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In modern English, strong verbs include sing (present I sing, pastI sang, past participleI have sung) and drive (present I drive, past I drove, past participle I have driven), as opposed to weak verbs such as open (present I open, past I opened, past participle I have opened). Not all verbs with a change in the stem vowel are strong verbs, however: they may also be irregular weak verbs such as bring, brought, brought or keep, kept, kept. The key distinction is that most strong verbs have their origin in the earliest sound system of Proto-Indo-European, whereas weak verbs use a dental ending (in English usually -ed or -t) that developed later with the branching off of Proto-Germanic.
The "strong" vs. "weak" terminology was coined by the German philologist Jacob Grimm in the 1800s, and the terms "strong verb" and "weak verb" are direct translations of the original German terms starkes Verb and schwaches Verb.
Origin and development
Strong verbs have their origin in the ancestral Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language. In PIE, vowel alternations called ablaut were frequent and occurred in many types of word, not only in verbs. The vowel that appeared in any given syllable is called its "grade". In many words, the basic vowel was *e (e-grade), but, depending on what syllable of a word the stress fell on in PIE, this could change to *o (o-grade), or disappear altogether (zero grade). Both e and o could also be lengthened to ē and ō (lengthened grade). Thus ablaut turned short e into the following sounds:
zero
short
long
Ø
e
ē
o
ō
As the Germanic languages developed from PIE, they dramatically altered the Indo-European verbal system. PIE verbs could occur in three distinct aspects: the aorist, present and perfect aspect. The aorist originally denoted events without any attention to the specifics or ongoing nature of the event ("ate", perfective aspect). The present implied some attention to such details and was thus used for ongoing actions ("is eating", imperfective aspect). The perfect was a stative verb, and referred not to the event itself, but to the state that resulted from the event ("has eaten" or "is/has been eaten"). In Germanic, the aorist eventually disappeared and merged with the present, while the perfect took on a past tense meaning and became a general past tense. The strong Germanic present thus descends from the PIE present, while the past descends from the PIE perfect. The inflections of PIE verbs also changed considerably.
In the course of these changes, the different root-vowels caused by PIE ablaut became markers of tense. Thus in Germanic, *bʰer- became *beraną in the infinitive (e-grade); *bar in the past singular (o-grade); *bērun in the past plural (ē-grade); and *buranaz in the past participle (zero-grade).
In Proto-Germanic, the system of strong verbs was largely regular. As sound changes took place in the development of Germanic from PIE, the vowels of strong verbs became more varied, but usually in predictable ways, so in most cases all of the principal parts of a strong verb of a given class could be reliably predicted from the infinitive. Thus we can reconstruct Common Germanic as having seven coherent classes of strong verbs. This system continued largely intact in the first attested Germanic languages, notably Gothic, Old English, Old High German and Old Norse.
Gradual disappearance
As well as developing the strong verb system, Germanic also went on to develop two other classes of verbs: the weak verbs and a third, much smaller, class known as the preterite-present verbs, which are continued in the English auxiliary verbs, e.g. can/could, shall/should, may/might, must. Weak verbs originally derived from other types of word in PIE and originally occurred only in the present aspect. They did not have a perfect aspect, meaning that they came to lack a past tense form in Germanic once the perfect had become the past. Not having a past tense at all, they obviously also had no vowel alternations between present and past. To compensate for this, a new type of past tense was eventually created for these verbs by adding a -d- or -t- suffix to the stem. This is why only strong verbs have vowel alternations: their past tense forms descend from the original PIE perfect aspect, while the past tense forms of weak verbs were created later.
The development of weak verbs in Germanic meant that the strong verb system ceased to be productive: practically all new verbs were weak, and few new strong verbs were created. Over time, strong verbs tended to become weak in some languages, so that the total number of strong verbs in Germanic languages has decreased over time.
The coherence of the strong verb system is still present in modern German, Dutch, Icelandic and Faroese. For example, in German and Dutch, strong verbs are consistently marked with a past participle in -en, while weak verbs have a past participle in -t in German and -t or -d in Dutch. In English, however, the original regular strong conjugations have largely disintegrated, with the result that in modern English grammar, a distinction between strong and weak verbs is less useful than a distinction between "regular" and "irregular" verbs. Thus, the verb to help, which used to be conjugated help-holp-holpen, is now help-helped-helped. The reverse phenomenon, whereby a weak verb becomes strong by analogy, is rare.
Some verbs, which might be termed "semi-strong", have formed a weak preterite but retained the strong participle, or rarely vice versa. This type of verb is most common in Dutch:
An instance of this phenomenon in English is swell, swelled, swollen (though swelled is also found for the past participle, and the older strong form swole persists in some dialects as the preterite and past participle and has found new use in recent years.[1]).
Conjugation
As an example of the conjugation of a strong verb, we may take the Old English class 2 verb bēodan, "to offer" (cf. English "bid").
ic bēad þū bude hē bēad wē budon gē budon hīe budon
ic bude þū bude hē bude wē buden gē buden hīe buden
– bēode! – – bēodað!, bēode gē! –
geboden
While the inflections are more or less regular, the vowel changes in the stem are not predictable without an understanding of the Indo-European ablaut system, and students have to learn five "principal parts" by heart. For this verb they are bēodan,bīett,bēad,budon,geboden. These are:
The infinitive: bēodan. The same vowel is used through most of the present tense. In most verbs (other than classes 6 and 7), this represents the original ablaut e-grade.
The present tense 3rd singular: bīett. The same vowel is used in the 2nd singular. In many verbs, this has the same vowel as part 1. When it is distinct, as here, it is always derived from part 1 by Umlaut. For this reason, some textbooks do not treat it as a principal part.
The preterite (i.e. past indicative) 1st singular: bēad, which is identical to the 3rd singular. In this verb, part 3 comes from a PIE o-grade.
The preterite plural: budon. In West Germanic, the same vowel is used in the 2nd singular. In this verb, part 4 comes from a PIE zero-grade.
The past participle: geboden. This vowel is used only in the participle. In some verbs, part 5 is a discrete ablaut grade, but in this class 2 verb it is derived from part 4 by an a-mutation.
Strong verb classes
Germanic strong verbs are commonly divided into seven classes, based on the type of vowel alternation. This is in turn based mostly on the type of consonants that follow the vowel. The Anglo-Saxon scholar Henry Sweet gave names to the seven classes:
The "drive" conjugation
The "choose" conjugation
The "bind" conjugation
The "bear" conjugation
The "give" conjugation
The "shake" conjugation
The "fall" conjugation
However, they are normally referred to by numbers alone.
In Proto-Germanic, the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, the strong verbs were still mostly regular. The classes continued largely intact in Old English and the other older historical Germanic languages: Gothic, Old High German and Old Norse. However, idiosyncrasies of the phonological changes led to a growing number of subgroups. Also, once the ablaut system ceased to be productive, there was a decline in the speakers' awareness of the regularity of the system. That led to anomalous forms and the six big classes lost their cohesion. This process has advanced furthest in English, but in some other modern Germanic languages (such as German), the seven classes are still fairly well preserved and recognisable.
