# uton
## Ladin
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin autumnus (“autumn, fall”), of uncertain etymology. The Latin etymon is directly continued by Romanian toamnă, Aromanian toamnã (unless these reflect the variant in a-), Italian autono (Northern Italy, 15th c.), Romansch utuon (Engadine), Spanish otoño (→ Logudorese Sardinian atónzu, Campidanese atógniu), Portuguese outono, and via Vulgar Latin *atumnus by Friulian atum (“october”), Romansch atun (Sursilvan), aton (Surmiran). Provençal autoun (“autumn harvest”) could be Latin-influenced; French autonne is likely, and Catalan autumne certain to be a borrowing from Latin.

### Noun

uton m (plural utons)
* (Fascian) autumn, fall

#### Alternative forms

* autonn (Gherdëina)
* altonn (Badiot)

#### See also

* seasons: sajons: ansciuda~aisciöda~aisciuda · instà~isté~istà · autonn~altonn~uton · inviern~invern
Seasons in Ladin · sajons (layout · text) · category :
| ansciuda (Gherdëina) aisciöda (Badiot) aisciuda (Fascian) | instà (Gherdëina) isté (Badiot) istà (Fascian) | autonn (Gherdëina) altonn (Badiot) uton (Fascian) | inviern (Gherdëina) invern (Badiot, Fascian) |

## Old English
### Alternative forms

* wutum, wutun, wuton

### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈu.ton/

### Adverb

uton
* let's
** late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History
    Uton ealle bīeġan ūru cneowu.Let's all bend our knees.

#### Usage notes

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.

### References

* ↑ Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 371
* ↑ Linda van Bergen, 2012. "Ne + infinitive constructions in Old English." English Language and Linguistics 16(3), 487-518. pp. 501-503
* ↑ Linda van Bergen, 2013. "Let's Talk about Uton." pp. 157-183 in Meaning in the History of English: Words and texts in context, Studies in Language Companion Series, edited by A. Juckert, D. Landert, A. Seiler, and N. Studer-Joho. Amsterdam: John Banjamins.