Germanic weak verb
Encyclopedia
In Germanic languages
, including English
, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.
s and past participles by means of a dental suffix
, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound or similar. (For comparative purposes we may refer to this generally as a dental, although in some of the languages, including most varieties of English, /t/ and /d/ are alveolar
rather than dental consonants.) In all Germanic languages, the preterite and past participle forms of weak verbs are formed from the same stem. For example:
Historically, the pronunciation of the suffix in the vast majority of weak verbs (all four classes) was [ð], although in most sources discussing Proto-Germanic it is spelled by convention. In the West Germanic languages, this suffix hardened to [d], but it remained a fricative in the other early Germanic languages (Gothic and Old Norse).
In English, the dental is a /d/ after a voiced consonant (loved) or vowel
(laid), and a /t/ after a voiceless consonant (laughed), though English uses the spelling in regardless of pronunciation, with the exception of a few verbs with irregular spellings.
In Dutch
, /t/ and /d/ are distributed as in English provided there is a following vowel, but when there is no following vowel, terminal devoicing causes the pronunciation /t/ in all cases. Nevertheless, Dutch does distinguish the spellings in and 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 ge-. Therefore, the suffix has disappeared along with the forms that originally contained it.
In German
the dental is always /t/, and always spelled, as a result of the third phase of the High German consonant shift
(d→t).
In Icelandic
, the dental has remained a voiced dental fricative /ð/ in the form it was inherited from Old Norse.
The situation of early Norwegian
was similar to Icelandic, but intervocalic /ð/ eventually disappeared. In the verbs where it remains, the dental is /t/, /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
is very similar to Norwegian, although the dental is retained in the spelling, even between vowels. Some informal spellings indicate a lost dental, such as in sa ("said") from the standard spelling sade.
Verbs of this class are 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. bepǣcan "to deceive", past tense bepǣhte, earlier bepǣcte, or wleccan "to warm", past tense wlehte, earlier wlecede. At the same time, verbs in -ccan were modified to follow the same pattern, e.g. new past tense cwehte alongside earlier cweahte.
satjan "to set" (Old English settan), sandjan "to send" (Old English 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 erian "to plow", nerian "to save", 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 *gramjanaN "to anger" (Gothic
gramjan, Old Norse
gremja, Old High German
gremmen, Old Saxon
*gremmian, Old English 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.
The following is a cross-language paradigm of a long-stem Class I verb *hauzjanaN "to hear" (Gothic
hausjan, Old Norse
heyra, Old High German
hōren, Old Saxon
hōrian, Old English hīeran, Old Frisian
hēra)
The following is a cross-language paradigm of *laþōnaN "to invite" (Gothic
laþōn, Old Norse
laða, Old High German
ladōn, lathōn, Old Saxon
lathian (-ōjan), ladian (-ōjan), Old English laþian, Old Frisian
lathia).
The histories of this class in the various Germanic languages are quite varied:
An example is the stative verb reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *habjanaN "to have", past indicative first singular habdōN (N indicates a nasal vowel):
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:
fullnan "to become full". The present tense was conjugated as a strong verb, e.g. Gothic fullna, fullnis, fullniþ, etc. The past tense was conjugated with suffix -nō-, e.g. 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, i.e. "become X
" where X is an adjective or a past participle of a verb. Examples of deadjectival Class IV verbs in Gothic are ga-blindnan "to become blind" (blinds "blind"), ga-háilnan "to become whole" (háils "whole"). Examples of deverbal Class IV verbs in Gothic are fra-lusnan "to perish" (fra-liusan "to destroy"), ga-þaúrsnan "to dry up, wither away" (ga-þaírsan "to wither"), mikilnan "to be magnified" (mikiljan "to magnify"), us-háuhnan "to be exalted" (us-háuhjan "to exalt"). Note that the last two are deverbal even though the underlying root is adjectival, since they are formed to other verbs (which are in turn formed off of 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, e.g. dis-skritnan "to be torn to pieces" (Class I dis-skreitan "to tear to pieces"), us-gutnan "to be poured out" (Class II giutan "to pour"), and-bundnan "to become unbound" (Class III and-bindan "to unbind"), dis-taúrnan "to be torn asunder, burst asunder" (Class IV dis-taíran "to tear asunder, burst"), ufar-hafnan "to be exalted" (Class VI ufar-hafjan "to exalt"), bi-auknan "to abound, become larger" (Class VII bi-aukan "to increase, add to").
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.
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, e.g.:
As the previous list shows, although there is only one productive class of weak verbs, there are plenty of "irregular" weak verbs that don't 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. denken (dachte) "to think", 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.
, 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.
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. These verbs may be thought of as "semi-strong" (not a technical term). Dutch has a number of examples of this:
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 gebacken of the German verb backen (to bake), is gradually being replaced by gebackt, but the adjective is always gebacken (baked).
Weak verbs which develop strong forms are often unstable. A typical example is German fragen (to ask), which is historically weak, and weak in German today, but for a time in the 18th century it had the forms fragen frug gefragen by analogy with for example tragen (to carry). However, this innovation did not survive (though a present tense frägt is still heard in dialects). The Dutch cognate vragen retained its new strong past vroeg up to the present day, but its past participle is weak gevraagd (though in some dialects gevrogen is used).
). While primary verbs (those inherited from PIE) already had an ablaut-based perfect form which 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; this necessitated the creation of the weak conjugation.
*-yé/ó- suffix to a noun or adjective. This created verbs such as Gothic
namnjan 'to name'.
voicing applied (the reflex of the PIE accent on the -éy- suffix). Examples:
Essentially all verbs formed this way were conjugated as Class I weak verbs.
