Where does “-던” come from?
-던 (Korean) comes from Korean -더-, from Old Korean 如 — declarative mood sentence-final verbal suffix.
Ancestry of “-던”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Korean | -더- | The retrospective suffix, marking that the speaker (in declaratives) or the addressee (in interrogatives) has personally observed the action/state conveyed by the verb/adjective, or a fact from which the action/state could be inferred; that either this action/state was not taken by the observer, or |
| 2 | Old Korean | 如 | declarative mood sentence-final verbal suffix |