The reverse process in which anomalies are eliminated and subgroups reunited by the force of analogy is called "levelling", and it can be seen at various points in the history of the verb classes.
In the later Middle Ages, German, Dutch and English eliminated a great part of the old distinction between the vowels of the singular and plural preterite forms. The new uniform preterite could be based on the vowel of the old preterite singular, on the old plural, or sometimes on the participle. In English, the distinction remains in the verb "to be": I was, we were. In Dutch, it remains in the verbs of classes4 & 5 but only in vowel length: ik brak (I broke – short a), wij braken (we broke – long ā). In German and Dutch it also remains in the present tense of the preterite presents. In Limburgish there is a little more left. E.g. the preterite of to help is (weer) hólpe for the plural but either (ich) halp or (ich) hólp for the singular.
In the process of development of English, numerous sound changes and analogical developments have fragmented the classes to the extent that most of them no longer have any coherence: only classes 1, 3 and 4 still have significant subclasses that follow uniform patterns.
Before looking at the seven classes individually, the general developments that affected all of them will be noted. The following phonological changes that occurred between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic are relevant for the discussion of the ablaut system.
The development of grammatischer Wechsel as a result of Verner's law (the voicing of fricatives after an unstressed vowel). This created variations in the consonant following the ablaut vowel.
When the zero grade appears before l, r, m or n, the vowel u was inserted, effectively creating a new "u-grade".
o → a (also oy → ai, ow → au).
e → i when i, ī or j followed in the next syllable. This change is known as umlaut, and was extended to affect other vowels in most later languages.
ey → ī as a result of the above.
e → i before m or n followed by another consonant. This had the effect of splitting class3 into 3a and 3b.
In West Germanic, the 2ndperson singular past indicative uses the vowel of Part3. Its ending is also an -i of unclear origin, rather than the expected -t< PIE *-th₂e of North and East Germanic, which suggests that this state of affairs is an innovation.
Classes 1 to 6
The first 5 classes appear to continue the following PIE ablaut grades:
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
1, 2, 3
e
o
zero
4
ē
zero
5
e
Except for the apparent ē-grade in part3 of classes4 and 5, these are in fact straightforward survivals of the PIE situation.
The standard pattern of PIE is represented in Germanic by classes1, 2, and 3, with the present (part1) in the e-grade, past indicative singular (part2) in the o-grade, and remaining past (part3) and past participle (part4) in the zero grade. The differences between classes1, 2, and 3 arise from semivowels coming after the root vowel, as shown in the table below.
As can be seen, the e-grade in part1 and o-grade in part2 are shared by all of these five classes. The difference between them is in parts3 and 4:
In classes1 and 2, the semivowel following the vowel was converted in the zero grade into a full vowel.
In class3 and the past participle of class4, there was no semivowel but there were PIE syllabic resonants which developed in Germanic to u plus resonant; thus u became the Germanic sign of these parts. There is some evidence that this may have been the original behaviour of the past nonsingular / nonindicative of class4 as well: to wit, preterite-presents whose roots have the class4 shape show u outside the present indicative singular, such as *man- ~ *mun- "to remember", *skal- ~ *skul- "to owe".
In class5, the zero grade of the past participle had probably been changed to e-grade already in PIE, because these verbs had combinations of consonants that were phonotactically illicit as a word-initial cluster, as they would be in the zero grade.
The *ē in part3 of classes4 and 5 is not in fact a PIE lengthened grade but arose in Germanic. Ringe suggests that it was analogically generalised from the inherited part3 of the verb *etaną "to eat" before it had lost its reduplicant syllable, PIE *h₁eh₁d- regularly becoming Germanic *ēt-.
Class6 appears in Germanic with the vowels a and ō. PIE sources of the a vowel included *h₂e, *o, and a laryngeal between consonants;[a] possibly in some cases the a may be an example of the a-grade of ablaut, though the existence of such a grade is controversial. It is not clear exactly how the ō is to be derived from an earlier ablaut alternant in PIE, but believable sources include contraction of the reduplicant syllable in PIE *h₂-initial verbs, or o-grades of verbs with interconsonantal laryngeal. In any event, within Germanic the resulting a ~ ō behaved as just another type of vowel alternation.
In Proto-Germanic, this resulted in the following vowel patterns:
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
Usual PIE origin
1
*rīdaną
*raid
*ridun
*ridanaz
to ride
Vowel + y/i.
2a
*freusaną
*fraus
*fruzun
*fruzanaz
to freeze
Vowel + w/u.
2b
*lūkaną
*lauk
*lukun
*lukanaz
to close, to shut
Arose in analogy to Class1.
3a
*bindaną
*band
*bundun
*bundanaz
to bind
Vowel + m or n + another consonant.
3b
*werþaną
*warþ
*wurdun
*wurdanaz
to become
Vowel + l or r + another consonant.
4
*beraną
*bar
*bērun
*buranaz
to bear
Vowel + l, r, m or n + no other consonant.
5
*lesaną
*las
*lēzun
*lezanaz
to gather
Vowel + any consonant other than y, w, l, r, m or n.
6
*alaną
*ōl
*ōlun
*alanaz
to grow, to mature
Vowel + a single consonant, if the present stem had a or o in late PIE.
Class2b is of unknown origin, and does not seem to reflect any PIE ablaut pattern.[2]
In class3, there are also a few cases where the vowel is followed, at least in Proto-Germanic, by two consonants, neither of which is a nasal or a liquid.[3] Examples: *brestaną "to burst", *þreskaną "to thresh" *fehtaną "to fight". All but one have a nasal or a liquid in front of the vowel. This will have become syllabic and resulted regularly in u before the nasal or liquid, which was then metathesised on the analogy of the remaining principal parts. E.g. part3 of *brestaną will have been *bʰr̥st-> *burst-, reformed to *brust-.
Similarly, class6 includes some cases where the vowel is followed by two obstruents, like *wahsijaną "to grow".
In classes5, 6 and 7, there is also a small subgroup called "j-presents". These form their present tense with an extra -j-, which causes umlaut in the present where possible. In West Germanic, it also causes the West Germanic gemination.
Class 7
The forms of class7 were very different and did not neatly reflect the standard ablaut grades found in classes1–6. Instead of (or in addition to) vowel alternations, this class displayed reduplication of the first consonants of the stem in the past tense.[4]
It is generally believed that reduplication was once a feature of all Proto-Indo-European perfect-aspect forms. It was then lost in most verbs by Proto-Germanic times due to haplology. However, verbs with vowels that did not fit in the existing pattern of alternation retained their reduplication. Class7 is thus not really one class, but can be split into several subclasses based on the original structure of the root, much like the first five classes. The first three subclasses are parallel with classes1–3 but with e replaced with a: Class7a is parallel to class1, class7b to class2, and class7c to class3.
The following is a general picture of the Proto-Germanic situation as reconstructed by Jasanoff.[5] Earlier reconstructions of class7 were generally based mostly on Gothic evidence.
