In the Germanic languages, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, and are therefore often regarded as the norm (the regular verbs). They are distinguished from the Germanic strong verbs by the fact that their past tense form is marked by an inflection containing a pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //d//, or pronounced as //ð// sound (as in English I walk~I walked) rather than by changing the verb's root vowel (as in English I rise~I rose).
Whereas the strong verbs are the oldest group of verbs in Germanic, originating in Indo-European, the weak verbs arose as an innovation in proto-Germanic. Originally the weak verbs consisted of new verbs coined from pre-existing nouns (for example the noun name was turned into the verb to name), or coined from strong verbs to express the sense of causing the action denoted by that strong verb (for example the strong verb to rise was turned into the weak verb to raise).
However, over time, the weak verbs have become the normal form of verbs in all Germanic languages, with most strong verbs being reassigned to the weak class. For example, in Old English the verb to lock (English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lūcan) was strong (present tense English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ic lūce 'I lock', past tense English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ic lēac 'I locked'), but has now become weak. This transition is ongoing. For example, the English verb to cleave currently exists in both a conservative strong form (past tense I clove) and an innovative weak form (past tense I cleaved).
In Germanic languages, weak verbs form their preterites and past participles by means of a dental suffix, an inflection that contains a pronounced as //t// or pronounced as //d// sound or similar. (For comparative purposes, they will be referred to as a dental, but in some of the languages, including most varieties of English, pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// are alveolar instead.) In all Germanic languages, the preterite and past participle forms of weak verbs are formed from the same stem.
Infinitive | Preterite | |
---|---|---|
English (regular) | to love | loved |
to laugh | laughed | |
English (irregular) | to say | said |
to send | sent | |
to buy | bought | |
to set | set | |
German | German: lieben (love) | German: liebte |
German: bringen (bring) | German: brachte |
Historically, the pronunciation of the suffix in the vast majority of weak verbs (all four classes) was pronounced as /[ð]/ but, in most sources discussing Proto-Germanic, it is spelled (d) by convention. In the West Germanic languages, the suffix hardened to pronounced as /[d]/, but it remained a fricative in the other early Germanic languages (Gothic and often in Old Norse).
In the English language, the dental is a after a voiced consonant (loved) or vowel (laid), a after a voiceless consonant (laughed), and after the dentals/alveolars and themselves, but English uses the suffix spelling (ed) regardless of pronunciation, with the exception of a few verbs with irregular spellings.
In Dutch, pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// are distributed as in English provided there is a following vowel. When there is no following vowel, terminal devoicing leads to the universal pronounced as //t//. Nevertheless, Dutch still distinguishes between the spellings in (d) and (t) even in final position: see the 't kofschip rule.
In Afrikaans, which descends from Dutch, the past tense has fallen out of use altogether, and the past participle is marked only with the prefix Afrikaans: ge-. Therefore, the suffix has disappeared along with the forms that originally contained it.
In German the dental is always pronounced as //t// and always spelled (t) because of the third phase of the High German consonant shift (d→t).
In Low German, the dental ending of the preterite tense was originally pronounced as //d// or pronounced as //t//, according to the stem of the verb. However the ending has fallen out in pronunciation, starting in the 17th century when the preterite was written with the ending German: -er representing the sound pronounced as /[ɐ]/, which was already the last remnant of the former -de and -te endings of Middle Low German. Now, the only Low German verbs that still show a remnant of a dental ending are Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: leggen, which has the preterite Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: leed, and the verb Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: hebben, which has Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: harr with old r-ending from the Middle Low German dental.
In Icelandic, the dental was originally a voiced dental fricative pronounced as //ð//. It is preserved as such after vowels, voiced fricatives, and pronounced as //r// but has been hardened to a stop pronounced as //d// after nasals and pronounced as //l//. It and has been devoiced to pronounced as //t// after voiceless consonants and in some other cases (in most Old Norse texts, the alternation is already found in heavy roots, but the light ones preserve pronounced as //ð//). Furthermore, the voicing contrast between pronounced as //d// and pronounced as //t// has been replaced in modern Icelandic by an aspiration contrast, which may not be realized phonetically in all the relevant positions.
