Why doesn't the て form of a verb connect to たい?


According to
[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar#Verb_conjugations),
the て form is the result of sound changes that occurred when the 連用形 proceeded
the particle て.

Historical | Contemporary  
---|---  
買いて | 買って  
打ちて | 打って  
知りて | 知って  
遊びて | 遊んで  
住みて | 住んで  
死にて | 死んで  
書きて | 書いて  
泳ぎて | 泳いで  
  
We can see the same sound change occurring before other particles starting
with a "t" sound: た, たら, and たり. My question is straight forward, why doesn't
this sound change also occur before the auxiliary verb, たい?

Historically, is there any reason why the construction 死にたい has resisted this
sound change and hasn't become 死んだい?




Historically, derivationally, the desiderative ending ～たい comes from 痛【いた】い.
This is speculation on my part -- the phonology of that initial //i// in
//itai// may have prevented the gemination that developed in Eastern Japanese
forms like 買【か】って, or the fusion (or contraction?) that we see in 死【し】んで.

Note that Western Japanese often has ～うて・～うた, where Eastern (i.e. "Standard"
or 標準語【ひょうじゅんご】, i.e. Tokyo) Japanese has ～って・った. Eastern 買【か】って shows up in
Western (Kansai, anyway) as 買【こ】うて, for example.




Historically, derivationally, the desiderative ending ～たい comes from 痛【いた】い.
This is speculation on my part -- the phonology of that initial //i// in
//itai// may have prevented the gemination that developed in Eastern Japanese
forms like 買【か】って, or the fusion (or contraction?) that we see in 死【し】んで.

Note that Western Japanese often has ～うて・～うた, where Eastern (i.e. "Standard"
or 標準語【ひょうじゅんご】, i.e. Tokyo) Japanese has ～って・った. Eastern 買【か】って shows up in
Western (Kansai, anyway) as 買【こ】うて, for example.

