Categories of verb in Old Germ.l.

Verb had such categories:

- voice (active, passive)

- mood: indicative (denotes a statement), imperative (commands, was used only in present of active voice), subjunctive (2 functions – grammatical & semantic)

- tense (present, preterite)

- number (singular, plural, dual)

- person (1, 2, 3)

There are two voices in Germanic, active and passive. When the verbs is in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is in some sense the agent of the action, or the doer of the action. On the other hand, when the verb is inflected for passive, the subject of the verb is seen as the patient, or undergoer of the action. For example, the Gothic verb bairan “to carry”. When it is inflected actively, as in bairiþ “(he) carries”, the subject is seen as carrying something. When it is inflected passively, as in bairada “(he) is carried”. Note that in Present-day English the passive is build up according to the formula ‘be (auxiliary verb)+ past participle. In GL it is p eriphrastic.

The category of mood is represented by the indicative denoting a statement; the imperative – command, and the subjunctive – a wish or an irreal statement.

The older Germanic languages really have only two tenses, namely present and preterite (or past). The present is commonly used to render a future meaning, and the preterite is also used to express past participle, as in Modern English “I had run”.

Number in the Germanic verb is governed by the subject. Thus, when the subject is singular, the verb is inflected for the singular; when the subject is in the plural, the verb is also. In the first and second persons, there is also a dual inflection of the verb, which is used when the subject is understood to consist of two people.

Person, too, is a verbal category governed by the subject. Thus we find in the Germanic verb the categories of first, second, and third persons, equivalent to Present-day English forms appearing with ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’.

 

Strong verbs n Gothic.

Strong verbs form their preterite by ablaut (nima ‘I take’, nam ‘I took’) or simply by reduplication (háita, ‘I call’, haíháit ‘I called’), or else by ablaut and reduplication combined (tēka ‘I touch, taítōk ‘I touched’). The strong verbs are subdivided into two classes: non-reduplicated and reduplicated verbs. The non-reduplicated verbs are divided into six classes according to the first six ablaut classes given in the previous lecture. The reduplicated verbs, which form their preterite by ablaut and reduplication combined belong to the seventh class.

A. Non-reduplicated strong verbs in Gothic.

Class 1. Ablaut grades i: - ai – i – i
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	beidan “await”	báiþ	bidum	bidans
OE	Bīdan	bād	bidon	biden
OHG	Bītan	beit	bitun	gibitan

 

To this class belong: beitan “to bite”, dreiban “to drive’, greipan “to seize”, weihan “to fight”, bi-leiban “to remain”; ga-smeitan “ to smear”, steigan “to ascend’ etc.

 

Class II. Ablaut grades iu – au – u – u
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	-biudan “to bid”	-báuþ	-budum	-budans
OE	Bēodan	bead	budon	boden
OHG	Biotan	bōt	butun	gibotan

 

Here belong: biugan “to bend”; driugan “to serve as a soldier”; giutan “to pour”; kiusan “to test’, liusan “to lose” etc.

 

Class III. Ablaut grades i – a – u – u
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	hilpan “to help”	halp	hulpum	hulpans
OE	Helpan	healp	hulpon	Holpen
OHG	Helfan	half	hulfun	giholfan

 

To this class belong all strong verbs having a medial nasal or liquid + a consonant, and a few others in which the vowel is followed by two consonants other than nasal or liquid + consonant. For example, baírgan “to keep”, bliggwan “to beat”, brinnan “to butrn”; hwaírban “to walk”, swiltan “to die” etc.

 

Class IV. Ablaut grades i – a – ē - u
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	niman “to take”	nam	nēmum	Numans
OE	beran to “bear”	bær	bæron	boren
OHG	Beran	bar	bārun	giboran

 

To this class belong strong verbs whose stems end in a single nasal or liquid, and a few others. For example, brikan “to break”, qiman “to come” stilan “to steal”, ga-timan “to suit” etc.