Subclass
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
Root pattern
7a
*haitaną
*hegait
*hegitun
*haitanaz
to call
a + i
7b
*hlaupaną *stautaną
*heglaup *stestaut
*heglupun *stestutun
*hlaupanaz *stautanaz
to leap to push, to bump
a + u
7c
*haldaną *fanhaną
*hegald *febanh
*heguldun *febungun
*haldanaz *fanganaz
to hold to catch
a + l, r, m or n + another consonant (if no other consonant follows, the verb belongs to class6)
The situation sketched above did not survive intact into any of the Germanic languages. It was changed significantly, but rather differently in Gothic on the one hand, and in the Northwest Germanic languages on the other.
Gothic
Reduplication was retained in Gothic,[4] with the vowel ai inserted. However, as in all other strong verbs, consonant alternations were almost eliminated in favour of the voiceless alternants. The present and past singular stem was extended to the plural, leaving the reduplication as the only change in the stem between the two tenses. The vowel alternation was retained in a few class7d verbs, but eliminated otherwise by generalising the present tense stem throughout the paradigm. The verb lētan "to allow" retained the past form lailōt with ablaut, while slēpan "to sleep" had the past tense form saislēp without it. The form saizlēp, with Verner-law alternation, is occasionally found as well, but it was apparently a relic formation with no other examples of alternation elsewhere.
Northwest Germanic
In the northwest Germanic languages, which include all modern surviving Germanic languages, class7 was drastically remodelled. Reduplication was almost eliminated, except for a few relics, and new ablaut patterns were introduced. Many attempts have been made to explain this development. Jasanoff posits the following series of events within the history of Northwest Germanic:[5]
Root-initial consonant clusters were transferred to the beginning of the reduplicating syllable, to preserve the same word onset across the paradigm. The clusters were simplified and reduced medially. (Compare Latin scindō ~ scicidī and spondeō ~ spopondī, which show the same development)
Based on the pattern of verbs such as singular *lelōt, *rerōd ~ plural *leltun, *rerdun, as well as verbs like singular *swewōg ~ plural *sweugun, the root vowel or diphthong was deleted in the past plural stem. The Germanic spirant law caused devoicing in certain consonants where applicable.
In class7c verbs, this resulted in consonant clusters that were not permissible (e.g. **hegldun); these clusters were simplified by dropping the root-initial consonant(s).
*haldaną: *hegald, *heguldun > *hegald, *heldun
*fanhaną: *febanh, *febungun > *febanh, *fengun
The past plural stem of class7c verbs no longer appeared to be reduplicated because of the above change, and was extended to the singular. This created what appeared to be a new form of ablaut, with a in the present and e in the past plural.
*haldaną: *hegald, *heldun > *held, *heldun
*fanhaną: *febanh, *fengun > *feng, *fengun
This new form of ablaut was then extended to other classes, by alternating *a with *e in classes7a and 7b, and *ā with *ē in class7d (after Proto-Germanic *ē had become *ā in Northwest Germanic). In class7a, this resulted in the vowel *ei, which soon merged with *ē (from Germanic *ē²).
It is at this point that North and West Germanic begin to diverge.
In West Germanic, class7e took *eu as the past stem vowel, by analogy with existing verbs with initial *(s)w- such as *wōpijaną, *weup(un) and *swōganą, *swewg(un).
In North Germanic, class7e instead took *ē as the past stem vowel, probably by analogy with class7c which also had a long stem vowel.
*blōtaną: *blelōt(un) > *blēt(un)
Stages4 and 5 were not quite complete by the time of the earliest written records. While most class7 verbs had replaced reduplication with ablaut entirely, several vestigial remains of reduplication are found throughout the North and West Germanic languages. Various other changes occurred later in the individual languages. *e in class7c was replaced by *ē (> ia) in Old High German and Old Dutch, but by *eu (> ēo) in Old English.
The following "Late Proto-Northwest-Germanic" can be reconstructed as descendants of the earlier Proto-Germanic forms given above. Note that ē became ā in northwest Germanic.
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
7a
*haitaną
*hēt
*hētun
*haitanaz
7b
*hlaupaną
*hleup
*hleupun
*hlaupanaz
7c
*haldaną
*held
*heldun
*haldanaz
7d
*rādaną
*rēd
*rēdun
*rādanaz
7e
*blōtaną
*bleut (West), *blēt (North)
*bleutun (West), *blētun (North)
*blōtanaz
Proto-Germanic
The Proto-Germanic language most likely used more than 500 strong roots. Although some roots are speculative, the language can be reconstructed with the following strong roots based on the work of Elmar Seebold (1970), Robert Mailhammer (2007) and Guus Kroonen (2013). Proto-Germanic had aorist-present roots, a remnant of the aorist aspect found in Proto-Indo-European. These verbs used the former aorist as a present tense form. The aorist had a zero-grade vowel, like parts 3 and 4 of the perfect. So these verbs have an anomalous vowel in the present tense, they decline regularly otherwise.
Being the oldest Germanic language with any significant literature, it is not surprising that Gothic preserves the strong verbs best. However, some changes still occurred:
e > i, eliminating the distinction between the two vowels, except in the reduplicated syllable where e (spelled ai) was retained in all cases.
i > e (spelled ai) and u > o (spelled au) when followed by r, h or ƕ.
Consonant alternations are almost eliminated by generalising the voiceless alternant across all forms.
Also, long ī was spelled ei in Gothic.
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
dreiban
draif
dribun
dribans
to drive
2a
liugan
laug
lugun
lugans
to lie (tell untruth)
2b
lūkan
lauk
lukun
lukans
to close, to shut
3a
bindan
band
bundun
bundans
to bind
3b
hilpan wairþan
halp warþ
hulpun waurþun
hulpans waurþans
to help to become
4
qiman bairan
qam bar
qēmun bērun
qumans baurans
to come to bear
5
lisan saiƕan
las saƕ
lēsun sēƕun
lisans saiƕans
to gather to see
6
alan
ōl
ōlun
alans
to grow, to mature
7a
haitan
haihait
haihaitun
haitans
to call
7b
hlaupan
haihlaup
haihlaupun
hlaupans
to leap
7c
haldan fāhan
haihald faifāh
haihaldun faifāhun
haldans fāhans
to hold to catch
7d
lētan saian
lailōt saisō
lailōtun saisōun
lētans saians
to allow to sow
7e
ƕōpjan
ƕaiƕōp
ƕaiƕōp
ƕōpans
to boast
Note: The sounds kw and hw are transcribed in Gothic as q and ƕ respectively.
West Germanic
Changes that occurred in the West Germanic languages:
ē > ā
a-mutation: u > o when a follows in the next syllable. This affected the past participles of classes 2–4. However, an intervening m or n + consonant blocked this, so the past participle of class 3a kept u.
Extension of umlaut to back vowels, causing it to apply also to verbs of class 6.
The perfective prefix ga- came to be used (but neither exclusively nor invariably) as a marker of the participle. In English this prefix disappeared again in the Middle Ages.
English
Old English
The following changes occurred from West Germanic to Old English:
ai > ā
eu > ēo
au > ēa
a > æ except when a back vowel followed in the next syllable
ā > ǣ
Breaking before certain consonants: æ > ea and e > eo
The old second-person singular ("thou") form acquires the ending "-st" in the past, but the second-person singular falls out of common use and is replaced with the second-person plural.
