberately archaic use, in Dutch they have disappeared entirely and are no longer known or used at all. The forms listed in the plural are the historical plural forms, the 'jij' and 'gij' forms. Dutch formed a new plural pronoun 'jullie' with inflection similar to the 1st and 3rd person plural, but it would be redundant to list them here.

    Slavic languages

Proto-Slavic
Old Church SlavonicUkrainianRussianOld PolishPolishCzechSlovakSlovenianSerbo-CroatianBulgarian
Present*esmĭ
  • esi
  • estĭ
  • esvě
  • esta
  • este
  • esmŭ
  • este
  • sǫtĭ
ѥсмь, jesmĭѥси, jesi
ѥстъ, jestŭ
ѥсвѣ, jesvě
ѥста, jesta
ѥсте, jeste
ѥсмъ, jesmŭ
ѥсте, jeste
сѫтъ, sǫtŭ


є, je /



сьмо,
сте,


есть, jest'





jeśm
jeś
jest, jeść



jeśmy
jeście
jestem, -m
jesteś, -ś
jest



jesteśmy, -śmy
jesteście, -ście
jsem
jsi
je



jsme
jste
jsou
som
si
je



sme
ste
sem
si
je
sva
sta
sta
smo
ste
so
jesam, sam/budem*
jesi, si/budeš
jest, je/bude



jesmo, smo/budemo
jeste, ste/budete
jesu, su/budu
съм, səm
си, si
е, e



сме, sme
сте, ste
са, sə
Imperative
  • bǫdi
  • bǫdi
  • bǫděvě
  • bǫděta

  • bǫděmŭ
  • bǫděte
  • bǫdǫ
–бѫди, bǫdi
бѫди, bǫdi
бѫдѣвѣ, bǫděvě
бѫдѣта, bǫděta

бѫдѣмъ, bǫděmŭ
бѫдѣте, bǫděte
бѫдѫ, bǫdǫ

будь, buď




будьмо, buďmo
будьте, buďte

будь, bud’





будьте, bud’te

bądź




bądźmy
bądźcie

bywaj/bądź




bywajmy/bądźmy
bywajcie/bądźcie

buď




buďme
buďte

buď




buďme
buďte

bodi

bodiva
bodita

bodimo
bodite

budi




budimo
budite

бъди, bədi





бъдете, bədete

Future*bǫdǫ
  • bǫdešĭ
  • bǫdetĭ
  • bǫdevě
  • bǫdeta
  • bǫdete
  • bǫdemŭ
  • bǫdete
  • bǫdǫtĭ
бѫдѫ, bǫdǫбѫдеши, bǫdeši
бѫдетъ, bǫdetŭ
бѫдевѣ, bǫdevě
бѫдета, bǫdeta
бѫдете, bǫdete
бѫдемъ, bǫdemŭ
бѫдете, bǫdete
бѫдѫтъ, bǫdǫtŭ
буду, budu
будеш, budeš
буде, bude



будемо, budemo
будете, budete
будуть, buduť
буду, budu
будешь, budeš'
будет, budet



будем, budem
будете, budete
будут, budut
będę
będziesz
będzie



będziemy
będziecie
będą
będę
będziesz
będzie



będziemy
będziecie
będą
budu
budeš
bude



budeme
budete
budou
budem
budeš
bude



budeme
budete
budú
bom, bodem
boš, bodeš
bo, bode
bova, bodeva
bosta, bodesta
bosta, bodesta
bomo, bodemo
boste, bodeste
bodo, bojo
budem
budeš
bude



budemo
budete
budu
ще бъда, šte bədə
ще бъдеш, šte bədeš
ще бъде, šte bəde



ще бъдем, šte bədem
ще бъдете, šte bədete
ще бъдат, šte bədət
Imperfect*běaxŭ
  • běaše
  • běaše
  • běaxově
  • běašeta
  • běašete
  • běaxomŭ
  • běašete
  • běaxǫ
бѣахъ, běaxŭбѣаше, běaše
бѣаше, běaše
бѣаховѣ, běaxově
бѣашета, běašeta
бѣашете, běašete
бѣахомъ, běaxomŭ
бѣашете, běašeте
бѣахѫ, běaxǫ
biech
biesze
biesze



biechom
bieszecie
biechą
bijah, beh
bijaše, beše
bijaše, beše



bijasmo, besmo
bijaste, beste
bijahu, behu
бях, bjah
бе, be
бе, be



бяхме, bjahme
бяхте, bjahte
бяха, bjahə
Aorist*byxŭ
  • by
  • by
  • byxově
  • bysta
  • byste
  • byxomŭ
  • byste
  • byšę
бꙑхъ, byxŭбꙑ, by
бꙑ by
бꙑховѣ, byxově
бꙑста, bysta
бꙑсте, byste
бꙑхомъ, byxomŭ
бꙑсте, byste
бꙑшѧ, byšę
bych
by
by



bychom
byście
bychą
Conditional copulabym
byś
by



byśmy
byście
by
bych
bys
by



bychom
byste
by

bi
bi





bih
bi
bi



bismo
biste
biše
бих, bih
би, bi
би, bi



бихме, bihme
бихте, bihte
биха, bihə
Present active participle*sy m.
  • sǫťi f.
  • sy n.
сꙑ, sy m.сѫщи, sǫšti f.
сꙑ, sy n.
sący m.
sąca f.
sące n.
jsoucí