This method of forming causative verbs is no longer productive in the modern Germanic languages, but many relics remain. For example, the original strong verb fall fell fallen has a related weak verb fell felled felled, which means "to cause (a tree) to fall"; strong sit sat sat and lie lay lain are matched with weak set set set and lay laid laid, meaning "to cause something to sit" or "lie" respectively. In some cases, phonological or semantic developments make the pairs difficult to recognize. For example, rear is the regular phonological development of Proto-Gemanic *raizijanaN given in the above list, but the connection between rise and rear is no longer obvious. (raise is a later, analogical development.) As another example, drench was originally the causative of drink, but the modern meaning of "drench" (i.e. "to cause to get wet") is no longer similar to "cause to drink". Similarly, German strong leiden litt gelitten ("to suffer") has the derived weak verb leiten ("to lead"), which makes sense when one realises that leiden originally meant "walk, go" and came to its present meaning through the idea of "undergoing" suffering.
Preterite-present verbs are primary verbs in which the PIE present was lost, and the perfect was given a present meaning. These needed a new past tense, which followed the weak pattern.
All borrowings from other languages into Germanic were weak.
construction with the verb to do: Germanic *lubōda dēdē ("love-did") → *lubōdē → Old English lufode → loved. This would be analogous to the way that in Modern English we can form an emphatic past tense with "did": I did love.
The common PIE root *dheH1- meaning 'do' was a root aorist
, and as such did not take a perfect. It did, however, take a reduplicating present. The imperfect of this root is taken by many to be the origin of the dental suffix.
This view is not without objections. These are two often-proposed difficulties with this explanation:
These objections are sometimes answered as follows:
Another theory is that it came from a past participle ending, a final *-daz from PIE *-tos (cf Latin amatus), with personal endings added to it at a later stage. This theory is also disputed because of its inability to explain all the facts.
and in his sense refers only to Germanic philology. However, the term is sometimes applied to other language groups to designate phenomena which are not really analogous. For example, Hebrew irregular verbs are sometimes called weak verbs because one of their radicals is weak. See: weak inflection
.
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, including English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.
General description
In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that form their preteritePreterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
s and past participles by means of a dental suffix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound or similar. (For comparative purposes we may refer to this generally as a dental, although in some of the languages, including most varieties of English, /t/ and /d/ are alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
rather than dental consonants.) In all Germanic languages, the preterite and past participle forms of weak verbs are formed from the same stem. For example:
| Infinitive | Preterite | Past Participle | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English (regular) | to love | loved | loved |
| to laugh | laughed | laughed | |
| English (irregular) | to say | said | said |
| to send | sent | sent | |
| to buy | bought | bought | |
| to set | set | set | |
| German | lieben (love) | liebte | geliebt |
| bringen (bring) | brachte | gebracht | |
Historically, the pronunciation of the suffix in the vast majority of weak verbs (all four classes) was [ð], although in most sources discussing Proto-Germanic it is spelled
In English, the dental is a /d/ after a voiced consonant (loved) or vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
(laid), and a /t/ after a voiceless consonant (laughed), though English uses the spelling in
In Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, /t/ and /d/ are distributed as in English provided there is a following vowel, but when there is no following vowel, terminal devoicing causes the pronunciation /t/ in all cases. Nevertheless, Dutch does distinguish the spellings in
't kofschip
The t kofschip or t fokschaap rule is a mnemonic that determines the endings of a regular Dutch verb in the past simple indicative/subjunctive and the ending of the past participle...
rule.
In Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, which descends from Dutch, the past tense has fallen out of use altogether, and the past participle is marked only with the prefix ge-. Therefore, the suffix has disappeared along with the forms that originally contained it.
In German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
the dental is always /t/, and always spelled
High German consonant shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
(d→t).
In Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, the dental has remained a voiced dental fricative /ð/ in the form it was inherited from Old Norse.
The situation of early Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
was similar to Icelandic, but intervocalic /ð/ eventually disappeared. In the verbs where it remains, the dental is /t/, /d/, depending on conjugation class and dialect
Norwegian dialects
The Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 4 main groups, North Norwegian , Trøndelag Norwegian , West Norwegian , and East Norwegian...
. It is spelled accordingly. In Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
, it can be different in the preterite and the past participle.
Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
is very similar to Norwegian, although the dental is retained in the spelling, even between vowels. Some informal spellings indicate a lost dental, such as in sa ("said") from the standard spelling sade.
Classes of verbs
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, subclass (i)
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:- *bringanaN "to bring", past tense *brāNht-. This verb was continued as such in all the descendants, although an alternate present form *brangjan occasionally appeared in some of the West Germanic languages (e.g. Old English brenġan).
- *brūkanaN "to use", past tense *brūht-. This verb tended to move into other classes. For example, in Gothic this verb moved into subclass (ii) of Class I (brūkjan, past brūhta), whereas in Old English it became a Class II strong verb (brūcan, past tense brēac < *brauk).
- *būanaN "to dwell", past tense *būd-. This verb continued as such in most descendants but became a Class III weak verb bauan in Gothic.
Class I, subclass (ii)
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:- *bugjanaN "to buy", past tense *boht-
- *sōkjanaN "to seek", past tense *sōht- (given a regularized subclass (iii) past sōkida in GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
) - þankjanaN "to think", past tense *þāNht-
- þunkjanaN "to seem", past tense *þūNht-
- wurkjanaN "to work", past tense *worht-
Verbs of this class are said to undergo rückumlaut ("reverse umlaut") in the past, since the umlaut
Germanic umlaut
In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
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:
- There is an alternation between -k- or -g- in the present and -h- in the past, caused by the -t- of the past-tense suffix. Prior to the operation of Grimm's LawGrimm's lawGrimm's law , named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC...
, the stem consonant was -g- or -gh-. Before -t- the consonant was devoiced to -k- by assimilationAssimilation (linguistics)Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
, and then became -h- by Grimm's LawGrimm's lawGrimm's law , named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC...
. This alternation is sometimes called Primärberührung. - -n- before -h- disappeared after nasalizing the previous vowel. When the -n- disappeared, the vowel was lengthened by the process of compensatory lengtheningCompensatory lengtheningCompensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda...