Elimination of almost all verb inflection in strong verbs, except for the third-person singular present ending -s (and the second-person ending "-(e)st", when used).
Either the past singular form or the past plural form is generalised to the other number. As a result, only one form exists for all past tense forms and parts 2 and 3 are no longer distinguished.
Combined with the above, all consonant alternations are eliminated by generalising the consonant of the present. Only be preserves the alternation: was versus were.
Modern English
In Modern English, generally speaking, the verb classes have disintegrated and are not easily recognisable. For the principal parts of all English strong verbs see: Wiktionary appendix: Irregular English verbs.
The following modern English verbs resemble the original paradigm:
Class
Part 1
Parts 2 and 3
Part 4
1
ride bite
rode bit
ridden bitten
2
freeze
froze
frozen
3
swim win
swam won
swum won
4
break
broke
broken
5
give
gave
given
6
take
took
taken
7b
beat
beaten
7c
fall
fell
fallen
7d
throw
threw
thrown
7e
grow
grew
grown
Class 1
Class 1 is still recognisable, as in most other Germanic languages. The modern past is taken from either the old past singular (ride rode ridden) or the old past plural (bite bit bitten). In the case of shine shone shone, the past participle has also assimilated to the past singular.
Class 1 roots in modern English (excluding derived verbs such as abide and override) are bide, bite, chide, drive, hide, ride, rise, rive, shine, shit/shite, shrive, slide, smite, stride, strike, strive, thrive, write. Bide, chide, rive, shine, shrive, strive, thrive can also be weak. However, although most of these verbs have uniformity in their infinitive vowel, they no longer form a coherent class in further inflected forms – for example, bite (bit, bitten), ride (rode, ridden), shine (shone, shone), and strike (struck, struck/stricken, with struck and stricken used in different meanings) all show different patterns from one another – but bide, drive, ride, rise, smite, stride, strive, write do form a (more or less) coherent subclass. Most of these verbs are descended from Old English class 1 verbs. However:
strive is a French loan-word which is class 1 by analogy to drive. (By coincidence it is ultimately descended from an Old Frankish class 1 verb.)
thrive is a class 1 verb formed by analogy to drive, its Old English ancestor being weak and descended from Old Norse þrífa (itself a class 1 strong verb, meaning "to grasp").
hide is a class 1 verb whose Old English ancestor, hȳdan, was weak.
In American English, the past tense of the verb dive is usually dove, as though it is in Class 1, but the past participle is still dived.
Class 2
Class 2 does not form a coherent class, as each verb has developed different irregularities. It includes choose, cleave, fly, freeze and shoot (whose usual passive participle is shot rather than shotten). The verb bid (in the sense of "to offer") was in Class 2, but now the past and past participle are bid. The obsolete verb forlese is now used only as the passive participle forlorn.
Class 3
Class 3 in English is still fairly large and regular. The past is formed either from the old past singular or from the past plural. Many of the verbs have two past forms, one of which may be dialectal or archaic (begin, drink, ring, shrink, sing, slink, spin, spring, stink, swing, swim and wring). The class 3a verbs in modern English are:
past can have either a or u: shrink, sink, stink, spring, wring (in colloquial language, bring can be analogically brought into this subclass)
English fling does not go back to Old English, and may be a loan-word from Norse. It seems to have adopted class 3 forms by analogy with cling etc. Similarly, ring and string were historically weak. The verb ding (in the meaning of to hit) was in this class as well, but is now usually treated as a weak verb.
Class 3b has shrunk to only four members:
melt (the past tense is weak, but retains the strong participle ‘molten’ )
swell (but the past tense is now often swelled instead of swole, and sometimes the passive participle as well)
burst, its past tense and participle have both become the same as the present tense. This is also the case for its variant bust
Class 4
In Modern English, regular class 4 verbs have all kept the –n in the participle, though eliminating the medial e after r, this class exhibits near homogeneity of vowel pattern:
break broke broken
but several verbs have archaic preterites that preserve the "a" of Middle English (bare, brake, gat, sware, tare, and spake or Scotsspak). Class 4 verbs in English (not including derivatives such as beget) are bear, break, get, shear, speak, steal, swear, tear, tread, wake, weave; and without the -n and of irregular vowel progression: come. Get, speak, tread and weave (weave, and occasionally tread, can also be weak) were originally of class 5, whereas swear was originally class 6. Wake was also originally class 6, and in fact retains the "a" of the present tense – the preterite woke (Middle English wook) only conforms to the modern class 4 preterite, not to the historic class 4 preterite in "a". The verb come is anomalous in all the West Germanic languages because it originally began with qu-, and the subsequent loss of the w sound coloured the vowel of the present stem. modern English "come came come", compared to Old English cuman cymþ – cōm cōmon – cumen and Middle English comen – cam or com – comen.
Class 5
In Modern English this group has lost all group cohesion.
eat ate eaten
give gave given
lie lay lain
see saw seen
sit sat sat (archaic sitten)
Class 5 verbs in Modern English: bid (in the sense of "to command" or "to invite"), eat, forbid, give, lie (= lie down), see, sit. The verb quethe is only used poetically now. Get, speak, tread, and weave, which come from Class 5 verbs, are now Class 4. The verb forbid comes from a Class 2 verb in Old English, as did bid in the sense of "to offer, proclaim", but forbid is conflated with the other verb bid ("to command"). The preterite can be forbad or forbade, or even forbid. The preterite ate is pronounced "et" in some British dialects; historically the form eat, homophonous with the present stem was also found for the preterite. Although the verb to be is suppletive and highly irregular, its past follows the pattern of a class 5 strong verb, with grammatischer Wechsel (the alternation of "s" and "r" in "was" versus "were"), and has uniquely retained the singular/plural distinction of both ablaut grade and consonant in the modern languages. Old English: wæs/wǣron, English: was/were. For full paradigms and historical explanations see Indo-European copula.
Class 6
Class 6 has disintegrated as well. The verbs shake, take and forsake come closest to the original vowel sequence. The consonant anomaly in stand is still visible, and is extended to the participle.
shake shook shaken
stand stood stood
Class 6 verbs in modern English: drag, draw, forsake, lade, shake, shape, shave, slay, stand, take. The verb heave is in this class when used in a nautical context. Like most other classes in Modern English, this class has lost cohesion and now forms principal parts according to many different patterns. Two preterites (drew and slew) are now spelled with "ew", which is similar in sound to the "oo" of the others that still use a strong form. Swear is now class 4. The adjective graven was originally a past participle of the now obsolete verb grave. Lade, shape, shave, wax are now weak outside of their optionally strong past participle forms (laden, shapen, shaven, and waxen respectively). Fare has archaic past tense fore and rare past participle faren, but is normally weak now.