The situation of early Norwegian was similar to Icelandic, but intervocalic pronounced as //ð// eventually disappeared. In the verbs in which it remains, the dental is pronounced as //t// or pronounced as //d//, depending on conjugation class and dialect. It is spelled accordingly. In Nynorsk, it can be different in the preterite and the past participle.
Swedish has a similar situation to that of Norwegian, but the dental is retained in the spelling, even between vowels. Some informal spellings indicate a lost dental, such as in Swedish: sa ("said") from the standard spelling Swedish: sade.
In Proto-Germanic, there were seven types of weak verbs, five of which were significant. However, they are normally grouped into four classes, based on the conjugational system of Gothic.
Class I verbs actually consist of three classes in Proto-Germanic:
A small class of verbs had no suffix in the present, and no suffix in the past (other than the -d- or -t- of all weak verbs). This class had only three members:
A small class of verbs had the suffix -j- in the present and no suffix in the past. This class had only five members in Proto-Germanic:
Verbs of this class were said to undergo rückumlaut ("reverse umlaut") in the past, since the umlaut occurring in the present (triggered by the -j-) is undone or "reversed" in the past (due to the lack of the umlaut-triggering stem -i- of subclass [iii]), leading to a non-umlauted vowel in the past.
These verbs also have consonant and vowel alternations between present and past that are due to regular sound changes but result in strikingly different forms in the historical Germanic languages (e.g., think, past tense thought). Specifically:
The class remained small in Gothic, but expanded significantly in the other languages:
In Late Old English, further verbs in -can were drawn into this class by analogy, but with umlaut maintained, e.g., English, Old (ca.450-1100);: bepǣcan "to deceive", past tense English, Old (ca.450-1100);: bepǣhte, earlier English, Old (ca.450-1100);: bepǣcte, or English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wleccan "to warm," past tense English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wlehte, earlier English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wlecede. At the same time, verbs in -ccan were modified to follow the same pattern, as in the new past tense form English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cwehte alongside earlier English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cweahte.
A large class of verbs had the suffix -j- in the present and -i- in the past, for example, Gothic Gothic: '''satjan''' "to set" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: settan) and sandjan "to send" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sendan). As shown in the Old English cognates:
This class was split into two subclasses in all the Old Germanic languages, one consisting of short-stem verbs and one of long-stem verbs. The distinction between the two was originally due to Sievers' Law, and was extended due to changes such as West Germanic gemination, which affected short-stem but not long-stem verbs. The West Germanic languages had a third subclass consisting of short-stem verbs ending in -r (e.g., Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: erian "to plow," English, Old (ca.450-1100);: nerian "to save," English, Old (ca.450-1100);: styrian "to stir"), due to West Germanic gemination and subsequent loss of -j- not taking place.
The following is a cross-language paradigm of a short-stem Class I verb Germanic languages: '''*gramjaną''' "to anger" (Gothic Gothic: '''gramjan''', Old Norse Norse, Old: '''gremja''', Old High German German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: '''gremmen''', Old Saxon '''*gremmian''', Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremman, Old Frisian '''*gremma'''). Note that the Old Saxon and Old Frisian verbs given here are unattested, almost certainly due to the small nature of the respective corpora.