 

Class V. Ablaut grades i– a – ē - i
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	mitan “to measure”	mat	mētum	mitans
OE	Metan	mæt	mæton	Meten
OHG	Mezzan	maz	māzzun	gimezzan

 

To this class belong strong verbs having i (aí) in the infinitive, and whose stems end in a single consonant other than a liquid or a nasal: bidjan “to pray”, itan “to eat”, ligan “to lie down” etc.

 

Class VI. Ablaut grades a – ō – ō - a
	Infinitive	Pret. Single	Pret. Plural	Past Participle
Gothic	faran “to go”	fōr	fōrum	farans
OE	Faran	fōr	fōron	færen
OHG	Faran	fuor	fuorun	gifaran

 

To this class belong: alan “to grow”, ga-daban “to beseem”, skaban “to shave”, standan “to stand”, malan “to grind”.

 

1. Reduplicated Strong verbs in Gothic.

The perfect was formed in the parent language partly with and partly without reduplication. The reason for this is unknown. Compare Sanskrit va-várta “I have turned”, Gothic warþ, warst, warþ; pl. va-vrtimá + Gothic waúrþum; Gothic wáit “I know’, lit. “I have seen”. The reduplicated syllable originally contained the vowel e. In Gothic the vowel in the reduplicated syllable would regularly be i, except in verbs beginning with r, h, hw, where the aí is quite regular.

In the singular the accent was on the stem and in the dual and plural originally on the ending with corresponding change of ablaut.

The reduplicated verbs in Gothic are divided into two classes: a) verbs that retain the same vowel stem through all tenses, and form their preterite simply by reduplication, as haítan “to call”; haíháit, haíháitum, háitans; (b) verbs which form their preterite by reduplication and ablaut combined. These verbs have the same stem-vowel in the preterite singular and plural, and the stem-vowel of the past poarticiple is the same as that of the present tense.

 

Division (a) Class VII.
	Infinitive	Pret. Singular	Past Participle
Gothic	falþan “to fold”	faífalþ	falþans
	haldan “to hold”	haíhald	haldans

 

Division (b) Class VII
	Infinitive	Pret. Singular	Past Participle
Gothic	grētan “to weep”	gaígrōt	grētans
	lētan “to let”	lailōt	lētans

Weak verbs in Old Germ.l.

In Gothic they are divided into four classes according to the infinitives end in –jan, pret. –ida. (-ta); -ōn, pret. –ōda; -an, pret. –áida; -nan, pret. –nōda. The weak preterite is a special Germanic formation, and many points connected with its origin are still uncertain

 

1. First Weak Conjugation.

In Gothic the verbs of this conjugation are sub-divided into two classes: - (1) verbs with a short stem syllable, as nasjan “to save”, or with a long open syllable, as stōjan “to judge”; (2) verbs with a long closed syllable, as sōkjan “to seek”; and polysyllabic verbs.

Germanic suffix –j- in different Germanic languages reflected as –ia-, -ij-, -i-.

 

Sub-class (1)	Infinitive	Preterite	PP
Gothic	nasjan “to rescue’	nasida	nasiþs
OE	Nerian	nerede	nered
OHG	Nerian	nerita	(gi)nerit
Sub-class (2)
Gothic	Sōkjan	sōkida	sōkiþs
OE	Sēcan	sōhte	sōht
OHG	Suohen	suohta	(gi)suohit

2. Second Weak Conjugation.

PG forms corresponding to the Gothic and OHG were *salbō-mi, *salbō-zi, *salbō-đi, Plural *salbō-miz, salbō-đi, with stem-forming suffix being –o-.

	Infinitive	Preterite	PP
Gothic	salbōn “to anoint’	salbōda	salbōþs
OE	Endian	endode	endod
OHG	Machôn	machôta	gimachot

 

3. Third Weak Conjugation.

It had a stem-forming suffix –ai- that apears only in Gothic (Preterite and Past participle), in Present the alternation of vowels proves to be a – ai. In other Germanic languages the suffix fell out or appeared as –e-.

