Preterite-present verbs in Old Germanic languages.

Have 5 forms:Inf, Present Sg, Present Pl, Past , Participle II

Have 6 classes:

I Class: Gt witan, OHG wissen (to know), Gt aihan (to have)

II Class: duzan (бути придатним)

III Class: Gt kunna(can)

IV Class: Gt. skulan (shall)

V Class: OE mazan (may), OE zeneah (enough)

VI Class: OE motan (must)

The Present Tense of Pr-Pr verbs corresponds to the past tense os strong verbs while their past is derived according to the past tense of weak verbs. Originally the present-tense forms of Pr-Prs were Part tense forms of strong verbs which derived from IE. The IE resultative aspect merged with aorist aspect in the Past tense forms of PG strong verbs. The resultative aspect could also be interpreted as signifying the present result of a past action : know < have learnt.

Pr-Prs could also convey a kind of attitude to an action expressed by another verb. Eventually they developed into modern modal verbs.

These verbs are very important for later periods. From these verbs we get the present day core modal verbs. There is an important difference: in OE pr-pr verbs were morphologically defined; in PrDE modal verbs are syntactically defined.

The Proto-Germanic phonology. The consonants.

Periodization

1. Early PG (15/5c. BC - 1/4c. AD)---- separation of PG from the west IE (centum branch) to its stabilization as a separate system.

Features: (it possessed a lot of linguistic features typical of PIE)

- the existence of the fixed & moveable stress types

- there didn’t exist any difference between stressed & unstressed syllables.

- The 3-morphe structure of the word

- The existence of two-tense aspect stems in the system of the verb (the Infect and Perfect stems)

2. Late PG (4/7c. – 11/16c. AD)---- from stabilization of PG to its dispersal into separate groups of Germanic dialects .

Features: (it acquired a lot of specific features of its own)

- the dynamic stress was fixed on the first root syllable

- the opposition between stressed & unstressed syllables.

- The 3-morpheme structure of the word developed into the 2 – morpheme structure

- PG tense forms developed from PIE tense-aspect stems

CONSONANTS: (p.52) ТАБЛИЦА

Common features in PG:

- a great number of fricatives, small number of plosives;

- no palatal consonants at all, as in other Centum languages.

Such a quantity of fricatives appeared in PG as a result of sound shifting described as Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law.

The Proto-Germanic phonology. The vowels.

Indo-European language-based system consisted of five vowels and five short and long A,O,U,I,E. Vowels a, o, e are mainly stressed syllables, so they are called essential, loud I, U were originally only in unstressed syllables, because it is believed that they developed during the reduction of diphthongs. Unstressed long vowels were reduced in neutral sound, called “shva” and indicate on the sign…/ /

The early period of Germanic sound system was characterized by a clear difference between short and long vowels.

Vowel Triangle

Front Back

( lift ) High i u

Mid e o

Low a

There were 8 monophthongs and 3 diphthongs in PG.

Diphthongs: /ai/, /eu/, /au/.

IE short /a/ and /o/ merged in PG short /a/.

IE long vowels were unchanged. /i/>/i/, /u/>/u/. IE long /a/ and /o/ merged in PG long /o/.

In Early PG there were 4 long vowels: /i/, /u/, /o/ /e/. Then appeared /a/.

Long diphthongs were unstable in IE and turned into short diphthongs or long vowels

Features :

- strict differentiation of short and long vowel phoneme

- tendency to positional assimilative changes

- the contrast of short and long vowels is supported by different directions of their change

- while long vowels generally tended to become closer and to diphthongize, short vowels, on the contrary, often changed into more open sounds :

/ \ ui / \ u i/

\ oe / \ o e/

\ a / \/ a/

VOWEL SYSTEM’S Processes :

1. Vowel Shift(IE > Germ ) : a,o > a/ a,o > o

2. Germanic Fracture(IE > Germ) : e>I , u>o

3. I-Umlaut a, o, u > e (before i, j)

4. U-Umlaut i>io, e>eo, a >ea

Ablaut

…..R=====42. The Runic alphabet, its origin.

The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to be found in languages of other groups. The word rune originally meant ’secret’, ‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. The runes were used as letters, each symbol to indicate separate sound. This alphabet is called futhark after the first six letters.

- runic letters are angular;

- straight lines are preferred, curved lines avoided;

- this is due to the fact that runic inscriptions were cut in hard material: stone, bone or wood.

- the shapes of some letters resemble those of Greek or Latin, other have not been traced to any known alphabet, and the order of the runes in the alphabet is certainly original.

- the number of runes in different OG languages varied.

As compared to continental, the number of runes in England was larger: new runes were added as new sounds appeared in English (from 28 to 33 runes in Britain against 16 or 24 on the continent). The main use of runes was to make short inscriptions on objects, often to bestow on them some special power or magic.

The best known runic inscriptions are the earliest extant OE written records. One of them is and inscription on a box called the “Franks Casket”, the other is a short text on a stone cross near the village of Ruthwell known as the “Ruthwell Cross”. The ring from Piertoassa IIIc. AD “gutaniowihailag” - “Goths” “sacred”. The Edge of the Spear from Kovel III-IV c.AD “tilradis” – “attacking”. The Runic Stone IVc AD

p.36, 39

…….S=======8. The second consonant-shifting (High German).

GERMANIC lan-ges and OHGare compared .

Essence: the type of articulation changes while the place remains unchanged, - similar to the First Consonant Shift

Time: V – VIII c. AD

The shift occurred in the dialects of Southern Germany and spread gradually from South to North. There were singled out 3 acts as well, but only P,T,K and B,D,G were shifted. The shift gave different results depending upon the sound distribution and dialects. Its specific feature was appearing of the affricates.

I ACT

PG OHG

p > ff Gt skip > OHG skif

t > zz

k > hh

(in the middle of the word, or at the end of the word after vowels) > f, z, h *

II ACT.

PG OHG

p > pf/ph E pepper > G Pfeffer, E apple > OHG aph

t > tz

k > kh/ch

(at the beginning of the word, in the middle after l, r, m. n. When p,t,k were doubled)