. - -u- was lowered to -o- in the past tense due to a-mutationA-mutationA-mutation is a metaphonic process supposed to have taken place in late Proto-Germanic .-General description:In a-mutation, a short high vowel was lowered when the following syllable contained a non-high vowel . Thus, since the change was produced by other vowels besides */a/, the term a-mutation...
, since the following vowel was always non-high.
The class remained small in Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
, but expanded significantly in the other languages:
- In Old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
, all short-stem verbs (those with a short vowel followed by at most consonant or a long vowel followed by no consonant) appeared to move into this class, as indicated by the fact that no umlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
occurs in the past, as would be caused by a suffix -i-. However, this may have been due to a regular sound change that eliminated unstressed nonfinal short vowels coming after a short stem before the operation of umlaut. - In Old High GermanOld High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
, short-stem verbs ending in -zz (-tz), -pf, -ck (Proto-Germanic root ending in *-t, -p, -k), and optionally those in -ll, join this class. For example, zellen "to tell" < *taljan, past tense zalta, zelita. A number of long-stem verbs also join this class, e.g. brennen "to burn", past tense branta; wenten "to turn", past tense wanta. - In Old English and the other northern West Germanic languagesWest Germanic languagesThe West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish...
, a number of verbs ending in -(c)c- and -ll- joined the class, e.g. in Old English:
- cweccan "to shake" < *kwakjan, past tense cweahte < *kwaht-
- dreccan "to afflict", past tense dreahte
- læccan "to seize" (based on earlier *lǣcan?), past tense lǣhte
- leccan "to moisten", past tense leahte
- rǣcan "to reach" < *raikjan, past tense rǣhte, rāhte < *raiht-
- reccan "to narrate", past tense reahte
- reccan "to care for" (based on earlier *rēcan?), past tense rōhte
- tǣcan "to teach", past tense tǣhte, tāhte
- streccan "to stretch", past tense streahte
- þeccan "to cover", past tense þeahte
- weccan "to awake", past tense weahte
- cwellan "to tell" < *kwaljan, past tense cwealde < *kwald-
- dwellan "to tell", past tense dwealde
- sellan "to give, sell", past tense sealde
- stellan "to place", past tense stealde
- tellan "to tell", past tense tealde
In Late Old English, further verbs in -can were drawn into this class by analogy, but with umlaut maintained, e.g. bepǣcan "to deceive", past tense bepǣhte, earlier bepǣcte, or wleccan "to warm", past tense wlehte, earlier wlecede. At the same time, verbs in -ccan were modified to follow the same pattern, e.g. new past tense cwehte alongside earlier cweahte.
Class I, subclass (iii)
A large class of verbs had the suffix -j- in the present and -i- in the past: e.g. GothicGothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
satjan "to set" (Old English settan), sandjan "to send" (Old English sendan). As shown in the Old English cognates:
- The -j- produced umlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
of the stem vowel in languages other than GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
. - The -j- caused West Germanic geminationWest Germanic GeminationWest Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except were geminated before . The second element of the diphthongs iu and au was still underlyingly at this time and therefore was still considered a consonant, so...
in the West Germanic languages in short-stem verbs ending in a consonant other than -r. - The -j- resulted in palatalizationPalatalizationIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
of preceding velar consonantVelar consonantVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
s in Old English. - The -j- remained in GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
and Old SaxonOld SaxonOld Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
, but disappeared in the other languages: In long-stem verbs in Old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
, and in all verbs except those in -r in the remaining West Germanic languages. (In Old High GermanOld High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
, it deflected *-jan into *-jen before disappearing, leaving a suffix -en.
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
Sievers' law
Sievers' law in Indo-European linguistics accounts for the pronunciation of a consonant cluster with a glide before a vowel as it was affected by the phonetics of the preceding syllable. Specifically it refers to the alternation between and , and possibly and , in Indo-European languages...
, and was extended due to changes such as West Germanic gemination
West Germanic Gemination
West Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except were geminated before . The second element of the diphthongs iu and au was still underlyingly at this time and therefore was still considered a consonant, so...
, 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 erian "to plow", nerian "to save", styrian "to stir"), due to West Germanic gemination
West Germanic Gemination
West Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except were geminated before . The second element of the diphthongs iu and au was still underlyingly at this time and therefore was still considered a consonant, so...
and subsequent loss of -j- not taking place.