Class 7
In Modern English, this class has lost its homogeneity:
fall fell fallen
hang hung hung (In the transitive sense of hanging someone by the neck, hang usually has regular weak conjugation hanged)
hold held held (the original past participle is preserved in the adjective beholden)
throw threw thrown
The following modern English verbs descend from class 7 verbs, and still retain strong-verb endings: beat, blow, fall, hew, grow, hang, hold, know, throw. (Hew can be a preterite or present, although the usual preterite, and sometimes the participle too, is hewed.) The verb let can be considered Class 7, though the past participle now lacks the ending -en. The verbs mow and sow sometimes retain the strong-verb participles mown and sown but the preterites are now usually mowed and sowed. (The verb sew was always weak, even though one can say sewn for the past participle.) The verb show, originally a weak verb, has acquired a strong past participle shown, and in some dialects even a class 7 strong past tense shew (This "shew" is not to be confused with present "shew", which is an older spelling of, and pronounced the same as, "show"). Archaic English still retained the reduplicated form hight ("called", originally a past tense, usually with a passive meaning, but later also used as a passive participle). The verb crow was also in class 7, as in the King James Version "while he yet spake, the cock crew".
Dutch
Old Dutch is attested only fragmentarily, so it is not easy to give forms for all classes. Hence, Middle Dutch is shown here in that role instead. The situation of Old Dutch generally resembled that of Old Saxon and Old High German in any case.
Lengthening of vowels in open syllables: e > ē, o > ō, a > ā, although it continues to be written with a single vowel. i is lengthened to ē, and short y (from umlaut of u) to eu/øː/.
Unlike most other languages, umlaut does not affect long vowels or diphthongs except in the eastern dialects.
Because of the combined effect of the two above points, umlaut is eliminated as a factor in verb conjugation.
From Middle Dutch to Modern Dutch:
Diphthongisation of long high vowels: /iː/ > /ɛi/, /yː/ > /œy/ (spelled <ij> and <ui>)
Monophthongisation of opening diphthongs: /iə/ > /i/, /uə/ > /u/ (still spelled <ie> and <oe>)
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
rijden
reed
reden
gereden
to drive, to ride
2a
vriezen
vroor
vroren
gevroren
to freeze
2b
sluiten
sloot
sloten
gesloten
to close
3a
binden
bond
bonden
gebonden
to bind, to tie
3b
bergen
borg
borgen
geborgen
to protect, to store away
3 + 7
sterven
stierf
stierven
gestorven
to die
4
stelen
stal
stalen
gestolen
to steal
4 Irregular
scheren
schoor
schoren
geschoren
to cut, shave
5
geven
gaf
gaven
gegeven
to give
5 Irregular
zitten
zat
zaten
gezeten
to sit
6
graven
groef
groeven
gegraven
to dig
7b
lopen
liep
liepen
gelopen
to walk, to run
7c
vallen
viel
vielen
gevallen
to fall
7c Irregular
hangen
hing
hingen
gehangen
to hang
7d
slapen
sliep
sliepen
geslapen
to sleep
7e
roepen
riep
riepen
geroepen
to call
Class 1
This class is well preserved and has the most strong verbs. Not only has it preserved many strong verbs inherited from the proto language, it was also able to expand by introducing the strong inflection to a large number of weak verbs by analogy. Sound changes caused the historical ‘ai’ and ‘i’ in open syllables, to merge as a long ‘e’ essentially merging parts 2,3,4.
Two verbs with 'ei' have also joined this class by analogy, as 'ij' and 'ei' are pronounced the same: uitscheiden, zeiken.
Non-standard, archaic or dialectal strong verbs: beklijven (strong verb forms are archaic), benijden (strong forms are common but non-standard), breien (strong forms are common but non-standard), drijten (a dialectal strong verb), hijgen (strong forms are common but non-standard), mijgen / miegen (a dialectal strong verb), pijpen (archaic strong verb, in the sense of playing a windinstrument), grijnen (an archaic strong verb), wrijten (archaic/dialectal strong verb), zijpen (dialectal strong verb), gedijen (the past tense gedee(g) is dialectal, the strong past participle gedegen has the meaning thorough whereas the weak past participle gedijd means thriven, which corresponds to the regular meaning of the verb).
Class 2
A notable development in Dutch is the growth of class 2b at the expense of class 2a. Like class 1, sound changes caused the historical ‘au’ and ‘u’ in open syllables, to merge as a long ‘o’ merging parts 2,3,4.
Non-standard, archaic or dialectal strong verbs: fuiven (strong forms are used in colloquial Flemish), gluipen (a weak verb, strong forms are archaic), kruien (weak verb, strong forms are archaic), ontpluiken (an archaic strong verb), ruilen (strong forms are used in southern dialects), sluiken (an archaic strong verb), stuipen (an archaic strong verb), wuiven (strong forms are common but non-standard).
Anomalous class 2 roots:
The verbs verliezen and vriezen preserved the grammatischer Wechsel: verliezen-verloor-verloren, vriezen-vroor-gevroren. Although the root kiezen has lost the alternation, the derived verb (uit)verkiezen still displays it in poetic or archaic contexts: verkiezen-verkoor-verkoren.
The verb tijgen has a class 2 past tense and participle when it means 'to pull'.
The verb spugen can also be declined with a class 2 past tense and participle.
Class 3
Class 3a and 3b have generalised part 3 to part 2, eliminating the -a- from this class. Some 3b verbs have a past in -ie- like class 7: helpen – hielp – geholpen. This can be considered a new "class 3 + 7".
Three verbs of another class have joined with 3b: treffen, trekken (both class 5), zwemmen (class 3a).
Historically weak: schenden, schenken, zenden; These verbs became strong by reinterpreting the Rückumlaut that was present in some Old and Middle Dutch weak verbs as a strong vowel alternation.
The verb worden (to become) also belonged to class 3b, but the past and present vowels appear to have been swapped: worden werd geworden.
Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: barsten, the verb changed the older vowels 'e' and 'o' into 'a': barsten – barstte – gebarsten
Class 4
Class 4 and 5 verbs still show the distinction in vowel between the past singular (part 2) and plural (part 3), although this is not obvious due to the rules of Dutch orthography: ik nam ("I took") has the plural wij namen (not *nammen), that is, the 'short' vowel [ɑ] of the singular is replaced by the 'long' [aː] in the plural. (Note the relationship of consonant doubling to vowel length, which is explained at Dutch orthography). The pattern is therefore: breken brak (braken) gebroken ("to break")
Class 4 roots with 'o(o)' in the preterite (eː-o:-o:-oː): scheren, wegen and zweren ("to hurt, to sore").
Anomalous roots:
The present tense vowel of the verb komen was influenced by a preceding w, which was subsequently lost. The etymological w is retained in the past, unlike English or German: komen – kwam – kwamen – gekomen.
Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: verhelen (helen is a weak verb however), wreken.
Class 5 j-present roots (ɪ--ɑ-a:-eː): bidden, liggen, zitten. These have a short 'i' in part 1 because of the gemination of the consonants, they retain the long 'e' vowel in part 4.
Anomalous roots:
The root zien ("to see") has experienced a loss of the original /h/, with a resulting assimilation of the stem vowel to the vowel of the inflection, and shows Grammatischer Wechsel between this original /h/ and a /g/ in the past: zien – zag – zagen – gezien.
The preterite of wezen / zijn ("to be") still shows both (quantitative) ablaut and grammatischer Wechsel between the singular and plural: was/waren.
Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: weven.
