Historical Germanic Verb Morphology 9783110847871, 9783110069402

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G. Lee Fullerton Historical Germanic Verb Morphology

w DE

G

Studia Linguistica Germanica Herausgegeben von

Stefan Sonderegger

13

Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • New York 1977

G.Lee Fullerton

Historical Germanic Verb Morphology

Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • New York 1977

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Fullerton, Gerald Lee, 1 9 4 1 — Historical Germanic verb morphology. (Studia linguistica Germanica ; 13) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Germanic languages—Verb. 2. Germanic languages—Morphology. manic languages—History. I. Title. P D 2 7 1 . F 8 4 430 77-3255 I S B N 3-11-006940-7

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Bibliothek

Fullerton, Gerald L e e Historical Germanic verb morphology. — Berlin, New Y o r k : de Gruyter, 1977. (Studia linguistica Germanica ; 13) I S B N 3-11-006940-7

© Copyright 1977 by Walter de Gruyter 6c Co., vormals G . J.Göschen'sche Verlagshandjung — J . Guttcntag, Verlagsbuchhandlung — Georg Reimer — Kurl J . Trübner — Veit & Comp., Berlin 30 — Printcd in Gcrmany — Alle Rechte der Übersetzung, des Nachdrucks, der photomcchanischen Wiedergabe und der Anfertigung von Mikrofilmen — auch auszugsweise — vorbehalten Satz: IBM-Composer, Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin; Druck; Rocaprint druck Hildebrand, Berlin Bindearbeiten: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin

for Carol and Carlin

Preface

The morphology of verbs in the early Germanic dialects is one of those areas that has generated so much scholarly writing over the past century that one feels a bit presumptuous in adding more. Still, I suspect that I am not alone with the opinion that the scholarship has been generally too fragmented, treating single problems in isolation and proposing unnecessarily complicated and unnatural solutions. Admittedly, judgments about naturalness are still largely intuitive, but readers will agree, I hope, that the solutions proposed here are simpler than usual and that the study offers an integrated approach to the topic. To the many friends and colleagues who have encouraged and helped me directly and indirectly in this effort 1 express my sincere thanks. 1 am especially indebted to Robert L. Kyes, director of the 1971 Michigan dissertation out of which this work has grown. Indispensable over the past three years has been the guidance and patience of Byron J. Koekkoek who lias acted as both critic and editor; he has my profound gratitude. Any errors are of course my own. Buffalo, N.Y. October 1974

G.L.F.

Contents

Chapter I The First Weak Class Chapter II The Second Weak Class Chapter III T h e Third Weak Class Chapter IV T h e F o u r t h Weak Class Chapter V T h e Ablauting Verbs Summary Bibliography Index

1 45 55 71 77 113 117 121

Introduction

This study examines all the important Germanic conjugations, those of the four classes of weak verbs and also those of the strong, preteritpresent, and reduplicating groups. After identifying the IndoEuropean source(s) of each formation, it traces in detail the formation's history from Proto-Germanic to each of the major early Germanic dialects: Gothic, Old Norse, Old High German, Old Saxon, and Old English. The syntactic-semantic values of the verb formations are not discussed. (On such values among weak verbs see Krämer 1971.) Also ignored are the isolated, anomolous attestations in each dialect of otherwise regular verbs. In other words, the focus in the study is on the morphology and phonology and - within those areas — on the major, well-attested patterns. Within the morphology, incidentally, no attempt is made to account for the origin of the weak dental nonpresent morpheme. The study approaches its topic from the generative-transformational perspective. It assumes that the speaker's 'grammar', here his morpho-phonological competence, can be described, with the linguist's 'grammar', as a set of ordered rules that modify uniform, abstract underlying representations, transforming them into surface representations reflecting the audible phonetic sequences and alternations of speech. As an historical study it compares the grammar reflecting the speaker's competence from one stage to the next, noting the differences and thus identifying the historical changes. The study assumes that the correct description of the speaker's grammar is always the simplest one consistent with all the evidence. When measured by the brevity o f the relevant portion o f the linguist's grammar, as written with the distinctive feature notation of generative phonology, relative simplicity can be viewed as identical with relative generality, for less writing is required in the notation to specify all the members of a natural class than to specify only some members. It takes fewer symbols to designate all short vowels, for example, than it does to designate any one of them. Consequently, when one finds that Proto-Germanic deletes weakly stressed a from certain final