The following is a cross-language paradigm of a short-stem Class I verb *gramjanaN "to anger" (Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
gramjan, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
gremja, Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
gremmen, Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
*gremmian, Old English gremman, Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
*gremma). Note that the Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
and Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
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 | gramjan | gremja | gremmen | gremmian | gremman | gremma |
| Pres. 1sg. | gramja | grem | gremmu | gremmiu | gremme | gremme |
| Pres. 2sg. | gramjis | gremr | gremis(t) | gremis | gremes(t) | gremest |
| Pres. 3sg. | gramjiþ | gremr | gremit | gremid | gremeþ | gremeth |
| Pres. 1du. | gramjōs | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 2du. | gramjats | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 1pl. | gramjam | gremjum | gremmemēs (-ēn) | gremmiad | gremmaþ | gremmath |
| Pres. 2pl. | gramjiþ | gremið | gremmet | gremmiad | gremmaþ | gremmath |
| Pres. 3pl. | gramjand | gremja | gremment | gremmiad | gremmaþ | gremmath |
| Pres. Subj. 1sg. | gramjáu | gremja | gremme | gremmia (-ie) | gremme | gremme |
| Pres. Subj. 2sg. | gramjáis | gremir | gremmēs(t) | gremmias (-ies) | gremme | gremme |
| Pres. Subj. 3sg. | gramjái | gremi | gremme | gremmia (-ie) | gremme | gremme |
| Pres. Subj. 1du. | gramjáiwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 2du. | gramjáits | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 1pl. | gramjáima | gremim | gremmēm (-ēn, -ēmēs) | gremmian | gremmen | gremme |
| Pres. Subj. 2pl. | gramjáiþ | gremið | gremmēt | gremmian | gremmen | gremme |
| Pres. Subj. 3pl. | gramjáina | gremi | gremmēn | gremmian | gremmen | gremme |
| Past 1sg. | gramida | gramda | gremita | gremida | gremede | gremede |
| Past 2sg. | gramidēs | gramdir | gremitōs(t) | gremidōs | gremedes(t) | gremedest |
| Past 3sg. | gramida | gramdi | gremita | gremida | gremede | gremede |
| Past 1du. | gramidēdu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 2du. | gramidēduts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 1pl. | gramidēdum | grǫmdum | gremitum (-un, -umēs) | gremidun | gremedon | gremedon |
| Past 2pl. | gramidēduþ | grǫmduð | gremitut | gremidun | gremedon | gremedon |
| Past 3pl. | gramidēdun | grǫmdu | gremitun | gremidun | gremedon | gremedon |
| Past Subj. 1sg. | gramidēdjáu | gremda | gremiti (-ī) | gremidi | gremede | gremede |
| Past Subj. 2sg. | gramidēdeis | gremdir | gremitīs(t) | gremidīs | gremede | gremede |
| Past Subj. 3sg. | gramidēdi | gremdi | gremiti (-ī) | gremidi | gremede | gremede |
| Past Subj. 1du. | gramidēdeiwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 2du. | gramidēdeits | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 1pl. | gramidēdeima | gremdim | gremitīm (-īn, -īmēs) | gremidīn | gremeden | gremede |
| Past Subj. 2pl. | gramidēdeiþ | gremdið | gremitīt | gremidīn | gremeden | gremede |
| Past Subj. 3pl. | gramidēdeina | gremdi | gremitīn | gremidīn | gremeden | gremede |
| Imper. 2sg. | gramei | grem | gremi | gremi | greme | greme |
| Imper. 3sg. | gramjadáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2du. | gramjats | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 1pl. | gramjam | gremjum | gremmemēs (-ēn) | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2pl. | gramjiþ | gremið | gremmet | gremmiad | gremmaþ | gremmath |
| Imper. 3pl. | gramjandáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Participle | gramjands | gremjandi | gremmenti | gremmiand | gremmende | gremmand |
| Past Participle | gramiþs | *gramiðr | gigremit | gremid | gremed | gremed |
The following is a cross-language paradigm of a long-stem Class I verb *hauzjanaN "to hear" (Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
hausjan, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
heyra, Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
hōren, Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
hōrian, Old English hīeran, Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
hēra)
| Gothic | Old Norse | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Frisian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | hausjan | heyra | hōren | hōrian | hīeran | hēra |
| Pres. 1sg. | hausja | heyri | hōru | hōriu | hīere | hēre |
| Pres. 2sg. | hauseis | heyrir | hōris(t) | hōris | hīer(e)s(t) | hēr(i)st |
| Pres. 3sg. | hauseiþ | heyrir | hōrit | hōrid | hīer(e)þ | hēr(i)th |
| Pres. 1du. | hausjōs | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 2du. | hausjats | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 1pl. | hausjam | heyrum | hōremēs (-ēn) | hōriad | hīeraþ | hērath |
| Pres. 2pl. | hauseiþ | heyrið | hōret | hōriad | hīeraþ | hērath |
| Pres. 3pl. | hausjand | heyra | hōrent | hōriad | hīeraþ | hērath |
| Pres. Subj. 1sg. | hausjáu | heyra | hōre | hōria (-ie) | hīere | hēri (-e) |
| Pres. Subj. 2sg. | hausjáis | heyrir | hōrēs(t) | hōrias (-ies) | hīere | hēri (-e) |
| Pres. Subj. 3sg. | hausjái | heyri | hōre | hōria (-ie) | hīere | hēri (-e) |
| Pres. Subj. 1du. | hausjáiwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 2du. | hausjáits | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 1pl. | hausjáima | heyrim | hōrēm (-ēn, -ēmēs) | hōrian | hīeren | hēri (-e) |
| Pres. Subj. 2pl. | hausjáiþ | heyrið | hōrēt | hōrian | hīeren | hēri (-e) |
| Pres. Subj. 3pl. | hausjáina | heyri | hōrēn | hōrian | hīeren | hēri (-e) |
| Past 1sg. | hausida | heyrða | hōrta | hōrda | hīerde | hērde |
| Past 2sg. | hausidēs | heyrðir | hōrtōs(t) | hōrdōs | hiērdes(t) | hērdest |
| Past 3sg. | hausida | heyrði | hōrta | hōrda | hīerde | hērde |
| Past 1du. | hausidēdu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 2du. | hausidēduts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 1pl. | hausidēdum | heyrðum | hōrtum (-un, -umēs) | hōrdun | hīerdon | hērdon |
| Past 2pl. | hausidēduþ | heyrðuð | hōrtut | hōrdun | hīerdon | hērdon |
| Past 3pl. | hausidēdun | heyrðu | hōrtun | hōrdun | hīerdon | hērdon |
| Past Subj. 1sg. | hausidēdjáu | heyrða | hōrti (-ī) | hōrdi | hīerde | hērde |
| Past Subj. 2sg. | hausidēdeis | heyrðir | hōrtīs(t) | hōrdīs | hīerde | hērde |
| Past Subj. 3sg. | hausidēdi | heyrði | hōrti (-ī) | hōrdi | hīerde | hērde |
| Past Subj. 1du. | hausidēdeiwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 2du. | hausidēdeits | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 1pl. | hausidēdeima | heyrðim | hōrtīm (-īn, -īmēs) | hōrdīn | hīerden | hērde |
| Past Subj. 2pl. | hausidēdeiþ | heyrðið | hōrtīt | hōrdīn | hīerden | hērde |
| Past Subj. 3pl. | hausidēdeina | heyrði | hōrtīn | hōrdīn | hīerden | hērde |
| Imper. 2sg. | hausei | heyr | hōri | hōri | hīer | hēre |
| Imper. 3sg. | hausjadáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2du. | hausjats | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 1pl. | hausjam | heyrum | hōremēs (-ēn) | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2pl. | hauseiþ | heyrið | hōret | hōriad | hīeraþ | hērath |
| Imper. 3pl. | hausjandáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Participle | hausjands | heyrandi | hōrenti | hōriand | hīerende | hērand |
| Past Participle | hausiþs | heyrðr | gihōrit | hōrid | hīered | hēred |
Class II Verbs
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 -ian < *-ōjan.The following is a cross-language paradigm of *laþōnaN "to invite" (Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
laþōn, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
laða, Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
ladōn, lathōn, Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
lathian (-ōjan), ladian (-ōjan), Old English laþian, Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
lathia).