Class 6
Class 6 has become very small, many of its verbs have gone weak or have become semi-strong.
The verb slaan (to hit) like the verb zien has experienced a loss of the original /h/, with a resulting assimilation of the stem vowel to the vowel of the inflection, and shows Grammatischer Wechsel between this original /h/ and a /g/ in the past: slaan – sloeg – sloegen – geslagen.
The suppleted past tense of the verb staan ("to stand") also belonged to this class, it now declines with a short 'o': staan – stond – stonden – gestaan.
The three inherited j-presents, heffen, scheppen, and , zweren ("to swear an oath") historically decline with 'e'-'oe'-'oe'-'a(a)'. In the modern language they decline irregularly, two have taken 'ie' in the past tense, all three have taken separate vowels in the participle: scheppen – schiep – geschapen ("to create"), heffen – hief – geheven ("to lift, raise"), zweren – zwoer – gezworen ("to swear an oath"),.
Semi-strong roots with a strong past tense and a weak participle: jagen, klagen (Flemish, colloquially), vragen, waaien.
Semi-strong roots with a weak past tense and a strong participle: lachen, laden, malen, varen ("to fare" The sense "to travel by boat" has a class 6 past voer)
Class 7
Class 7 has shrunk in the modern language, like class 6 many of its verbs have become semi-strong. This class has an -ie- in the past tense, the past participle has the same vowel as the present tense. (The verbs with * are nowadays mostly semi-strong)
Class 7a has disappeared. The verbs heten ("to call") and scheiden ("to separate") have become semi-strong.
Class 7c: gaan, houden, houwen, vallen, hangen, vangen, wassen* (The meaning to "to grow" is always strong but is archaic, the meaning "to wash" is mostly semi-strong).
As in German, two anomalous class 7c verbs have formed new present stems, and shortened the vowel in the past tense: vangen – ving – gevangen ("to catch") and hangen – hing – gehangen ("to hang"). The suppleted past tense of the verb gaan ("to go") also belongs to this class and is declined: gaan – ging – gegaan.
A special case is hoeven, which is a weak verb that can decline with a strong participle in some circumstances, even though the verb was never strong to begin with.
Afrikaans
The distinction between simple past, present and past perfect has been lost in Afrikaans, as the original past tense has fallen out of use almost entirely, being replaced with the old present perfect tense using (usually) a strong past participle. For example, the ancestral Dutchhij zong has become hy het gesing ("he sang/has sung/had sung"). Modal verbs tend to retain their strong past tense, and a handful of other verbs do so too. Verbs almost never retain both a strong past tense and a strong past participle, due to the loss of the grammatical distinction. The exception is wees ("to be"), which does retain both was and gewees. Nonetheless, there are many verbs for which the new past tense is formed with a strong past participle, such as geboë from buig ("bend") or gedrewe from dryf ("drive" to set into motion).
The notion exists that strong past participles always have a figurative meaning, and weak and strong past participles sometimes coexist within the language. Sometimes, this seems to be the case. For instance, compare strong and figurative bedorwe jeug ("spoiled youth") to weak and literal bederfde yoghurt ("spoiled yoghurt"), or strong and figurative gebroke hart ("broken heart") to weak and literal gebreekte vaas ("broken vase"). Nonetheless, this notion is not 100% accurate. Sometimes the strong past participle just happens to be more common. For instance, the strong participles are used in bevrore groente ("frozen vegetables") and aangenome kinders ("adopted children").[7]
Class 2b verbs are rare, unlike in the more northern languages.
A few relics of reduplication remain:
ana-stōzan ana-sterōz ("to strike")
pluozan pleruzzun ("to sacrifice"), in Upper German with the change b > p
ki-scrōtan ki-screrōt ("to cut"), in Upper German with the change g > k
būan biruun ("to dwell"); this was not a class 7 strong verb originally
Changes from Old High German to Modern German:
io, ia, ie > ī (spelled <ie>)
ei, ī > ai (retaining the spelling <ei>)
ou, ū > au
ȳ > ɔy (spelled <eu> or <äu>)
i > ī (spelled <ie>) before a single consonant.
Alternations between past singular and plural are eliminated by generalising part 3 or part 2. If part 3 is generalised in verbs with alternations of the s-r type, it is not just generalised to the past singular but also to the present.
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
reiten leihen
ritt lieh
ritten liehen
geritten geliehen
to ride to lend
2a
bieten
bot
boten
geboten
to offer, to bid
2b
saugen
sog
sogen
gesogen
to suck
3a
binden rinnen glimmen
band rann glomm
banden rannen glommen
gebunden geronnen geglommen
to bind to flow to shine, to glow
3b
helfen dreschen
half drosch
halfen droschen
geholfen gedroschen
to help to thresh
4
treffen
traf
trafen
getroffen
to hit
5
geben
gab
gaben
gegeben
to give
6
graben
grub
gruben
gegraben
to dig
7a
heißen
hieß
hießen
geheißen
to be called
7b
laufen
lief
liefen
gelaufen
to walk/run
7c
halten
hielt
hielten
gehalten
to hold
7d
schlafen
schlief
schliefen
geschlafen
to sleep
7e
stoßen
stieß
stießen
gestoßen
to push, to knock
The classes are still well preserved in modern German.
Class 1
In class 1, part 3 is generalised, eliminating the older -ei- or -e-. However, a new subdivision arises because the i of the past tense forms is lengthened to ie before a single consonant. reiten ritt geritten ("to ride") versus leihen lieh geliehen ("to loan"). Class 1 verbs in modern German are:
Anomalous class 1 roots: The verbs leiden and schneiden preserved the verner alternation: "leiden – litt – gelitten, schneiden – schnitt – geschnitten".
Class 2
In class 2, part 2 is generalised, eliminating older -u-. Class 2b verbs are rare, as in Old High German.
The roots sieden and ziehen have preserved the verner alternation: "sieden – sott – gesotten" and "ziehen – zog – gezogen"
The roots lügen ("to tell a lie") and trügen ("to deceive"), have changed their present tense vowels from 'ie' to 'ü'. This no doubt arises from a desire to disambiguate Middle High German liegen from ligen (class 5), which would have sounded the same after vowel lengthening. Trügen would have followed in its wake, because the two words form a common rhyming collocation.
The verb kiesen has become obsolete, however the strong past tense and past participle are still used. Some speakers reinterpreted these forms as if they are part of the related verb küren, creating the pattern: küren-kor-gekoren.
In German class 2b was never large, the modern language retains the following verbs: krauchen, saufen, saugen, schnauben.
Class 3
In class 3, part 2 is generalised. The o of the 3b participle has been passed by analogy to some 3a verbs, and also to the past of some verbs of both groups: beginnen begann begonnen, bergen barg geborgen ("to rescue"), quellen quoll gequollen ("to well up"). Thus, there are now 5 subgroups:
The root werden generalizes part 3 instead of part 2 (ɛ-ʊ-ɔ), and also suffixes -e; werden, wurde, geworden. The original (part 2) singular preterite ward is still recognizable to Germans, but is archaic.
The root löschen replaced the vowel of the infintive with 'ö' (œ-ɔ-ɔ).