Gothic | Old Norse | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Frisian | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | Gothic: gramjan | Norse, Old: gremja | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmen | gremmian | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremman | gremma | ||
Pres. | Gothic: gramja | Norse, Old: grem | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmu | gremmiu | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremme | gremme | ||
Gothic: gramjis | Norse, Old: gremr | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremis(t) | gremis | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremes(t) | gremest | |||
Gothic: gramjiþ | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremit | gremid | gremeþ | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremeth | ||||
Gothic: gramjōs | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: gramjats | ||||||||
Gothic: gramjam | Norse, Old: gremjum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmemēs (-ēn) | gremmiad | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremmaþ | gremmath | |||
Gothic: gramjiþ | Norse, Old: gremið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmet | ||||||
Gothic: gramjand | Norse, Old: gremja | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremment | ||||||
Pres. subj. | Gothic: gramjáu | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremme | gremmia (-i.e.) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremme | ||||
Gothic: gramjái | Norse, Old: gremi | |||||||
Gothic: gramjáis | Norse, Old: gremir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmēs(t) | gremmias (-ies) | |||||
Gothic: gramjáiwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: gramjáits | ||||||||
Gothic: gramjáima | Norse, Old: gremim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmēm (-ēn, -ēmēs) | gremmian | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremmen | ||||
Gothic: gramjáiþ | Norse, Old: gremið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmēt | ||||||
Gothic: gramjáina | Norse, Old: gremi | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmēn | ||||||
Past | Gothic: gramida | Norse, Old: gramda | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremita | gremida | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremede | |||
Gothic: gramida | Norse, Old: gramdi | |||||||
Gothic: gramidēs | Norse, Old: gramdir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitōs(t) | gremidōs | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremedes(t) | gremedest | |||
Gothic: gramidēdu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: gramidēduts | ||||||||
Gothic: gramidēdum | Norse, Old: grǫmdum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitum (-un, -umēs) | gremidun | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremedon | ||||
Gothic: gramidēduþ | Norse, Old: grǫmduð | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitut | ||||||
Gothic: gramidēdun | Norse, Old: grǫmdu | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitun | ||||||
Past subj. | Gothic: gramidēdjáu | Norse, Old: gremda | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremiti (-ī) | gremidi | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremede | |||
Gothic: gramidēdi | Norse, Old: gremdi | |||||||
Gothic: gramidēdeis | Norse, Old: gremdir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitīs(t) | gremidīs | |||||
Gothic: gramidēdeiwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: gramidēdeits | ||||||||
Gothic: gramidēdeima | Norse, Old: gremdim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitīm (-īn, -īmēs) | gremidīn | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremeden | ||||
Gothic: gramidēdeiþ | Norse, Old: gremdið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitīt | ||||||
Gothic: gramidēdeina | Norse, Old: gremdi | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremitīn | ||||||
Imper. | Gothic: gramei | Norse, Old: grem | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremi | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: greme | ||||
Gothic: gramjadáu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: gramjats | ||||||||
Gothic: gramjam | Norse, Old: gremjum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmemēs (-ēn) | colspan="3" | |||||
Gothic: gramjiþ | Norse, Old: gremið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmet | gremmiad | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremmaþ | gremmath | |||
Gothic: gramjandáu | colspan="5" | |||||||
Pres. participle | Gothic: gramjands | Norse, Old: gremjandi | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gremmenti | gremmiand | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremmende | gremmand | ||
Past participle | Gothic: gramiþs | Norse, Old: *gramiðr | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gigremit | gremid | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: gremed |
The following is a cross-language paradigm of a long-stem Class I verb Germanic languages: '''*hauzijaną''' "to hear" (Gothic Gothic: '''hausjan''', Old Norse Norse, Old: '''heyra''', Old High German German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: '''hōren''', Old Saxon '''hōrian''', Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''hīeran''', Old Frisian '''hēra''')