 

	Infinitive	Preterite	PP
Gothic	haban “to have”	habaida	habaiþs
OE	Habban	hæfde	hæfd
OHG	Haben	habêta	gihabêt

 

Fourth Weak Conjugation

 

This class of verbs is characteristic of the Gothic language only. They belong to the so-call inchoative class of verbs, that is denoting the beginning of the action.

 

Preterite-present verbs

These are the verbs inflected in the present like the preterite of strong verbs and in the past like the preterite of weak verbs. The following verbs, most of which are defective, belong to this class:

cann – he knows

dear – he dares

sceal – he shall

mo t – he must

mæj – he may

a h – he possesses

þearh – he needs

ann – he grants

 

Ablaut-series: Gothic witan “to know”.

 

INF   witan   OE witan	PRESENT	PAST
1^st Sing.	2^nd Sng.	Pl.	Subj.	Pret.Sng	Subj. Pret.	Pres.Part.
wáit I know	wáist	witum	witjau	Wissa	wissēdjáu	witands
Wāt	1 & 3 Sng. wāt	witon		wisse wisson Pl.

 

Compare PDE wi t “розум, ум”; witty “розумний, дотепний”, and Russian ве д ать. (Grimm’s Law).

 

Ablaut series: Gothic kunnan “to know”, OE cunnan > PDE can.

 

INF Gothic kunnan OE cunnan	PRESENT	PAST
1^st Sing.	2^nd Sng.	Pl.	Subj.	Pret.Sng	Subj. Pret.	Pres.Part.
kann I know	kant	kunnum		Kunþa	kunþēdjáu	Kunnands
can(n)	1-3 Sng can(n)	cunnon		cūðe cūðon Pl.

 

 

Ablaut series: Gothic *skulan “to be obliged to”, OE sculan “to be obliged” > PDE shall.

 

 

INF Gothic *sculan OE Sculan	PRESENT	PAST
1^st Sing.	2^nd Sng.	Pl.	Subj.	Pret.Sng	Subj. Pret.	Pres.Part.
skal ‘I owe’	kant	kunnum		Kunþa	kunþēdjáu	kunnands
sceal	1-3 Sng sceal	sculon		scolde scoldon Pl.

 

 

Preterite-presents also include:

 

(V-ablaut series)	Gothic	OE
Magan	magan “to have power” > PDE may, might
(VI-ablaut series)	*ga-mōtan	mōt(an) “to be allowed to”, “to be able to” > PDE must
	Áihan	āgan “own, possess, have” > PDE owe; PP āgen > “own, to own”, Pret. Sing. āhte > ought

 

A. Anomalous verb *wiljan “to wish, desire” in Gothic.

 

Present
Singular	Plural
1. wiljáu 2. wileis 3. wili Dual wileits	1. wileima 2. wileiþ 3. wileina
Preterite
Indicative	Subjunctive (optative)
Sing 1. wilda	Wildēdjáu

These verbs are very important for later periods. From these verbs we get the present day core modal verbs. There is an important difference: in OE pr-pr verbs were morphologically defined; in PrDE modal verbs are syntactically defined. There were 12 pr-pr verbs in OE, in Gothic – 14. They are subdivided into classes in analogy to the strong verbs.

The basic forms of pr-pr verbs:

- Infinitive;

- Pres.Sg

- Past tense

- Participle II

Some forms of separate pr-pr verbs are not attested – must has no Past Tense because it already was inherited in Past. And 2 verbs do not follow any of these classes:

Majan – mæj – majon – meahte/mihte – no P II - may

Jeneah – jenujon – jenohte – no Inf – no P II - enough

Infinitive, Participle

When the verb is inflected for the categories so far discussed, it is said to be a finite form of the verb. But alongside these forms there also three non-finite forms of most verbs. The first is the infinitive proper, which is essentially a noun formed from the present tense verbal stem; consider PDE “to run”. The second is the present participle, which is an adjective formed from the present stem, analogous to forms like PDE ‘running’. The third is the preterite participle, an adjective sometimes but not always based on the preterite stem of the verb, and etymologically identical with forms like ‘driven’ in ‘I have driven’ or ‘a driven man’.

