Germanic verbs
The Germanic language family is one of the language groups that resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It in turn divided into North, West and East Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern languages, most importantly: Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish (North); English, Dutch and German (West); and Gothic (East, extinct).
The Germanic verb system lends itself to both
Verb types
The Germanic verb system carried two innovations over the previous
- Simplification to two tenses: present (also conveying future meaning) and past (sometimes called "preterite" and conveying the meaning of all of the following English forms: "I did, I have done, I had done, I was doing, I have been doing, I had been doing").
- Development of a new way of indicating the preterite and past participle, using a dental suffix.
Later Germanic languages developed further tenses periphrastically, that is, using auxiliary verbs, but the constituent parts of even the most elaborate periphrastic constructions are still only in either present or preterite tenses (or non-finite forms, compare I would have been doing, an English conditional perfect progressive with would in the preterite, the other three parts being non-finite).
Germanic verbs fall into two broad types, strong and weak. Elements of both are present in the preterite-present verbs. Despite various irregularities, most verbs fall into one of these categories. Suppletive verbs are completely irregular, being composed of parts of more than one Indo-European verb. There is one verb (*dōną 'to do') that is in a category of its own, based on an Indo-European "athematic" form, and having a "weak" preterite but a "strong" passive participle.
Strong verbs
Strong (or vocalic) verbs display vowel gradation or ablaut, that is, the past tense is marked by a change in the vowel in the stem syllable. Examples include:
Modern English:
- fall – fell – fallen
- sing – sang – sung
Old English:
- fallan – feoll – feollon – (ge)fallen (to fall)
- hātan – hēt – hēton – (ge)hāten (to be called)
Old High German:
- fallan – fiall – fiallun – (gi)fallan (to fall)
- heizan – hiaz – hiazun – (gi)heizan (to be called)
In the older languages, these verbs may also be reduplicating, that is, the past tense forms add a prefix with the same consonant as the first consonant of the stem syllable. An example in Gothic is lētan – laílōt – laílōtum – lētans (to have).
In Proto-Germanic, consonant alternations known as grammatischer Wechsel developed, as a result of Verner's law. This involves an originally regular change in the consonant at the end of the stem syllable. An example in modern Dutch is verliezen – verloor – verloren (to lose)
These are the direct descendants of the verb in Proto-Indo-European, and are paralleled in other Indo-European languages Examples include:
- leipō – leloipa – elipon (Greek: to leave)
- fallō – fallere – fefellī – falsum (Latin: to cheat)
All Indo-European verbs that passed into Germanic as functioning verbs were strong, apart from the small group of irregular verbs discussed below. The preterite of strong verbs are the reflex of the Indo-European perfect. Because the perfect in late Indo-European was no longer simply stative, but began to be used especially of stative actions whose source was a completed action in the past (e.g., Greek), this anterior aspect of it was emphasized in a couple of Indo-European daughter languages (e.g., Latin), and so it was with Germanic that the perfect came to be used as a simple past tense. The semantic justification for this change is that actions of stative verbs generally have an implied prior inception. An example of this is the typical and widespread PIE stative *woida 'I know': one who "knows" something at some point in the past "came to know" it, much as the natural inference from noting someone in a sitting state is that a prior action of becoming seated occurred. The classical/Koine Greek perfect is essentially an early step in the development of the stative aspect to a past tense, being a hybrid of the two that emphasizes the ongoing (present/stative) effects of a past action (e.g., leloipa 'I have left"). Apparently it was this latter anterior respect that is responsible for the Indo-European perfect showing up as a past tense in Germanic, Italic, and Celtic.
The Indo-European perfect took o-grade in the singular and
Weak verbs
Weak (or consonantal) verbs are those that use a dental suffix in the past or "preterite" tense, either -t- or -d-. In
In Proto-Germanic, there were five main classes of weak verbs:
- Class I verbs were formed with a suffix -j- (-i- in the past), e.g., Gothic satjan "to set" (Old English settan), sandjan "to send" (Old English sendan), sōkjan "to seek" (Old English sēcan). As shown in the Old English cognates, the -j- produced umlaut of the stem vowel in languages other than Gothic and then disappeared in most verbs in old Germanic languages other than Gothic and Old Saxon. (It also resulted in West Germanic gemination in some verbs, and palatalization of velar consonants in Old English.)
- Class II verbs were formed with a suffix -ō- (extended to -ōja- in the Ingvaeonic languages), e.g., Gothic salbōn "to anoint," Old English sealfian ← *salbōjan, compare "to salve."
- Class III stative verbs were formed with a suffix that was -ja- or -ai- (later -ē-) in the present and was null in the past, e.g., Old English hebban "to have" ← *habjan, past tense iċ hæfde "I had." The West Germanic languages outside of Old High German preserved this conjugation best, but in these languages the conjugation had become vestigial and had only four verbs in it. In other languages, it was merged with the Class III factitive verbs (see below) and significantly modified, e.g., Gothic haban, past tense ik habáida; Old High German habēn, past tense ih habēta.