Future active participle*bǫdy m.
  • bǫdǫťi f.
  • bǫdy n.
бѫдꙑ, bǫdy m.бѫдѫщи, bǫdǫšti f.
бѫдꙑ, bǫdy n.
будущий, buduščij m.
будущая, buduščaja f.
будущее, buduščeje n.
będący m.
będąca f.
będące n.
będący m.
będąca f.
będące n.
budoucí m.
budoucí f.
budoucí n.
budúci m.
budúca f.
budúce n.
bodoči m.
bodoča f.
bodoče n.
budući m.
buduća f.
buduće n.


Present gerundбудучиsąc
będąc
będącjsa
jsouc
jsouce
бъдейки
Past active participle*byvŭ m.
  • byvŭši f.
  • byvŭ n.
бꙑвъ, byvŭ m.бꙑвъши, byvŭši f.
бꙑвъ, byvŭ n.
бывший, byvšij m.
бывшая, byvšaja f.
бывшее, byvšeje n.
bywszy m.
bywsza f.
bywsze n.
bywszy m.
bywsza f.
bywsze n.
byvší m.
byvšia f.
byvšie n.
bivši m.
bivša f.
bivše n.
bivši m.
bivša f.
bivše n.


Past gerundбувшиbywszybywszybyv
byvši
byvše
-
Resultative participle*bylŭ m.
  • byla f.
  • bylo n.
бꙑлъ, bylŭ m.бꙑла, byla f.
бꙑло, bylo n.
був, buw m.
була, bula f.
було, bulo n.
был, byl m.
была, byla f.
было, bylo n.
był m.
była f.
było n.
był m.
była f.
było n.
byl m.
byla f.
bylo n.
bol m.
bola f.
bolo n.
bil m.
bila f.
bilo n.
bio m.
bila f.
bilo n.
бил, bil m.
била, bila f.
било, bilo n.
Verbal or deverbal noun*bytĭjeбꙑтиѥ, bytijeбуття́, buttjaбытьё, bytʹjóbyciebyciebytíbytiebītjebiće-
Infinitive*bytiбꙑти, bytiбути, butyбыть, byt'byćbyćbýtbyťbitibiti-
Supine--------bit--

  • In Russian, the present forms are archaic and no longer in common use, except for the third person forms, which are used in "there is/are" type phrases.
  • In Ukrainian, the present tense forms of the verb "бути" have all but disappeared from contemporary language, except for the third person form which is used in existential phrases; єсть is archaic and encountered only in poetry. All participles have turned into other parts of speech, future and past active participles becoming present and past active adverbial participle respectively, and resultative pariciple becoming past tense of verbs.
  • In Serbo-Croatian the forms jesam, jesi, jeste and so on are used as the basic form of the Present Tense "to be", while the forms budem, budeš, bude etc. are used only for the formation of the Future Perfect.
  • In Bulgarian, forms бъда, бъдеш, etc. are not used by themselves but only in compound forms. In this respect they closely follow the usage of perfective verbs. As such it has its own forms for the aorist, the imperfect and the resultative participle. Another verb - бивам with fully regular conjugation type III paradigm - completes an aspect in Slavic languages|aspect] triple: imperfective съм, perfective бъда, secondary imperfective бивам. The perfective aorist has lost its original meaning and is now used only to form the compound conditional mood. All participles except the resultative participle have lost their function and are now used as regular adjectives with changed meanings.
  • In Polish, the present forms, except for jest and są, have turned into suffixes used primarily to construct the past tense and the conditional clitic. The modern conjugation comes from attaching these suffixes onto the third person singular form ''jest.''