Gothic | Old Norse | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Frisian | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | Gothic: hausjan | Norse, Old: heyra | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōren | hōrian | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīeran | hēra | ||
Pres. | Gothic: hausja | Norse, Old: heyri | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōru | hōriu | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīere | hēre | ||
Gothic: hauseis | Norse, Old: heyrir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōris(t) | hōris | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīer(e)s(t) | hēr(i)st | |||
Gothic: hauseiþ | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrit | hōrid | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīer(e)þ | hēr(i)th | ||||
Gothic: hausjōs | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: hausjats | ||||||||
Gothic: hausjam | Norse, Old: heyrum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōremēs (-ēn) | hōriad | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīeraþ | hērath | |||
Gothic: hauseiþ | Norse, Old: heyrið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōret | ||||||
Gothic: hausjand | Norse, Old: heyra | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrent | ||||||
Pres. subj. | Gothic: hausjáu | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōre | hōria (-i.e.) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīere | hēri (-e) | |||
Gothic: hausjái | Norse, Old: heyri | |||||||
Gothic: hausjáis | Norse, Old: heyrir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrēs(t) | hōrias (-ies) | |||||
Gothic: hausjáiwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: hausjáits | ||||||||
Gothic: hausjáima | Norse, Old: heyrim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrēm (-ēn, -ēmēs) | hōrian | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīeren | hēri (-e) | |||
Gothic: hausjáiþ | Norse, Old: heyrið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrēt | ||||||
Gothic: hausjáina | Norse, Old: heyri | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrēn | ||||||
Past | Gothic: hausida | Norse, Old: heyrða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrta | hōrda | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīerde | hērde | ||
Gothic: hausida | Norse, Old: heyrði | |||||||
Gothic: hausidēs | Norse, Old: heyrðir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtōs(t) | hōrdōs | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hiērdes(t) | hērdest | |||
Gothic: hausidēdu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: hausidēduts | ||||||||
Gothic: hausidēdum | Norse, Old: heyrðum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtum (-un, -umēs) | hōrdun | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīerdon | hērdon | |||
Gothic: hausidēduþ | Norse, Old: heyrðuð | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtut | ||||||
Gothic: hausidēdun | Norse, Old: heyrðu | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtun | ||||||
Past subj. | Gothic: hausidēdjáu | Norse, Old: heyrða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrti (-ī) | hōrdi | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīerde | hērde | ||
Gothic: hausidēdi | Norse, Old: heyrði | |||||||
Gothic: hausidēdeis | Norse, Old: heyrðir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtīs(t) | hōrdīs | |||||
Gothic: hausidēdeiwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: hausidēdeits | ||||||||
Gothic: hausidēdeima | Norse, Old: heyrðim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtīm (-īn, -īmēs) | hōrdīn | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīerden | hērde | |||
Gothic: hausidēdeiþ | Norse, Old: heyrðið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtīt | ||||||
Gothic: hausidēdeina | Norse, Old: heyrði | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrtīn | ||||||
Imper. | Gothic: hausei | Norse, Old: heyr | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōri | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīer | hēre | |||
Gothic: hausjadáu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: hausjats | ||||||||
Gothic: hausjam | Norse, Old: heyrum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōremēs (-ēn) | colspan="3" | |||||
Gothic: hauseiþ | Norse, Old: heyrið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōret | hōriad | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīeraþ | hērath | |||
Gothic: hausjandáu | colspan="5" | |||||||
Pres. participle | Gothic: hausjands | Norse, Old: heyrandi | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: hōrenti | hōriand | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīerende | hērand | ||
Past participle | Gothic: hausiþs | Norse, Old: heyrðr | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: gihōrit | hōrid | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hīered | hēred |
Class II verbs were formed with a suffix -ō-. In the northern West Germanic languages, an alternative extended suffix -ōja- sometimes appears in the non-past forms, e.g., the Old English infinitive English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''-ian''' < '''*-ōjan'''.
The following is a cross-language paradigm of Germanic languages: '''*laþōną''' "to invite" (Gothic Gothic: '''laþōn''', Old Norse Norse, Old: '''laða''', Old High German German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: '''ladōn, lathōn''', Old Saxon '''lathian [-ōjan]''', ladian [-ōjan], Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''laþian''', Old Frisian '''lathia''').