2

Introduction

syllables, one looks for evidence that the other weakly stressed short vowels are also deleted in the same environment (cf. Section 1.2). Or, when one finds at a later stage (in North and West Germanic) that certain vowels are deleted from final syllables and also from medial syllables, one suspects that a single process is at work, i.e. that the medial and final syllables constitute a single environment, one properly described in terms of the syllable boundary without reference to the word boundary (cf. beginning of Section 1.4). Taking an example from morphology, when one finds that the seventh class of verbs has abandoned reduplication in Northwest Germanic, one looks first to see whether reduplication hasn't been replaced by an existing process rather than by a wholly new one. When one finds that some seventhclass verbs have, indeed, adopted e/a-ablaut, one then pursues the hypothesis that all members of Class 7 have adopted ablaut (cf. Sections 5.4 and 5.5). The notion of generality and its concomitant expectation of parallel behavior among naturally related elements will guide the present study throughout. In a comparison of the grammars of two historical stages, several different kinds of changes might be seen: the abstract underlying representations cited in slashes may have changed or been 'recoded', a rule deriving surface representations from the underlying representations may have been lost, the rule's formulation may have changed, the rule may have been reordered with respect to some other rule(s), or finally, a new rule may have been added to the grammar. Rule addition is the most common type of historical change encountered in this study, and in each instance the added rule is ordered after all other rules. With respect to newer and older traditions of historical grammatical description, rule addition is the only instance of historical phonological change as defined within generative grammar which is synonymous with the neogrammarian concept of 'regular sound change'. The other types of change in the grammar traditionally have fallen under 'analogy'. If the chapters that follow exhibit new and better solutions to the problems treated, the solutions arise from the application of generative principles. Wherever possible 1 have tried to avoid superfluous generative jargon and symbolism. Nonetheless, certain technical terms and symbols have proved to be indispensable, such as the statements of 'derivation' and their arrows, as well as the generative 'rule' itself for that matter. The arrow with shaft indicates the operation of rules in statements of synchronic derivation. Reflecting the PGmc. rule raising e to i before i or/' of the following syllable is the synchronic derivation 2sg. pres. indie, /met-iz/->- mitiz. The acquisition of the rule

Introduction

3

results in a surface alternation between the rule's output mit- and the unaffected met- of e.g. inf. metan-. Where, for whatever reason, the operation of a rule does not result in alternations, it is assumed that learners of the language cannot set up an underlying form different from the audible surface form and the surface form is therefore coded by learners as the underlying form, with concomitant disappearance of the rule. For example, PreGothic acquired a rule raising e to / in all positions, exemplified by the synchronic derivation /met-an/ mi tan. Since the rule is unconditioned, no surface alternations result, e.g. 2sg. pres. indie, mit is alongside inf. mitan. Hearing no alternant met-, Gothic speakers of subsequent generations do not code a verb root /met-/, nor do they maintain in their grammar a rule e -*• i. Instead, they code the root as /mit-/ at the underlying level and derive surface mitis, mitan without any rule. Thus, diachronically, /met-/ has become or been recoded /mit-/ in Gothic. Such a recoding is stated using an arrow without shaft: PGmc. /met-/ > Go. /mit-/, PGmc. metan > Go. mitan. Rules affecting segments of Germanic weakly stressed syllables often have the product zero, i.e. X -*• 0. Rules of this form will be referred to as 'deletions'. Where a deletion rule does not result in alternations and the segment affected is therefore recoded by subsequent generations as zero, the diachronic term 'loss' will be used. For example, Proto-Germanic acquired a rule deleting weakly stressed short vowels in word-final position (one of two environments; cf. Section 1.2). With neuter /-stem NA sg. forms the nominal suffix is affected by the rule, e.g. /mar-i/ -+ mar. Because the suffix occurs in nonfinal position in other paradigm forms, D pi. marim-, an alternation results (NA sg. mar with D pi. mari-) and the suffix /-i-/ remains part of the underlying representation, with the rule continuing to operate in deriving the NA sg. form. In this case there is a 'deletion' but no 'loss' of i in neut. /-stems. With the 'primary' present verb endings /-mi, -zi, -di/ -*-m,-z, -d, on the other hand, the weakly stressed / occurs only in final position, never nonfinally. The / consequently is deleted at every occurrence and no alternations result among primary verb endings from application of the deletion rule. Hearing no /, subsequent generations code these morphemes /-m, -z, -dI, that is, / has been 'lost' historically from the primary verb endings: -mi, -zi, -di > -m,-z, -d. Finally, a word about the morphological composition of verb forms in Proto-Germanic as seen in the study. Although no one verb form contains more than five different formative elements, as many as seven can be identified: the root (whose vowel alternates by tense