| Gothic | Old Norse | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Frisian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | laþōn | laða | ladōn, lathōn | lathian (-ōjan), ladian (-ōjan) | laþian | lathia |
| Pres. 1sg. | laþō | laða | ladōm (-ōn), lathōm (-ōn) | lathōn, ladōn | laþie | lathie |
| Pres. 2sg. | laþōs | laðar | ladōs(t), lathōs(t) | lathōs, ladōs | laþast | lathast (-est) |
| Pres. 3sg. | laþōþ | laðar | ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | laþaþ | lathath |
| Pres. 1du. | laþōs | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 2du. | laþōts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. 1pl. | laþōm | lǫðum | ladōmēs (-ōn), lathōmēs (-ōn) | lathōd (-ōjad), ladōd (-ōjad) | laþiaþ | lathiath |
| Pres. 2pl. | laþōþ | laðið | ladōt, lathōt | lathōd (-ōjad), ladōd (-ōjad) | laþiaþ | lathiath |
| Pres. 3pl. | laþōnd | laða | ladōnt, lathōnt | lathōd (-ōjad), ladōd (-ōjad) | laþiaþ | lathiath |
| Pres. Subj. 1sg. | laþō | laða | lado, latho | lathō (-ōja), ladō (-ōja) | laþie | lathie |
| Pres. Subj. 2sg. | laþōs | laðir | ladōs(t), lathōs(t) | lathōs (-ōjes), ladōs (-ōjes) | laþie | lathie |
| Pres. Subj. 3sg. | laþō | laði | lado, latho | lathō (-ōja), ladō (-ōja) | laþie | lathie |
| Pres. Subj. 1du. | laþōwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 2du. | laþōts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Subj. 1pl. | laþōma | laðim | ladōm (-ōn, -ōmēs), lathōm (-ōn, -ōmēs) | lathōn, ladōn | laþien | lathie |
| Pres. Subj. 2pl. | laþōþ | laðið | ladōt, lathōt | lathōn, ladōn | laþien | lathie |
| Pres. Subj. 3pl. | laþōna | laði | ladōn, lathōn | lathōn, ladōn | laþien | lathie |
| Past 1sg. | laþōda | laðaða | ladōta, lathōta | lathōda, ladōda | laþode | lathade |
| Past 2sg. | laþōdēs | laðaðir | ladōtōs(t), lathōtōs(t) | lathōdōs, ladōdōs | laþodest | *lathadest |
| Past 3sg. | laþōda | laðaði | ladōta, lathōta | lathōda, ladōda | laþode | lathade |
| Past 1du. | laþōdēdu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 2du. | laþōdēduts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past 1pl. | laþōdēdum | lǫðuðum | ladōtum (-un, -umēs), lathōtum (-un, -umēs) | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþodon | lathadon |
| Past 2pl. | laþōdēduþ | lǫðuðuð | ladōtut, lathōtut | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþodon | lathadon |
| Past 3pl. | laþōdēdun | lǫðuðu | ladōtun, lathōtun | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþodon | lathadon |
| Past Subj. 1sg. | laþōdēdjáu | laðaða | ladōti (-ī), lathōti (-ī) | lathōda, ladōda | laþode | *lathade |
| Past Subj. 2sg. | laþōdēdeis | laðaðir | ladōtīs(t), lathōtīs(t) | lathōdōs, ladōdōs | laþode | *lathade |
| Past Subj. 3sg. | laþōdēdi | laðaði | ladōti (-ī), lathōti (-ī) | lathōda, ladōda | laþode | lathade |
| Past Subj. 1du. | laþōdēdeiwa | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 2du. | laþōdēdeits | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Past Subj. 1pl. | laþōdēdeima | laðaðim | ladōtīm (-īn, -īmēs), lathōtīm (-īn, -īmēs) | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþoden | lathade |
| Past Subj. 2pl. | laþōdēdeiþ | laðaðið | ladōtīt, lathōtīt | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþoden | lathade |
| Past Subj. 3pl. | laþōdēdeina | laðaði | ladōtīn, lathōtīn | lathōdun, ladōdun | laþoden | lathade |
| Imper. 2sg. | laþō | laða | lado, latho | lathō, ladō | laþa | *latha |
| Imper. 3sg. | laþōdáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2du. | laþōts | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 1pl. | laþōm | lǫðum | ladōmēs (-ōn), lathōmēs (-ōn) | -- | -- | -- |
| Imper. 2pl. | laþōþ | laðið | ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | laþiaþ | *lathiath |
| Imper. 3pl. | laþōndáu | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pres. Participle | laþōnds | laðandi | ladōnti, lathōnti | lathōnd (-ōjand), ladōnd (-ōjand) | laþiende | lath(i)ande |
| Past Participle | laþōþs | laðaðr | ladōt, lathōt | lathōd, ladōd | laþod | lathad |
Class III Verbs
What is known as "Class III" was actually two separate classes in Proto-Germanic:- A class of verbs with stativeStative verbA stative verb is one that asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; that is, they have undefined duration...
semantics (i.e. denoting a state rather than an action), formed with a present suffix that was either *-ai- or *-ja-, and no suffix in the past. - A class of verbs with factitive semantics (i.e. with the meaning "make X" where X is an adjective or noun, e.g. "renew, enslave"), formed with a suffix that was either *-ai- or *-ā-, and a suffix *-a- in the past.