Gothic | Old Norse | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Frisian | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | Gothic: laþōn | Norse, Old: laða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōn, lathōn | lathian (-ōjan), ladian (-ōjan) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþian | lathia | ||
Pres. | Gothic: laþō | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōm (-ōn), lathōm (-ōn) | lathōn, ladōn | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþie | lathie | |||
Gothic: laþōs | Norse, Old: laðar | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōs(t), lathōs(t) | lathōs, ladōs | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþast | lathast (-est) | |||
Gothic: laþōþ | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþaþ | lathath | ||||
Gothic: laþōs | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: laþōts | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōm | Norse, Old: lǫðum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōmēs (-ōn), lathōmēs (-ōn) | lathōd (-ōjad), ladōd (-ōjad) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþiaþ | lathiath | |||
Gothic: laþōþ | Norse, Old: laðið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōt, lathōt | ||||||
Gothic: laþōnd | Norse, Old: laða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōnt, lathōnt | ||||||
Pres. subj. | Gothic: laþō | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: lado, latho | lathō (-ōja), ladō (-ōja) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþie | lathie | |||
Norse, Old: laði | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōs | Norse, Old: laðir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōs(t), lathōs(t) | lathōs (-ōjes), ladōs (-ōjes) | |||||
Gothic: laþōwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: laþōts | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōma | Norse, Old: laðim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōm (-ōn, -ōmēs), lathōm (-ōn, -ōmēs) | lathōn, ladōn | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþien | lathie | |||
Gothic: laþōþ | Norse, Old: laðið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōt, lathōt | ||||||
Gothic: laþōna | Norse, Old: laði | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōn, lathōn | ||||||
Past | Gothic: laþōda | Norse, Old: laðaða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōta, lathōta | lathōda, ladōda | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþode | lathade | ||
Norse, Old: laðaði | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōdēs | Norse, Old: laðaðir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtōs(t), lathōtōs(t) | lathōdōs, ladōdōs | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþodest | *lathadest | |||
Gothic: laþōdēdu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: laþōdēduts | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdum | Norse, Old: lǫðuðum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtum (-un, -umēs), lathōtum (-un, -umēs) | lathōdun, ladōdun | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþodon | lathadon | |||
Gothic: laþōdēduþ | Norse, Old: lǫðuðuð | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtut, lathōtut | ||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdun | Norse, Old: lǫðuðu | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtun, lathōtun | ||||||
Past subj. | Gothic: laþōdēdjáu | Norse, Old: laðaða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōti (-ī), lathōti (-ī) | lathōda, ladōda | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþode | *lathade | ||
Gothic: laþōdēdi | Norse, Old: laðaði | |||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdeis | Norse, Old: laðaðir | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtīs(t), lathōtīs(t) | lathōdōs, ladōdōs | |||||
Gothic: laþōdēdeiwa | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdeits | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdeima | Norse, Old: laðaðim | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtīm (-īn, -īmēs), lathōtīm (-īn, -īmēs) | lathōdun, ladōdun | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþoden | lathade | |||
Gothic: laþōdēdeiþ | Norse, Old: laðaðið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtīt, lathōtīt | ||||||
Gothic: laþōdēdeina | Norse, Old: laðaði | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōtīn, lathōtīn | ||||||
Imper. | Gothic: laþō | Norse, Old: laða | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: lado, latho | lathō, ladō | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþa | *latha | ||
Gothic: laþōdáu | colspan="5" rowspan="2" | |||||||
Gothic: laþōts | ||||||||
Gothic: laþōm | Norse, Old: lǫðum | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōmēs (-ōn), lathōmēs (-ōn) | colspan="3" | |||||
Gothic: laþōþ | Norse, Old: laðið | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþiaþ | *lathiath | |||
Gothic: laþōndáu | colspan="5" | |||||||
Pres. participle | Gothic: laþōnds | Norse, Old: laðandi | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōnti, lathōnti | lathōnd (-ōjand), ladōnd (-ōjand) | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþiende | lath(i)ande | ||
Past participle | Gothic: laþōþs | Norse, Old: laðaðr | German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | English, Old (ca.450-1100);: laþod | lathad |
What is known as "Class III" was actually two separate classes in Proto-Germanic:
The histories of this class in the various Germanic languages are quite varied:
An example is the stative verb reconstructed as Proto-Germanic Germanic languages: '''*habjaną''' "to have", past indicative third-person singular Germanic languages: '''habdē''':
Only four stative verbs survive as Class III verbs in the northern West Germanic languages (i.e., Old English, Old Saxon, Old Frisian and Old Low Franconian):
However, there are five more verbs that appear as Class III verbs in Old High German, Gothic, and/or Old Norse that also have remnants of the stative conjugation in one or more northern West Germanic languages:
Class IV verbs were formed with a suffix -nan, e.g., Gothic Gothic: '''fullnan''' "to become full". The present tense was conjugated as a strong verb, for example, Gothic Gothic: '''fullna, fullnis, fullniþ''', etc. The past tense was conjugated with suffix -nō-, e.g., Gothic Gothic: '''fullnōda, fullnōdēs''', etc. 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. This class has fientive semantics, that is, "become X," where X is an adjective or a past participle of a verb.