- Class III factitive verbs were formed with a suffix that was -ā- or -ai- in the present and -a- in the past. This class merged with the Class III stative verbs in Gothic, Old High German and (mostly) Old Norse, but vanished in the other Germanic languages.
- Class IV verbs were formed with a suffix -n- (-nō- in the past), e.g. Gothic fullnan "to become full", past tense ik fullnōda. This class vanished in other Germanic languages; however, a significant number of cognate verbs appear as Class II verbs in Old Norse and as Class III verbs in Old High German.
Preterite-presents
The so-called preterite-present verbs are a small group of anomalous verbs in the Germanic languages in which the present tense shows the form of the strong preterite. The preterite of the preterite-present verbs is weak.[1] As an example, take the third-person forms of modern German können "to be able to." Kann "can, am/is able to" (present tense) displays the vowel change and lack of a personal ending that would otherwise mark a strong preterite. Konnte "could, was able to" (preterite) displays the dental suffix of the weak preterites.
Sources
According to one "widely-held view,"[2] the preterite-present verbs are derived from the Proto-Indo-European perfect. The PIE perfect usually developed into a Germanic past tense. In the case of the preterite-presents, however, it evolved into a present-tense verb. Hence, the preterite-presents have a present-tense meaning on the one hand and a form that resembles that of a preterite or past-tense verb on the other.
Reconstructions of this process differ depending on how they interpret the PIE perfect. An example is the PIE perfect **woide. It is the ancestor of the Germanic preterite-presents meaning "(s/he) knows," represented here by Gothic wait:
- If the PIE perfect was stative-resultative, **woide can be glossed as "knows as a result of having seen" (the state of knowing results from a past action, i.e., seeing). In wait, the meaning "knows" was retained as a present tense. The reference to the past ("having seen") was lost semantically, but it was preserved etymologically in the past-tense form of the preterite-present. However, it is hard to identify similar combinations of past action and present state for some of the other preterite-presents. videtʹ [to see] and vedatʹ [to know]).
- If the PIE perfect was purely stative, **woide can be glossed as "knows" (the state of knowing). The meaning "knows" was carried over as a present tense into wait. In this understanding, the preterite-presents constitute a retention of the non-past nature of the Indo-European perfect.[4] Many linguists, however, do not share this view: "most accounts of the PIE perfect do not treat it as purely stative".[5]
One response to these and other problems has been to argue that the preterite-presents are instead the descendants of a separate PIE stative category, from which the stative-resultative PIE perfect was also derived.[6] This approach allows the preterite-presents to be treated as purely stative in origin without depriving the PIE perfect of a temporal element.
Preterite-presents in Proto-Germanic
The known verbs in
Infinitive | Meaning | Present verbal descendants | Class | Present singular | Present plural | Preterite |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*witaną | "know" | Dutch weten, German wissen, Swedish veta, Norwegian Bokmål vite, Norwegian Nynorsk vete, English wit | I | *wait | *witun | *wissē |
*lizaną | "know" | I | *lais | *lizun | *listē | |
*aiganą | "have", "own" | Dutch eigenen, German eignen, Swedish äga, Norwegian Bokmål eie, Norwegian Nynorsk eige, English owe and ought | I | *aih | *aigun | *aihtē |
*duganą | "be useful" | Dutch deugen/gedogen, German taugen, Swedish duga, Norwegian Bokmål/Nynorsk duge, English dow | II | *daug | *dugun | *duhtē |
*unnaną | "grant" | Dutch gunnen, German gönnen, Swedish unna, Norwegian Bokmål/Nynorsk unne | III | *ann | *unnun | *unþē |
*kunnaną | "know (how to)," later "can" | Dutch kunnen, German können, Swedish kunna, English can | III | *kann | *kunnun | *kunþē |
*þurbaną | "need" | Dutch (dated) durven, German dürfen, Swedish (archaic) torva/tarva, English (dialectal) tharf | III | *þarf | *þurbun | *þurftē |
*durzaną | "dare" | English dare | III | *dars | *durzun | *durstē |
*skulaną | "must," later "shall" | Dutch zullen, German sollen, Swedish skola, English shall | IV | *skal | *skulun | *skuldē |
*(ga)munaną | "think" | Icelandic muna, English northern dialectal mun | IV | *(ga)man | *(ga)munun | *(ga)mundē |
*ganuganą | "be enough," "suffice" | German genügen | V | *ganah | *ganugun | *ganuhtē |
*maganą | "can," later "may" | Dutch mogen, German mögen, Swedish må, English may | VI | *mag | *magun | *mahtē |
*aganą | "fear" | VI | *ag | *ōgun | *ahtē | |
*(ga)mōtaną | "may," later "must" | Dutch moeten, German müssen, Swedish måsta, English mote and must | VI | *(ga)mōt | *(ga)mōtun | *(ga)mōsē |
Ablaut
The present tense has the form of a vocalic (strong) preterite, with vowel-alternation between singular and plural. A new weak preterite is formed with a dental suffix. The root shape of the preterite (in zero-grade) serves as the basis for the infinitive and past participle, thus Old English infinitive witan and past participle (ge)witen; this contrasts with all other Germanic verb types, in which the basis for those forms is the present stem.