The histories of this class in the various Germanic languages are quite varied:
- Old High GermanOld High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
combined both into a single class and generalized *-ai- (appearing as -ē- through regular sound change) to all forms of the present and past. - GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
combined both into a single class, keeping the *-ai-/-ā- alternation of the factitives in the present, generalizing the alternation to the statives as well, and borrowing *-ai- as the past suffix. - Old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
for the most part combined both into a single class in the same fashion as Gothic; however, two relic stative verbs (segja "to say" and þegja "to be silent") preserve the stative suffixes in both present and past, and a third verb (hafa "to have") is a mixture of the two, with factitive suffixes in the present indicative plural and imperative and stative suffixes in the present indicative singular and past participle (elsewhere, the two types have fallen together). - The other (i.e. northern) West Germanic languages have only small numbers of Class III verbs—but they consistently follow the stative paradigm, unlike the three languages above.
An example is the stative verb reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *habjanaN "to have", past indicative first singular habdōN (N indicates a nasal vowel):
- Old English hebban < *habjan, past 1sg. hæfde -- derived entirely through regular sound changes.
- Old High GermanOld High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
habēn, past 1sg. habēta -- derived through analogical spread of suffix -ē-. - GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
haban, past 1sg. habáida -- derived through various analogical changes. - Old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
hafa, past 1sg. hafða -- partly regular, partly analogical.
Only four stative verbs survive as Class III verbs in the northern West Germanic languages (i.e. Old English, Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
, Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
and Old Low Franconian):
- *sagjanaN "to say"
- *libjanaN "to live"
- *habjanaN "to hold, have"
- *hugjanaN "to think"
However, there are five more verbs that appear as Class III verbs in Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
, Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
and/or Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
that also have remnants of the stative conjugation in one or more northern West Germanic languages:
- *þagjanaN "to be silent"
- *siljanaN "to be silent"
- *þuljanaN "to endure" (normally Class II þolian in Old English, but cf. archaic umlauted infinitive -þoelġe; Class III in Old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
þola) - *fijanaN "to hate"
- *hatjanaN "to hate" (normally Class II hatian in Old English, but cf. umlauted nominalized present participle hettend "enemy"; Class III in GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
hatan)
Class IV Verbs
Class IV verbs were formed with a suffix -nan, e.g. GothicGothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
fullnan "to become full". The present tense was conjugated as a strong verb, e.g. Gothic fullna, fullnis, fullniþ, etc. The past tense was conjugated with suffix -nō-, e.g. 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
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
and as Class III verbs in Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
. This class has fientive semantics, i.e. "become X
Inchoative verb
An inchoative verb, sometimes called an "inceptive" verb, shows a process of beginning or becoming. Productive inchoative infixes exist in several languages, including Latin and Ancient Greek, and consequently some Romance languages. Not all verbs with inchoative infixes have retained their...
" where X is an adjective or a past participle of a verb. Examples of deadjectival Class IV verbs in Gothic are ga-blindnan "to become blind" (blinds "blind"), ga-háilnan "to become whole" (háils "whole"). Examples of deverbal Class IV verbs in Gothic are fra-lusnan "to perish" (fra-liusan "to destroy"), ga-þaúrsnan "to dry up, wither away" (ga-þaírsan "to wither"), mikilnan "to be magnified" (mikiljan "to magnify"), us-háuhnan "to be exalted" (us-háuhjan "to exalt"). Note that the last two are deverbal even though the underlying root is adjectival, since they are formed to other verbs (which are in turn formed off of 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, e.g. dis-skritnan "to be torn to pieces" (Class I dis-skreitan "to tear to pieces"), us-gutnan "to be poured out" (Class II giutan "to pour"), and-bundnan "to become unbound" (Class III and-bindan "to unbind"), dis-taúrnan "to be torn asunder, burst asunder" (Class IV dis-taíran "to tear asunder, burst"), ufar-hafnan "to be exalted" (Class VI ufar-hafjan "to exalt"), bi-auknan "to abound, become larger" (Class VII bi-aukan "to increase, add to").
Modern languages
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 GermanSwiss German
Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
also has two types of weak verbs, descended from Class I and Classes II and III respectively of Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
weak verbs and marked with -t and -et, respectively, in the past participle.
In the history of English, the following changes happened:
- Most Class III verbs were moved into Class II prior to the historical period of Old English.
- The remaining four Class III verbs moved into Class I or Class II late in Old English.
- Throughout the Middle English period, Class I verbs gradually moved into Class II.
In Modern English, only one productive weak paradigm remains, derived from Class II. A number of Class I verbs still persist, e.g.:
- From Old English subclass (i): bring (brought)
- From Old English subclass (ii) or analogously: buy (bought); catch (caught); seek (sought); sell (sold); teach (taught); tell (told); think (thought); work (wrought, obsolescent)
- From Old English subclass (iii) or analogously: bend (bent); bet (bet); breed (bred); build (built); cast (cast); cost (cost); creep (crept); cut (cut); deal (dealt); dream (dreamt); feed (fed); flee (fled); hear (heard); hit (hit); hurt (hurt); keep (kept); kneel (knelt); knit (knit); lay (laid); lead (led); leap (leapt); leave (left); lend (lent); light (lit); lose (lost); mean (meant); meet (met); put (put); read (read); rend (rent, obsolescent); send (sent); set (set); shed (shed); shoot (shot); shut (shut); sleep (slept); speed (sped); spend (spent); spill (spilt); split (split); spread (spread); sweep (swept); thrust (thrust); upset (upset); wed (wed); weep (wept); as well as a few others
- From Old English Class III verbs: have (had); say (said)
As the previous list shows, although there is only one productive class of weak verbs, there are plenty of "irregular" weak verbs that don't 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:
- In the written language, before the past-tense suffix -ed, short-stem verbs double the final consonant (e.g. dip (dipped)), while a -y following a consonant becomes -i (e.g. carry (carried)).