Note that the last two are deverbal even though the underlying root is adjectival because they are formed to other verbs (which are in turn formed from adjectives).
The vast majority of Class IV verbs appear to be deverbal. Class IV verbs derived from weak verbs keep the same stem form as the underlying weak verb. However, class IV verbs derived from strong verbs adopt the ablaut of the past participle, for example:
In the modern languages, the various classes have mostly been leveled into a single productive class. Icelandic, Norwegian and Frisian have retained two productive classes of weak verbs. (In Frisian, in addition to the class with -de, there is a class of je- verbs, where the dental suffix has dropped, i.e., -je < -iad.) Swiss German also has two types of weak verbs, descended from Class I and Classes II and III, respectively, of Old High German weak verbs and marked with -t and -et, respectively, in the past participle.[1]
In the history of English, the following changes happened:
In modern English, only one productive weak paradigm remains, derived from Class II. A number of Class I verbs still persist, for example:
As the previous list shows, although there is only one productive class of weak verbs, there are plenty of "irregular" weak verbs that do not follow the paradigm of this class. Furthermore, the regular paradigm in English is not unitary, but in fact is divided into subclasses in both the written and spoken language, although in different ways:
Both of these characteristics occur in a similar fashion in most or all the modern Germanic languages. In modern German, for example, descendants of the original subclass (ii) of Class I are still irregular (e.g., German: '''denken [dachte]''' "to think", German: '''brennen [brannte]''' "to burn"), and subclasses of the productive verb paradigm are formed by verbs ending in -eln or -ern and in -ten or -den, among others.
One of the regular weak verb conjugations is as follows.
English | West Frisian | Dutch | Low German | German | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | work | Western Frisian: wurkje | Western Frisian: leare | Dutch; Flemish: werken | Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: warken | German: werken | |
Present | I work thou workest he works we work you work they work | Western Frisian: ik wurkje <br /> do wurkest <br /> hy wurket <br /> wy wurkje <br /> jim wurkje <br /> hja wurkje | Western Frisian: ik lear <br /> do learst <br /> hy leart <br /> wy leare <br /> jim leare <br /> hja leare | Dutch; Flemish: ik werk <br /> jij werkt; werk jij? <br /> hij werkt <br /> wij werken <br /> jullie werken <br /> zij werken | Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: ik wark <br /> du warks(t) <br /> he warkt <br /> wi warkt <br /> ji warkt <br /> se warkt | German: ich werke <br /> du werkst <br /> er werkt <br /> wir werken <br /> ihr werkt <br /> sie werken | |
Preterite | I worked thou workedst he worked we worked you worked they worked | Western Frisian: ik wurke <br /> do wurkest <br /> hy wurke <br /> wy wurken <br /> jim wurken <br /> hja wurken | Western Frisian: ik learde <br /> do leardest <br /> hy learde <br /> wy learden <br /> jim learden <br /> hij learden | Dutch; Flemish: ik werkte <br /> jij werkte <br /> hij werkte <br /> wij werkten <br /> jullie werkten <br /> zij werkten | Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: ik wark <br /> du warks(t) <br /> he warkt <br /> wi warken <br /> ji warken <br /> se warken | German: ich werkte <br /> du werktest <br /> er werkte <br /> wir werkten <br /> ihr werktet <br /> sie werkten | |
Past participle | worked | Western Frisian: wurke | Western Frisian: leard | Dutch; Flemish: gewerkt | Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: (ge)warkt | German: gewerkt |
Danish | Norwegian Bokmål | Swedish | Norwegian Nynorsk | Icelandic | Faroese | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | Danish: virke | Swedish: verka | Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian: verka/verke | Icelandic: verka | Faroese: virka 1 | ||
