Germanic Verb
PLAN 1. Main categories l 2. Types of Verbs l 3. Strong Verbs l 4. Weak Verbs l 5. Preterit(e)-Present Verbs l 6. Irregular Verbs l 7. Verbals l
The main grammar categories of Germanic verbs were: Tense (Present and Past); l Person – the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd l Number – Singular and Plural (+ Dual in Gothic); l Voice – Active, Passive, (Medio-passive in Gothic); l Mood – Indicative, Optative and Imperative. l Non-Finite Forms – Infinitive and Participles. l
Types of Verbs l l l All verbs were divided into: Strong, Weak, Preterite-present, Atypical.
l Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation (known as Ablaut). In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense: “scriban - screib – scribum - giscrban. "
l The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old Germanic there were 7 major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes
Stem Changes in Strong Verbs l. Class Infinitive 1 st Preterite 2 nd Preterite Past Participle I i: writan a: wrat writon writen (E) II e: o or u: krjupa e: a kraup U krupum O kropinn (Icel. ) III e: Helpan e: a healp u: hulpon o: holpen IV E niman A nam A: nemum O numans
V E giefan Æ geaf æ: gaefon E giefen VI A faran o: forum A farans VII –a(e) hatan e: or e: o heton - a(e) haten
Weak Verbs Weak verbs are formed principally by adding endings to past and participles. There were only 3 classes of weak verbs:
Classes of Weak Verbs - 1) –j- stem – nerian – nerede – nered; l - 2) - o- stem – endian – endode – endod; l - 3) – ai– stem – habban – haefde – haefd l -4) na/no fulls – fullnan gafullan (Goth). l In Gothic there were 4 classes of weak verbs.
Past tense was formed by means of the dental suffix –D (-T, S), which possibly derived from the old form of the verb DO, or from Indo-European suffix of Verbal Adjectives.
Preterite-Present Verbs were a very ancient group. Their root of the present form derived from the Past form, and the Past tense was formed by means of the dental suffix –D (-T).
Examples: sculan – skal – skulda (shall); magan – maeg – meahta (may); cunnan – cann, cuthe (can) etc Kunnum – kuntha - kunthedjau (Goth)
Atypical Verbs l Additionally there is a group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be". l They have their own conjugation schemes to make them as distinct as possible, to reduce the possibility that a listener will mishear the word.
l wesan (to be) - has got only the Present tense forms, uses the verb béon in the Past
gán (to go) l Pres. Past l Sg. 1 gá - éode l 2 gæ'st éodest l 3 gæ'þ - éode l
dón (to do) Pres. Past Sg. 1 dó - dyde 2 dést } dó - dydest } dyde 3 déþ - dyde
Germanic verbs had both Finite and Non-Finite Forms. l The Verbals included Infinitive, Participle 1 and Participle 2. Infinitive originated from Verbal Nouns just naming the action but not showing its characteristics. It included an Indo-European suffix –N- e. g. - berenne, etannne (Dative case). It used to be declined as a Noun.
Participle l Participle 1 was formed from the present stem by means of suffix -ND l – e. g. berende; Goth. nasjands (saving). l Participle 2 had suffix –D or N l – e. g. boren; Goth nasiths (saved).
l Participle 1 denoted action. Participle 2 of transitive verbs had passive meaning, non-transitive – active meaning. They were used in descriptive verb constructions.
l Insert missing forms and define the type of a verb l A) writan ------writon - writen l B) macan - macode -----l C) ----– maeg – meahta