The root schallen can be declined with a strong past tense in 'o'.
The root schinden which was originally weak, acquired an anomalous strong inflection with 'u' (ɪ-ʊ-ʊ).
Class 4
In class 4, the long -a- of part 3 was generalised to part 2. Example: nehmen nahm genommen ("to take").
Several of these verbs have been moved into this class from other classes. sprechen and treffen were originally class 5, befehlen was originally class 3, and stechen was originally class 1 (having had a change in the present vowel). schrecken was originally a weak verb and remains weak in transitive use.
Anomalous:
kommen ("to come") still has the anomalous o in the present stem (although some dialects have regularised it to kemmen): kommen kam gekommen
The preterite of sein ("to be") is Old High German: was/wârum, but levelled in modern German: war/waren.
Class 5
Class 5 is little changed from Old High German, like class 4 the long -a- of part 3 was generalised.
The verb essen ("to eat") had a past participle giezzan in OHG; in MHG this became geezzen which was contracted to gezzen and then re-prefixed to gegezzen.
Class 6 with short vowels in present tense and participle (a-u:-a): backen, schaffen, wachsen, waschen. backen and fragen are usually weak nowadays.
Anomalous class 6 roots:
The j-presents heben, schwören have taken an o in the preterite and participle, perhaps by analogy with class 2: heben hob gehoben. The verb schwören has changed e to ö.
The past tense and participle of stehen (stand, older stund, gestanden), which derive from a lost verb *standen, also belong to this class.
fangen, hängen have back-formed new present stems from the past stem, and have eliminated grammatischer Wechsel and shortened the vowel in the past tense: fangen fing gefangen ("to catch"), hängen hing gehangen ("to hang").
The past tense and participle of German gehen, ginggegangen, derive from a lost verb *gangen which belongs to this class. (The verb still exists in other languages, such as the verb gang used in Scotland and northern England.)
There is no single Modern Low German, and some sources gives different forms than this. E.g. see
Alfred v. d. Velde: Zu Fritz Reuter! Praktische Anleitung zum Verständniß des Plattdeutschen an der Hand des ersten Kapitels des Fritz Reuter'schen Romanes: "Ut mine Stromtid". Zweite Auflage. Leipzig, 1881, p.60–63
Julius Wiggers: Grammatik der plattdeutschen Sprache. In Grundlage der Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommerschen Mundart. Zweite Auflage. Hamburg, 1858, p.57 ff.
Some differences:
They have böd, böden instead of bood, boden, föll, föllen instead of full, fullen, stürw, stürwen, storwen instead of storv, storven, storven.
They have spreken with sprök (thus not "4 regular (e-o-a)")
From Middle Low German to Modern Low German:
ā > ē
ō > ā except before r
a > o in preterite forms
e > a/ö when followed by two different consonants
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
rieden
reed
reden
reden
to ride
2a
beden
bood
boden
baden
to offer, to bid
2b
schuven
schoov
schoven
schaven
to shove
3a
binnen
bunn
bunnen
bunnen
to bind
3b
starven swellen
storv swull
storven swullen
storven swullen
to die to swell
4
stehlen steken
stohl steek/stook
stohlen steken/stoken
stahlen steken/staken
to steal
5
geven treden
geev tradd/treed
geven traden/treden
geven treden
to give to tread
6
graven
groov
groven
graven
to dig
7a
heten
heet
heten
heten
to be called
7b
lopen
leep
lepen
lopen
to walk/run
7c
holen fallen
heel full
helen fullen
holen fallen
to hold to fall
7d
slapen
sleep
slepen
slapen
to sleep
7e
ropen
reep
repen
ropen
to call
Most classes are quite well preserved, although the cohesion of some has been lost substantially or even entirely.
Class 1 verbs in Low German are bieten, blieven, blieken, diegen/diehen, drieven, glieden, griepen, kieken, lieden, lieken, mieden, rieten, schienen, schieten, schrieden, schrien/schriegen, schrieven, slieken, sliepen, slieten, smieten, snieden, splieten, stiegen, strieden, strieken, swiegen, verdwienen, wieken, wiesen, wrieven and the originally weak verbs glieken, kniepen, priesen by analogy. Some other verbs take either strong or weak past endings: piepen, riesen and spieten.
In class 2, part 2 is generalised, eliminating older -u-. Unlike in German but as in Dutch and English, class 2b has grown by moving older class 2a verbs into it. They are beden, bedregen, kesen, legen, flegen, fleten, freren/fresen, geneten, geten, krepen, reken, scheten, spreten, tehn, verleren/verlesen; with ū-present: bugen, krupen, schuven, snuven, sluten, supen, sugen, stuven. The verbs rüken and stöven show anomalous infinitive forms. Some verbs can take either strong or weak past endings: duken and schulen.
In class 3, the form of the past participle seems to have been generalised to preterite forms. There are now 5 subgroups + two olders subgroups reduced to one verb each:
3a regular (i-u-u): binnen, dringen, drinken, dwingen, finnen, gelingen, klingen, ringen, slingen, swinnen, swingen, singen, sinken, springen, stinken, wringen. Verbs that may take either strong or weak past endings: blinken, glimmen and klimmen.
3b with e-infinitive and -u- past forms because of phonetical influence of -ll- (e-u-u): gellen, schellen, swellen
3b with e-infinitive (e-o-o): fechten
3b with e-infinitive and different preterite and past participle forms (e-o-a) due to analogy with class 4 verbs: befehlen.
In class 4, parts 2 and 3 seem to have merged into -ē-, but due to the influence of past participle forms mostly with a -ō- sound (nowadays written -ā-) a new ending -ō- has arisen:
4 with two possible preterite forms (e-o/e-a): nehmen, steken
4 with a-infinitive (a-o-a): drapen
The verb kamen still shows the -u- infinitive which became -a-: kamen, keem, kamen. The verb to be, wesen, levelled its old preterite forms was/weren into weer/weren, although was still appears in some dialects.
In class 5 too the -ē- forms of past participle seem to have influenced the preterite forms. Class 5 regular verbs (ē-ē-ē) include: eten, geven, schehn (preterite scheh or scheeg), lesen (nowadays mostly a weak verb), meten, sehn (preterite seeg) and vergeten. Verbs with j-presents: bidden (sometimes confused with beden), liggen, sitten.
The verb treden is anomalous as it has kept the -a- infinitive forms in the preterite and with the variation in vowel length, thus it has tradd, traddst, tradd in the singular with [a] but traden in the plural with [ɒː]. However, normal class 5 preterite forms treed, treedst, treed, treden may also be found.
Class 6 is preserved as well however it has lost its cohesion. Regular class 6 verbs (ā-ō-ā) are graven and slaan (with anomalous infinitive and past participle slaan from earlier slagen). The 3 inherited j-presents have chosen different paths to make their past forms: heven is now similar to a class 5 verb and has heev in the preterite and heven in the past participle, schapen is a weak verb with strong past participle schapen and swören kept its preterite swoor as well as its past participle sworen – even though it may found with weak past forms.