present | Danish: jeg virker <br /> du virker <br /> han virker <br /> vi virker <br /> I virker <br /> de virker | Swedish: jag verkar <br /> du verkar <br /> han verkar <br /> vi verkar <br /> ni verkar <br /> de verkar | Icelandic: ég verka <br /> þú verkar <br /> hann verkar <br /> við verkum <br /> þið verkið <br /> þeir verka | Faroese: {{not a typo|eg | |||
Preterite | Danish: jeg virkede <br /> du virkede <br /> han virkede <br /> vi virkede <br /> I virkede <br /> de virkede | Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: jeg virket/virka <br /> du virket/virka <br /> han virket/virka <br /> vi virket/virka <br /> dere virket/virka <br /> de virket/virka | Swedish: jag verkade <br /> du verkade <br /> han verkade <br /> vi verkade <br /> ni verkade <br /> de verkade | Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian: {{not a typo|eg | Icelandic: ég verkaði <br /> þú verkaðir <br /> hann verkaði <br /> við verkuðum <br /> þið verkuðuð <br /> þeir verkuðu | Faroese: {{not a typo|eg | |
Past participle | Danish: virket | Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: virket/virka | Swedish: verkat | Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian: verka | Icelandic: verkað | Faroese: virkaður |
1. prepare, manufacture
Weak verbs should be contrasted with strong verbs, which form their past tenses by means of ablaut (vowel gradation: sing - sang - sung). Most verbs in the early stages of the Germanic languages were strong. However, as the ablaut system is no longer productive except in rare cases of analogy. Almost all new verbs in Germanic languages are weak, and the majority of the original strong verbs have become weak by analogy.
As an example of the rather common process of originally strong verbs becoming weak, we may consider the development from the Old English strong verb English, Old (ca.450-1100);: scūfan to modern English shove:
Many hundreds of weak verbs in contemporary English go back to Old English strong verbs.
In some cases, a verb has become weak in the preterite but not in the participle and may be thought of as "semi-strong" (not a technical term). Dutch has a number of examples:
An example in English is:
Often, the old strong participle may survive as an adjective long after it has been replaced with a weak form in verbal constructions. The English adjective molten is an old strong participle of melt, which is now a purely weak verb with the participle melted. The participle German: gebacken of the German verb German: backen (to bake), is gradually being replaced by German: gebackt, but the adjective is always German: gebacken (baked).
The reverse process is very rare and can also be partial, producing "semi-strong" verbs as in show showed shown (originally a weak verb with its participle modelled on sown)
Weak verbs that develop strong forms are often unstable. A typical example is German German: fragen (to ask), which is historically weak and is still weak in standard German. However, for a time in the 18th century, the forms German: fragen, frug, gefragen by analogy with, for example, German: tragen (to carry) were also considered acceptable in the standard. They survive today (along with a present tense German: frägt) in the Rhinelandic regiolect and underlying dialects. In Dutch, the new strong past Dutch; Flemish: vroeg of the cognate Dutch; Flemish: vragen is standard today, but its past participle is weak Dutch; Flemish: gevraagd (though some dialects do have Dutch; Flemish: gevrogen).
The weak conjugation of verbs is an innovation of Proto-Germanic (unlike the older strong verbs, the basis of which goes back to Proto-Indo-European). While primary verbs (those inherited from PIE) already had an ablaut-based perfect form that was the basis of the Germanic strong preterite. Secondary verbs (those derived from other forms after the break-up of PIE) had to form a preterite otherwise, which necessitated the creation of the weak conjugation.