    Baltic languages

LithuanianLatvian
Infinitivebūtibūt
Presentesu, esmi, esmì, būnu
esì, būni
yra, esti, estì, esa, būna
esmè, esame, būname
estè, esate, būnate
yra, esti, esa, būna
esmu, esu
esi
ir
esam
esat
ir
Past simplebuvau
buvai
buvo
buvome
buvote
buvo
biju
biji
bija
bijām
bijāt
bija
Past active participlebuvęs
buvusi
buvę
buvusios
bijis
bijusi
bijuši
bijušas
Futurebūsiu
būsi
bus
būsime
būsite
bus
būšu
būsi
būs
būsim
būsiet, būsit
būs
Imperative
būk

būkime
būkite

esi

būsim
esiet
Quotativeesot, būšot
Conditionalbūčiau
būtum
būtų
būtumėme
būtumėte
būtų
būtu

In Lithuanian, the paradigm būnu, būni, būna, etc. is not considered archaic or dialectal but rather a special use of the verb būti, to be, mostly used to describe repeated actions or states, or habits.

Celtic languages

In the Celtic languages there is a distinction between the so-called substantive verb, used when the predicate is an adjective phrase or prepositional phrase, and the so-called copula, used when the predicate is a noun.
The conjugation of the Old Irish and Middle Welsh verbs is as follows:
Old Irish substantive verbOld Irish copulaMiddle Welsh
Present·tó
·taí
·tá
·taam
·taïd
·taat
am
at
is
ammi
adib
it
wyf
wyt
yw, mae, taw, oes
ym
ych
ynt, maen
Preterite·bá
·bá
·boí
·bámmar
·baid
·bátar
basa
basa
ba
bommar
unattested
batar
buum
buost
bu
buam
buawch
buant
Futurebia
bie
bieid, ·bia
beimmi, ·biam
bethe, ·bieid
bieit, ·biat
be
be
bid
bimmi
unattested
bit
bydaf
bydy
byd
bydwn
bydwch
bydant

The forms of the Old Irish present tense of the substantive verb, as well as Welsh taw, come from the PIE root *stā-. The other forms are from the roots *es- and *bhū-. Welsh mae originally meant "here is".

Irish and Scottish Gaelic

In modern Gaelic, person inflections have almost disappeared, but the negative and interrogative are marked by distinctive forms. In Irish, particularly in the south, person inflections are still very common for the tá/bhí series.
The verb bí
† archaic forms
Gaelic eil and Irish fuil are from Old Irish fuil, originally an imperative meaning "see!", then coming to mean "here is", later becoming a suppletive dependent form of at-tá. Gaelic robh and Modern Irish raibh are from the perfective particle ro plus ba.
The copula

Modern Welsh

The present tense in particular shows a split between the North and the South. Though the situation is undoubtedly more complicated, King notes the following variations in the present tense as spoken :
For example, the spoken first person singular dw i'n is a contraction of the formal written yr ydwyf fi yn . The Welsh F /v/ is the fricative analogue of the nasal /m/, the PIE suffix consonant for the first person singular.
Bod also has a conditional, for which there are two stems. The bas- stem is more common in the North, and the bydd- stem is more common in the South:

Hittite

The Hittite verb "to be" is derived from the Indo-European root h1es-.
Present indicativePreterite indicativeImperative
1st sg.ēšmiešunēšlit
ēšlut
ašallu
2nd sg.ēššiēštaēš
3rd sg.ēšziēštaēšdu
1st pl.ēšwen
2nd pl.ēšteniēštenēšten
3rd pl.ašanziešerašandu

Armenian

The Classical Armenian present tense derives from PIE h₁es-.
present
1st sg.em
2nd sg.es
3rd sg.ē
1st pl.enkʿ
2nd pl.ēkʿ
3rd pl.en

Albanian

The Albanian copula shows two distinct roots. The present jam ‘I am’ is an athematic root stem built from PIE h₁es-. The imperfect continues the PIE imperfect of the same root but was rebuilt based on the 3rd person singular and plural. The preterite, on the other hand, comes from the thematic aorist of PIE kʷel- ‘turn’. Analogical or otherwise indirect reflexes are italicized below.
PIEpresentPIE → PAlbrebuiltimperfect imperfect PIE → PAlbpreterite
1st sg.*h₁ésmijam*h₁és-m̥ → *eham*eśenjeshëisha*kʷl-e-m̥ → *klenqeshë, OAlb qeva
2nd sg.*h₁ésije*h₁és → *eh*eśehjesheishe*kʷl-e-s → *klehqe
3rd sg.*h₁éstiishtë
ësht
*h₁és-t → *eśt*eśtjeish → ishte*kʷl-e-to → *kletakle → qe
1st pl.*h₁s-méijemi*h₁s-m̥é → *emma/e*eśema/ejeshëmëishim*kʷl-e-mé → *klema/eqemë
2nd pl.*esi + -nijeni*h₁s-té → *eśtā*eśetājeshëtëishit*kʷl-e-té → *kletāqetë
3rd pl.*h₁s-ntijanë*h₁s-énd → *eśend*eśendishinëishin*kʷl-e-nd → *klendqenë