Proto-Germanic | Gothic | Old Saxon
|
Old English
|
Old High German
|
German | Dutch | English | Old Norse
|
Icelandic | Danish | Swedish | Norwegian Bokmål/Nynorsk | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
infinitive | *witaną | witan | wizzan | wissen | weten | [to] wit | vita | vide | veta | vite | |||
present 1st & 3rd sg | *wait | wēt | wāt | weiz | weiß | weet | wot | veit | ved | vet | ve(i)t | ||
present 3rd pl | *witun | witon | wizzun | wissen | weten | wit | vitu | vita | (veta)* | ||||
preterite 1st & 3rd sg | *wissǭ | wissa | wisse | wissa | wusste | wist | wist | vissa/vissi | vissi | vidste | visste | visste | |
present participle
|
*witandz | witands | witandi | witende | wizzanti | wissend | wetend | witting** | vitandi | vidende | vetande | vitende/vitande | |
past participle
|
*wissaz | (gi)witan | (ge)witen | giwizzan | gewusst | geweten | wist** | vitat*** | vitað*** | vidst | vetat*** | visst | |
*(Plural forms have been lost in modern central Swedish, but are retained in some dialects.) **(English gerund and present participle have merged, and often the past participle with the preterit.) ***(Actually, not the past participle but the supine.) |
Personal endings
For the most part, the personal endings of the strong preterite are used for the present tense. In fact, in West Germanic the endings of the present tense of preterite-present verbs represent the original Indo-European perfect endings better than that subgroup's strong preterite verbs do: the expected Protogermanic strong preterite second-person singular form ending in -t was retained rather than replaced by the endings -e or -i elsewhere adopted for strong preterites in West Germanic.
The endings of the preterite (except for *kunnana) are the same as the endings of Class I weak verbs.
Subsequent developments
In modern English, preterite-present verbs are identifiable by the absence of an -s suffix on the third-person singular present tense form. Compare, for instance, he can with he sings (preterite: he sang); the present paradigm of can is thus parallel with the past tense of a
Many of the preterite-present verbs function as
Suppletive verbs
A small number of Germanic verbs show the phenomenon of suppletion, that is, they are made up from more than one stem. In English, there are two of these: to be and to go.
The copula (the verb to be and its equivalents in the other languages) has its forms from three or four IE roots (*h₁es-, *bʰuH-, *h₂wes-, and possibly *h₁er-.
The phenomenon of verb paradigms being composites of parts of different earlier verbs can best be observed in an example from recorded language history. The English verb to go was always suppletive, having the past tense ēode in Old English (this is believed to represent the original Proto-Germanic situation *gāną "to go" ~ *ijjǭ "I went", *ijjēdum "we went"). In the 15th century, however, this was replaced by a new irregular past tense went. In fact went is originally the past tense of the verb to wend (compare wend~went with send~sent); today wend has the regular past tense wended. In most other modern Germanic languages the verb "go" takes its preterite from the Proto-Germanic verb *ganganą "to walk" (e.g., German gehen, ging; Dutch gaan, ging; Swedish gå, gick).
IE optative
A special case is *wiljaną (to want, will), which has its present tense forms from the IE optative.
Today, the optative survives in the subjunctive of the Germanic languages. In Faroese,[7] it is confined to the present tense and used only as a conjunctive.
Regular and irregular verbs
When teaching modern languages, it is usually most useful to have a narrow definition of a "regular verb" and treat all other groups as irregular. See the article
See also
General
- Verb
- Regular verb
- Irregular verb
- Copula
- Principal parts
- Infinitive
- Past tense
- Present tense
- Future tense
- Suppletion
The verb in particular Germanic languages
- English grammar
- English verbs
- English irregular verbs
- Wiktionary appendix: Irregular English verbs
- German verbs
- de:Liste starker Verben (deutsche Sprache)
- de:Liste starker Verben (bairische Sprache)
- Dutch conjugation
Other aspects of Germanic verbs
- Indo-European ablaut
- Germanic Umlaut
- Verner's law
- Grammatischer Wechsel
Notes
References
- Bennett, William Holmes (1980). An Introduction to the Gothic Language. New York: Modern Language Association of America.
- Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. London: Oxford University Press.
- Galleé, Johan Hendrik (1910). Altsächsische Grammatik. Halle: Max Niemeyer.
- Gordon, E.V. (1927). An Introduction to Old Norse. London: Oxford University Press.
- Heuser, Wilhelm (1903). Altfriesisches Lesebuch mit Grammatik und Glossar. Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung.
- Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. ISBN 978-90-04-18340-7.
- Ringe, Don (2008). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-955229-0.
- Skeat, Walter William (1868). A Moeso-Gothic glossary. London: Asher & Co.
- Voyles, Joseph B. (1992). Early Germanic Grammar. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-728270-1.
- Wright, Joseph (1906). An Old High German Primer (Second ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Wright, Joseph (1910). Grammar of the Gothic Language. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Wright, Joseph; Wright, Elizabeth Mary (1925). Old English Grammar (Third ed.). London: Oxford University Press.