The Strong verbs in Gothic language.
Main Forms : Infinitive, Past Singular, Past Plural, Participle II.
7 Classes formed by ABLAUT. (Ablaut is an independent vowel intergange unconnected with any phonetic condition; different vowels appear in the same environment, surrounded by the same sound.)
There are 5 classes of ablaut:
I: i: - ia – i – i
II: iu – au –u – u
III: i – a – u – u
IV: i – a – ē – u
V: i - a – ē – i.
VI: IE o-o-o-o > PG a-o-o-a
P. 91 SABO
Class I. Ablaut grades i: - ia – i – i
( Complicator – i )To this class belong: greipan “to seize”
Class II. Ablaut grades eu/iu – au – u – u
(Complicator – u )Here belong: kiusan “to test’
Class III. Ablaut grades e/i – a – u – u
( Complicator - Sonorant + Consonant) For example, wairpan
Class IV. Ablaut grades e/i – a – ē – u
(Complicator - Sonorant ). For example, niman
Class V. Ablaut grades e/i– a – ē - i
(Complicator - Consonant) giban
Class VI. Ablaut grades a – ō – ō – a
To this class belong: faran
Reduplicated Strong verbs in Gothic.
Reduplication –addition of an extra syllable consisting of the initial consonant and the vowel [e] ‘’ai’’ Gt in the Past Tense. Reduplication is also found in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. The origin of reduplication was probably connected with emphatic repetition meant to stress the completion of an action
I minor class – haitan
II minor class – letan
Simple and composite sentence characteristics in Old Germanic languages.
Syntax of OGL isn’t fully explored. But it is considered that the structure of a simple sentence in OGL is the same as in the ModernGL. There were a couple of differences due to the morphological peculiarities of the Old L-ges.
Simple sentence
· The predicate was the obligatory feature of a sentence. The verb was absent only in a case when the same verb was used in the preceding sentence.
· The verb always took the 2nd place. It took the 1st place only if a sentence does not have a subject.
· Usually a sentence had both a subject and a predicate, but there were numerous cases of a sentence having only one or the other.
· The attribute and the object didn’t have a fixed position, could precede or follow the subject
· Those parts of the sentence which express smth new and important were located after the predicate
· At first, the words order was free but later.. there was the model OV or SOV (S – subject V – predicate O – object) not like SVO as in Modern English.
Composite s-nce – was appeared in the latest developmental stage of the IE l-ge or after the collapse of IE community.:
- Compound clauses
- Subordinate clauses (Subordinate clauses were introduced by the subordinate conjunctions)
1. Complex s-ces start their formation in PIE, but we see only the initial stage: i.e. there already existed subordinate clauses but there were not enough specialized conjunctions
2. the subordinate s-ces emerged on the basis of combination of simple sentences;
3. the subordinate clauses appeared on the basis of a simple sentence, when it was complicated by infinitive or participial constructions with the help of subordinate and insubordinate conjunction .
4. There were mostly coordinative -сурядний(which was expressed with the help of the conjunctions) rather than subordinate conjunction.
Deviation: inversion of the main parts of the sentence, reverse WO of the main and dependent parts.
……U=======11. The umlaut in Old Germanic languages.
In Germanic languages the vowels displayed a tendency to positional assimilative changes. The quality of stress root of vowel in some cases depended on following sound in the suffix or in the ending. A root vowel was approximated more closely to the following sound. The term UMALUT was introduced by Jacob Grimm.
Umlaut – is a case of regressive assimilation, when the vowel is changed under the influence of the following vowel.
1) i-umlaut (Front Mutation)
2) u-umlaut (Back Mutation)
I-Umlaut (I-Mutation) – is a kind of partial regressive assimilation of root vowel caused by I or J of the following syllable and resulting in fronting and narrowing of the root vowel.
/a/, /o/, /u/ change into /e/,/e/,/y/ if the following vowel is /i/or /j/.
Later i, and j disappeared or changed to e. (dailjan – delan)
I-Umlaut in OE took place in prewritten period on the territory of the British Isles.
*a> æ> e *a> æ *o> e *o> oe> e *u> y: *u> y
In OHG I-Mutation took place starting from the 8th century.
a> a(e) a > æ o> ö o> oe u> ü
U-Umlaut (Back Mutationor Velar Mutation)
OE: 7-8 centuries
The short front vowels a(æ), e, i were diphthongized when the back vowels a, o , u were present in the following syllable.
a (æ)> ea OE saro> searu
e> eo, OE efor> eofor
i> io, OE sifon> siofon
This process differs from I-Umlaut in 3 respects:
· it effected almost exclusively short vowels
· it effected only front vowels
· its results are less unifor m
4. …..V====== Verner’s Law . (Voicing of fricatives in Proto-Germanic)
Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875.
V.L. explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict G.L and were regarded as exceptions for a long time. According to V.L., all the early Proto Germanic voiceless fricatives f , Ө, h which arose under G.L. and also inherited from PIE, became voiced between vowels, if the preceding vowel was unstressed. In the absence of these conditions, they remain voiceless. The voicing occurred in early PG at the time when the stress was not yet fixed on the root morpheme. The process of voicing can be shown as a step in a succession of consonant changes in pre-historical reconstructed forms.
IE > PG
p > f > v > b
t > Ө > ð > d
k > h > j > g
Rhotacism.
One more consonant(voiceless fricative) is affected by V.L. If the preceding vowel is unstressed, “s” in Germanic l-ges becomes voiced and changes into “z”, and “z” changer into “r”.
s > z > r
OE: wesan – wæs – wæron – weron
OE: ceas - ceosan – curon
This change is called Rhotacismand took place in North and West Germanic l-ges except Gothic.