- In the spoken language, the past-tense suffix -ed is variously pronounced /t/, /d/, or /ɨd/ depending on the preceding consonant.
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. denken (dachte) "to think", 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.
West Germanic
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
West Frisian West Frisian language West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,... |
Afrikaans Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape... |
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... |
Low German Low German Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands... |
German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
Yiddish | ||
| Infinitive Infinitive In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives... |
work | wurkje | leare 2 | werk 1 | werken | warken | werken | (verkn) װערקן |
| present Present tense The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb... |
I work †thou workest he works we work you work they work |
ik wurkje do wurkest hy wurket wy wurkje jim wurkje hja wurkje |
ik lear do learst hy leart wy leare jim leare hja leare |
ek werk jy werk hy werk ons werk julle werk hulle werk |
ik werk jij werkt hij werkt wij werken jullie werken zij werken |
ik wark du warks(t) he warkt wi warkt ji warkt se warkt |
ich werke du werkst er werkt wir werken ihr werkt sie werken |
(ikh verk) איך װערק (du verkst) דו װערקסט (er verkt) ער װערקט (mir verkn) מיר װערקן (ir verkt) איר װערקט (zey verkn) זי װערקן |
| Preterite Preterite The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past... |
I worked †thou workedst he worked we worked you worked they worked |
ik wurke do wurkest hy wurke wy wurken jim wurken hja wurken |
ik learde do leardest hy learde wy learden jim learden hij learden |
(not used) | ik werkte jij werkte hij werkte wij werkten jullie werkten zij werkten |
ik wark du warks(t) he warkt wi warken ji warken se warken |
ich werkte du werktest er werkte wir werkten ihr werktet sie werkten |
(not used) |
| Past participle | worked | wurke | leard | gewerk | gewerkt | (ge)warkt | gewerkt | (geverkt) געװערקט |
- 1. The distinction between the infinitive and present forms of Afrikaans verbs has been lost with the exception of a very few such as wees and is, "to be" and "is/am/are"
- 2. learn, teach
North Germanic
| Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... |
Danish Danish language Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language... |
Norwegian Bokmål Bokmål Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language.... |
Norwegian Nynorsk Nynorsk Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the... |
Icelandic Icelandic language Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the... |
Faroese Faroese language Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere... |
|
| Infinitive Infinitive In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives... |
verka | virke | virke | verka/verke | verka | virka 3 |
| present Present tense The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb... |
jag verkar du verkar han verkar vi verkar ni verkar de verkar |
jeg virker du virker han virker vi virker I virker de virker |
jeg virker du virker han virker vi virker dere virker de virker |
eg verkar du verkar han verkar vi/me verkar de verkar dei verkar |
ég verka þú verkar hann verkar við verkum þið verkið þeir verka |
eg virki tú virkar hann virkar vit virka tit virka teir virka |
| Preterite Preterite The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past... |
jag verkade du verkade han verkade vi verkade ni verkade de verkade |
jeg virkede du virkede han virkede vi virkede I virkede de virkede |
jeg virket/virka du virket/virka han virket/virka vi virket/virka dere virket/virka de virket/virka |
eg verka du verka han verka vi/me verka de verka dei verka |
ég verkaði þú verkaðir hann verkaði við verkuðum þið verkuðuð þeir verkuðu |
eg virkaði tú virkaði hann virkaði vit virkaðu tit virkaðu teir virkaðu |
| Past participle | verkat | virket | virket/virka | verka | verkaður | virkaður |
- 3. prepare, manufacture
Weak and strong
Weak verbs should be contrasted with strong verbsGermanic strong verb
In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung...
, which form their past tenses by means of ablaut
Indo-European ablaut
In linguistics, ablaut is a system of apophony in Proto-Indo-European and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages...
(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.
Strong to weak transformations
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 scūfan to modern English shove:- scūfan scēaf scofen (strong class 2)
- shove shoved shoved
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. These verbs may be thought of as "semi-strong" (not a technical term). Dutch has a number of examples of this:
- wassen waste gewassen ("to wash")
- lachen lachte gelachen ("to laugh")
An example in English is:
- sow sowed sown (strong class 7 with weak preterite)
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 gebacken of the German verb backen (to bake), is gradually being replaced by gebackt, but the adjective is always gebacken (baked).
Weak to strong transformations
The reverse process is also possible, though very rare: verbs which were originally weak can become strong by analogy. This can also be partial, producing "semi-strong" verbs:- show showed shown (originally weak verb with participle modelled on sown)
Weak verbs which develop strong forms are often unstable. A typical example is German fragen (to ask), which is historically weak, and weak in German today, but for a time in the 18th century it had the forms fragen frug gefragen by analogy with for example tragen (to carry). However, this innovation did not survive (though a present tense frägt is still heard in dialects). The Dutch cognate vragen retained its new strong past vroeg up to the present day, but its past participle is weak gevraagd (though in some dialects gevrogen is used).
Origins of the weak conjugation
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-EuropeanProto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
). While primary verbs (those inherited from PIE) already had an ablaut-based perfect form which 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; this necessitated the creation of the weak conjugation.