The vast majority of weak verbs are secondary, or derived. The two main types of derived verbs were denominative and deverbative. A denominative verb is one that has been created out of a noun. The denominative in Indo-European and early Germanic was formed by adding an ablauting thematic *-y- suffix to a noun or adjective. This created verbs such as Gothic Gothic: namnjan 'to name'.
A significant subclass of Class I weak verbs are (deverbal) causative verbs. They are formed in a way that reflects a direct inheritance from the PIE causative class of verbs. PIE causatives were formed by adding an accented affix -éy- to the o-grade of a non-derived verb. In Proto-Germanic, causatives are formed by adding a suffix -j/ij- (the reflex of PIE -éy-) to the past-tense ablaut (mostly with the reflex of PIE o-grade) of a strong verb (the reflex of PIE non-derived verbs), with Verner's Law voicing applied (the reflex of the PIE accent on the -éy- suffix):
Essentially, all verbs formed this way were conjugated as Class I weak verbs.
That method of forming causative verbs is no longer productive in the modern Germanic languages, but many relics remain. For example:
In some cases, phonological or semantic developments make the pairs difficult to recognise. For example:
There are primary verbs that date to Indo-European that took a weak conjugation because they were unable to take a perfect, including verbs that had zero grade of the root in the present and so were unable to show the ablaut distinction necessary for a strong preterite. That was the case with the Gothic verbs Gothic: waurkjan "to work, create," Gothic: bugjan "to buy," and Gothic: sokjan "to seek."
Preterite-present verbs are primary verbs in which the PIE present was lost, and the perfect was given a present meaning. They needed a new past tense, which followed the weak pattern.
Most borrowings from other languages into Germanic were weak. However, this was not always the case: for example, 'to write' from Latin .
The origin of the dental suffix is uncertain. Perhaps the most commonly held theory is that it evolved out of a periphrastic construction with the verb to do: Germanic *Germanic languages: lubō-dē- ("love-did") > Germanic languages: *lubōdē- > Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lufode > loved or *Germanic languages: salbō-dē- ("salve-did", i.e., "put salve") > *Germanic languages: salbōdē- > Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sealfode > salved. That would be analogous to do-support in modern English: I did love, I did salve.
The common PIE root Indo-European languages: *dʰeh₁- meaning 'do' was a root aorist and so did not take a perfect. However, it took a reduplicating present. The imperfect of the root, which filled in the simple past in Germanic, is probably the origin of the dental suffix.
Periphrastic origin of dental suffix | PIE imperfect of "do" | Proto-Germanic past of "do" | Gothic weak preterite ending |
---|---|---|---|
Singular | Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰéh₁-m | Germanic languages: *dedǭ | Gothic: -da |
Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰéh₁-s | Germanic languages: *dedēz | Gothic: -des | |
Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰéh₁-t | Germanic languages: *dedē | Gothic: -da | |
Plural | Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰh₁-m̥é | Germanic languages: *dēdum | Gothic: -dēdum |
Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰh₁-té | Germanic languages: *dédd → *dēdud (by analogy) | Gothic: -dēduþ | |
Indo-European languages: *dʰe-dʰh₁-n̥t | Germanic languages: *dēdun | Gothic: -dēdun |
That view is not without objections:
The objections are sometimes answered as follows:
Another theory is that it came from a past participle ending, a final *-daz from PIE *-tos (compare Latin Latin: amatus), with personal endings added to it at a later stage. That theory, however, is also disputed because of its inability to explain all the facts.
According to Hill (2010), the endings, which in the singular do not show reduplication in any Germanic language, continue the PIE subjunctive of the root aorist.
The term "weak verb" was originally coined by Jacob Grimm, who only applied it to Germanic philology. However, the term is sometimes applied to other language groups to designate phenomena that are not really analogous. For example, Hebrew irregular verbs are sometimes called weak verbs because one of their radicals is weak. See weak inflection.