INFINITIVE is not only an indefinite form f a verb. Originally infinitives were verbal agent nouns. (Nomina Agentis) – віддієслівні іменники.

Infinitive as a frm of verbs appeared in IE languages after disintegration of the IE unity. Germ. inf. derives from the noun with the suffix –no-. in old Germ. lang-es analogical forms could be declined. They later developed into verbal form, and prepositions (OE t o, OHG zi, zu, OIsl. At) – into a particle that goes with the verb. Germ. inf. didn’t have categories of the mood and tense. Nly later appeared analytical forms of the inf.

Participles are verbal agent adjectives. It can be declined by case, and in Latin, Russian by tense and mood.We distinguish ParticipleI (active) and Part.II (passive). Participle I is formed from strong and weak verbs by adding suffix –nd-. Participle II: strong verb + n weak verb + þ/d/t.

In England Participle I is –ing form.

Nominals, their categories.

Noun had such categories:

- gender (masc, fem, neut)

- number (singular, plural)

- case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental)

- declension (strong, weak, minor, root)

Adjective

declension (weak, strong)

- degrees of comparison (positive, comparative, superlative)

Pronoun

- number (sg, pl, dual)

- person (only personal pronouns)

- case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental)

- gender (only in demonstrative pronouns)

Numerals from 1 to 4 had case.

Categories of noun.

The noun in Old German had such categories:

- gender (masc, fem, neut) This distinction was not a grammatical category, it was merely a classifying feature. The gender

a) regulates the forms of adj and rticles accompanying nouns

b) to a certain extent regulates which specific forms of the case and number endings appear on the nouns.

- number (singular, plural) Like in ME all the German lang-es distinguish SG and Pl.

- case:

Nominative can be defined as the case of the active agent

Accusative is the use of the direct object, and also the case required by a preposition

Similarly, a number of prepositions regularly require Genitive. It was primarily the case of nouns and pronouns serving as attribute to their nouns.

The Dative was the chief case used with the prepositions or as an indirect personal object.

Rare even in the eldest attested stages was used Vocative or the case of address: the only Germ. Lang showing this case is Goth.

Instrumental (no in Gothic) is used to dentify the instrument of an action.

!!! The Dative Sg: 1) ending –ai as in maujai (to the girl)

2) ending –au as in magau (to the boy)

- declension (strong, weak, minor, root)

- declension (weak, strong)

- degrees of comparison (positive, comparative, superlative)

Pronoun

- number (sg, pl, dual)

- person (only personal pronouns)

- case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental)

- gender (only in demonstrative pronouns)

Numerals from 1 to 4 had case.

20. Noun structure in PG. The original reconstructed structure of noun in PG as in other Indo-European languages included three components: root, stem-forming suffix and inflection. The root rendered lexical meaning; stem-forming suffix was placed between root and inflection. Its original function might have been to classify nouns according to various lexical groups. Inflections served as means of connection in sentences together with prepositions.

Neither of Indo-European languages preserved words with an ideal three-component structure. Normally stem-forming suffixes coalesced with inflection or root. Though in Gothic one can trace stem-forming suffixes by comparing forms of other stems. For example, Dative and Accusative Plural of nouns with vowel-stems:

 

Masculine in –a-	Masculine in –i-	Feminine in –ō-	Masculine in –u-
Dative wulf-a-m	gast-i-m	gib-ō-m	sunum
Accusative wulf-a-ms	gast-i-ns	gib-ō-s	sununs

 

In Gothic, as in the oldest periods of the other Germanic languages, nouns are divided into two great classes, according as the stem originally ended in a vowel or consonant. Nouns, whose stems originally ended in a vowel, belong to the vocalic or so-called Strong Declension. Those, whose stems end in –n, belong to the Weak Declension.

Strong declension of noun.

A. The Vocalic or Strong Declension.