Denominative derivation
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 which has been created out of a noun. The denominative in Indo-European and early Germanic was formed by adding an ablauting thematicVowel stems
In Indo-European linguistics, a thematic stem or vowel stem is a noun or verb stem that ends in a vowel that appears in or otherwise influences the noun or verb's inflectional paradigm. The vowel is called the thematic vowel...
*-yé/ó- suffix to a noun or adjective. This created verbs such as Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
namnjan 'to name'.
Causative verbs
A significant subclass of Class I weak verbs are (deverbal) causative verbs. These 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 LawVerner's law
Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s, *h, *hʷ, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *b, *d, *z,...
voicing applied (the reflex of the PIE accent on the -éy- suffix). Examples:
- *bītanaN (I) "to bite" → *baitijanaN "to bridle, yoke, restrain", i.e. "to make bite down"
- *rīsanaN (I) "to rise" → *raizijanaN "to raise", i.e. "to cause to rise"
- *beuganaN (II) "to bend" → *baugijanaN "to bend (transitive)"
- *brinnanaN (III) "to burn" → *brannijanaN "to burn (transitive)"
- *frawerþanaN (III) "to perish" → *frawardijanaN "to destroy", i.e. "to cause to perish"
- *nesanaN (V) "to survive" → *nazjanaN "to save", i.e. "to cause to survive"
- *ligjanaN (V) "to lie down" → *lagjanaN "to lay", i.e. "to cause to lie down"
- *sitjanaN (V) "to sit" → *satjanaN "to set, seat", i.e. "to cause to sit"
- *faranaN (VI) "to travel, go" → *fōrijanaN "to lead, bring", i.e. "to cause to go"
- *faranaN (VI) "to travel, go" → *farjanaN "to carry across", i.e. "to cause to travel" (an archaic instance of the o-grade ablaut used despite the differing past-tense ablaut)
- *grētanaN (VII) "to weep" → *grōtijanaN "to cause to weep"
- *lais (I, preterite-present) "(s)he knows" → *laizijanaN "to teach", i.e. "to cause to know"
Essentially all verbs formed this way were conjugated as Class I weak verbs.
This method of forming causative verbs is no longer productive in the modern Germanic languages, but many relics remain. For example, the original strong verb fall fell fallen has a related weak verb fell felled felled, which means "to cause (a tree) to fall"; strong sit sat sat and lie lay lain are matched with weak set set set and lay laid laid, meaning "to cause something to sit" or "lie" respectively. In some cases, phonological or semantic developments make the pairs difficult to recognize. For example, rear is the regular phonological development of Proto-Gemanic *raizijanaN given in the above list, but the connection between rise and rear is no longer obvious. (raise is a later, analogical development.) As another example, drench was originally the causative of drink, but the modern meaning of "drench" (i.e. "to cause to get wet") is no longer similar to "cause to drink". Similarly, German strong leiden litt gelitten ("to suffer") has the derived weak verb leiten ("to lead"), which makes sense when one realises that leiden originally meant "walk, go" and came to its present meaning through the idea of "undergoing" suffering.
Other types
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 were therefore unable to show the ablaut distinction necessary for a strong preterite. This was the case with the verbs waurkjan 'to work, create', bugjan 'to buy', and sokjan 'to seek' (Gothic forms).Preterite-present verbs are primary verbs in which the PIE present was lost, and the perfect was given a present meaning. These needed a new past tense, which followed the weak pattern.
All borrowings from other languages into Germanic were weak.
Origin of the dental suffix of weak verbs
The origin of the dental suffix is uncertain. Perhaps the most commonly-held theory is that it evolved out of a periphrasticCircumlocution
Circumlocution is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech...
construction with the verb to do: Germanic *lubōda dēdē ("love-did") → *lubōdē → Old English lufode → loved. This would be analogous to the way that in Modern English we can form an emphatic past tense with "did": I did love.
The common PIE root *dheH1- meaning 'do' was a root aorist
Aorist
Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
, and as such did not take a perfect. It did, however, take a reduplicating present. The imperfect of this root is taken by many to be the origin of the dental suffix.
| Periphrastic origin of dental suffix | PIE imperfect of "do" | Proto-Germanic imperfect of "do" | Gothic weak preterite ending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | *dhe-dhéH1-m | *dedēⁿ | -da |
| *dhe-dhéH1-s | *dedēs | -des | |
| *dhe-dhéH1-t | *dedē | -da | |
| Plural | *dhe-dhH1mé | *dém → *dedum (by analogy) | -dedum |
| *dhe-dhH1té | *dédd → *deduþ (by analogy) | -deduþ | |
| *dhe-dhH1n̥t | *dedun | -dedun | |
This view is not without objections. These are two often-proposed difficulties with this explanation:
- Gothic -e- in the plural is long, but PGmc is short.
- Reduplication is only in the Gothic plural.
These objections are sometimes answered as follows:
- There might have been a refashioning according to cases like gēbun, viz. *gegbun > gēbun : *dedun → dēdun.
- Reduplication only in the plural can easily be explained by haplologyHaplologyHaplology is defined as the elimination of a syllable when two consecutive identical or similar syllables occur. The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century...
in Proto-Germanic (i.e., *dede- being reduced to *de-) for the singular, with a later development of haplology for the plural in non-East Germanic languagesEast Germanic languagesThe East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic; other languages that are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic, Burgundian, and Crimean Gothic...
.
Another theory is that it came from a past participle ending, a final *-daz from PIE *-tos (cf Latin amatus), with personal endings added to it at a later stage. This theory is also disputed because of its inability to explain all the facts.
Other meanings
The term "weak verb" was originally coined by Jacob GrimmJacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
and in his sense refers only to Germanic philology. However, the term is sometimes applied to other language groups to designate phenomena which are not really analogous. For example, Hebrew irregular verbs are sometimes called weak verbs because one of their radicals is weak. See: weak inflection
Weak inflection
In grammar, the term weak is used in opposition to the term strong to designate a conjugation or declension when a language has two parallel systems...
.