The verb fohren is now merging with föhren and takes weak past endings. The verb dregen has an anomalous infinitive in -ē- but has kept its class 6 past forms droog, drogen (preterite) and dragen (past participle). The verb laden has gone weak but has laden beside laadt in the past participle. The past tense of stahn (stunn), which derives from Middle Low German standen, also belongs to this class.
Finally the verb waschen shows preterite wusch and past participle wuschen, just like fallen, fangen and hangen, they seem to make a new strong verb class.
In class 7, the various past tense forms have merged into a uniform -ee-.
7a (ē-ē-ē) has one single verb: heten since scheden has gone weak.
7b (ō-ē-ō) also includes one verb: lopen, stoten has gone weak but it kept its strong past participle stoten.
7c has lost cohesion. 7c verb holen (from Old Saxon haldan) has regular heel in the past tense and past participle holen, but fallen, fangen, hangen and gahn (from Old Saxon gangan) show full and fullen, fung and fullen, hung and hungen, gung/güng (but past participlegahn) in the preterite and past participle, all with a short -u-. Class 6 verb waschen has also joined this "new class" and has preterite and past participle wusch and wuschen.
7d (ā-ē-ā) verbs include: laten and slapen, raden and braden are semi-strong as they still have their strong past participles raden and braden (though a weak form braadt may be encountered). Blasen has gone weak.
7e (ō-ē-ō) is reduced to one single verb: ropen. This subgroup had become similar to 7b already in Old Saxon.
a-mutation: u > o when a follows in the next syllable. This affected the past participles of classes 2–4. However, an intervening m or n + consonant blocked this, so the past participle of class 3a kept u.
Extension of umlaut to back vowels, causing it to apply also to verbs of class 6.
v- is lost before u or o.
-n is lost from the infinitive and many inflectional endings.
Voiced plosives (but not fricatives) are devoiced word-finally. In Old West Norse, this later causes loss of a preceding nasal.
Breaking of e to ja in most environments, and of eu to jū/jō.
Class
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
ríða
reið
riðu
riðinn
to ride
2a
frjósa drjúpa
fraus draup
frusu drupu
frosinn dropinn
to freeze to drip
2b
lúka
lauk
luku
lokinn
to finish
3a
binda
batt
bundu
bundinn
to bind
3b
verða gjalda
varð galt
urðu guldu
orðinn goldinn
to become to pay
4
bera vefa
bar vaf
báru váfu
borinn ofinn
to bear to weave
5
lesa
las
lásu
lesinn
to gather, to read
6
ala taka
ól tók
ólu tóku
alinn tekinn
to grow, to produce to take
7a
heita
hét
hétu
heitinn
to be called
7b
hlaupa
hljóp
hljópu
hlaupinn
to leap
7c
halda
helt
heldu
haldinn
to hold
7d
gráta
grét
grétu
grátinn
to cry
7e
blóta
blét
blétu
blótinn
to sacrifice
In class 7, several reduplicated verbs are retained: róa reri ("to row"), sá seri ("to sow"), snúa sneri ("to turn").
Danish
Class
Part 1
Part 2 & 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
bide
bed
bidt
to bite
2
skyde
skød
skudt
to shoot
3a
binde
bandt
bundet
to bind
3b
hjælpe
hjalp
hjulpet
to help
4
bære
bar
båret
to bear
5
ligge
lå
ligget
to lay
6
drage
drog
draget
to draw
7a
hedde
hed
heddet
to be called
7b
løbe
løb
løbet
to run
7c
falde
faldt
faldet
to fall
7d
græde
græd
grædt
to cry
Class 1
This class has generalised part 2 over part 3 creating a past tense in 'e'. The class can be split up by the different vowels the supine can take:
Class 4 has most of its members moved to class 3. It is marked by 'a' in the past tense and å in the supine. Regular class 4 strong roots: bære, skære, stjæle
Anomalous: These two verbs were influenced by a preceding 'w':
Long vowels are usually no longer marked as such: é > e, í > i, ó > o, ú > u, ý > y, œ/ǿ > ø
jó/jú > y
Class
Part 1
Part 2 & 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
bite ri(de)
beit rei(d)
biten riden
to bite to ride
2a
fryse
fraus
frosen
to freeze
2b
suge
saug
sogen
to suck
3a
binde brenne
batt brann
bunden brunnen
to bind to burn
3b
verte
vart
vorten
to become
4
bere
bar
boren
to bear
5
lese
las
lesen
to read
6
ale take
ol tok
alen teken
to grow, to produce to take
7a
heite
het
heitt
to be called
7c
halde
heldt
halden
to hold
7d
gråte
gret
gråten
to cry
In class 6, one verb, fara (to fare, travel), has retained its marked long vowel: fór.
Multiple of the verbs found in class 7 in Old Norse have gone weak. For instance, although heite (7a) have retained its strong preterite, it has lost its strong supine.
Swedish
Class
Part 1
Part 2 & 3
Part 4
Verb meaning
1
bita
bet
biten
to bite
2a
flyga
flög
flugen
to fly
2b
suga
sög
sugen
to suck
3a
binda
band
bunden
to bind
3b
svälta
svalt
svulten
to starve
4
bära
bar
buren
to wear, carry
5
äta, ge
åt, gav
äten, given
to eat, to give
6
fara
for
faren
to travel
7b
löpa
löpte
lupen
to run
7c
hålla
höll
hållen
to hold
7d
gråta
grät
gråten
to cry
Class 1
Unlike Danish, this class is still uniform in Swedish, all verbs have an ‘e’(eː) in the past tense, the supine has the same vowel as the present tense.
Class 2b looks similar to the 2a verbs with ‘ju’ (ʉː-øː-ʉː): sluka, sluta, stupa, suga, supa, duga (former preterite-presens)
Other
A new pattern that is associated with the class 2 inflections emerged in the modern language with short vowel instead of the normal long ones (ɵ-œ-ɵ). It contains sjunga, sjunka (both former class 3a verbs), and by analogy hugga (former class 7b) which adopted this pattern as well.
Class 3
Class 3a is well preserved and has a predictable pattern, with 'a' in the past tense and 'u'(ɵ) in the supine. Class 3b on the other hand has shrunk in the modern language to only a few members, most of the remaining verbs now often appear with weak forms as well, making this subclass fairly unstable.
↑ Jasanoff (2007)[5] actually refuses to reconstruct a vowel grade for the 3rd principal part of *blōtaną (he says doing so would be "foolhardy").
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↑ Ringe, Donald (2006). A Linguistic History of English part 1: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford University Press. p.78.
↑ Kapp, Sophia (2 June 2022). "Om te -de of te -te" (blog) (in Afrikaans). South Africa: Virtuele Instituut vir Africaans (VivA) – via viva-afrikaans.org.
Sources
Alfred Bammesberger, Der Aufbau des germanischen Verbalsystems, Heidelberg 1986.
Cornelius van Bree, Historische grammatica van het Nederlands, Dordrecht 1987.
W. G. Brill, Nederlandsche spraakleer; ten gebruike bij inrichtingen van hooger onderwijs, Leiden 1871
Frans van Coetsem, Ablaut and Reduplication in the Germanic Verb (=Indogermanische Bibliothek. vol 3), Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, 1993, ISBN3-8253-4267-0.
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