4

Introduction

with ablauting verbs), preceded by a reduplicating syllable in the preterit of reduplicating verbs, and followed by: the class suffix (with verbs belonging to an overtly marked class); either the thematic vowel with thematically conjugated verbs or the dental nonpresent marker with weak verbs; in the optative, the optative sign /!/ (j adjacent t o vowel); and the person-number ending. These morphemes and their relative order can be summarized in the following formula, with elements not always present appearing in parentheses: j (theme vowel /a/) -i (redup. syll.) root (class suffix) \ ( w k n o n p r e s J (opt. /l/) ending

Chapter I The First Weak Class

1.1. This first chapter will describe the history of the Germanic first class of weak verbs, or, as they will be called when the /-presents of strong verbs are included (below), the '/-verbs'. At the same time, the chapter seeks to outline a substantial portion of the phonological history of Gmc. weakly stressed syllables. This second task necessarily accompanies the first; it will also provide a framework for dealing with the remaining weak classes (Chapters II, III, IV). The first weak conjugation is shown in Table 1 (p. 6). Gothic is illustrated with the PGmc. roots naz- 'save' and mer- 'proclaim', Norse with the PGmc. roots mer- and tal- 'tell', West Germanic with the roots fram- 'perform', drank- 'wet', and naz-. (The OHG nerien-paradigm illustrates the conjugation of the PGmc. root naz- for all of West Germanic). The Germanic first weak class has long been known to combine two groups of Indo-European derived verbs, deverbatives (mostly causatives) with the stem-forming suffix IE /-ej-/, and denominatives with the suffix IE /-j-/ (cf. Streitberg 1896: 3 0 4 - 6 , Hirt 1932:166, 172—4). Both are given thematic present inflection in Indo-European and in Germanic. The deverbatives have o-grade in the root vowel with accent on the suffix, i.e. IE sod-ej^,

root sed- 'sit', cf. Skt. sadayati

'causes to sit'. In Germanic the IE suffix accent of the derived verb results in consonantal alternations connected with Verner's Law, e.g. OHG strong (ga-) nesan 'recover', derived wk. CI. 1 nerien 'save'. With denominatives the formative element I E / was attached to the nominal stem and the accent fell on the thematic vowel, e.g. Skt. deva-yati 'cultivates the gods' formed on deva 'god'. The o-stem nominal suffix appeared in the e-grade, e.g. Gk. phileo < bhile-jd (cf. noun philos), L claudeo (adj. claudus). With i- and u-stem nominals the suffixes ej and ew appeared in the zero grade, e.g. Skt. jani-yati (noun jani), L metuo < metu-jo (noun metus). The smallest group of first-class verbs is made up of the primary members. In the present these have a /j/-suffix attached to the root, e.g. inf. Go. waurkjan, Norse yrkja, OE wyrcan, OHG wurchen 'work'

6

Chapter I

A ¥

v v

a.

'C1 V ¥

EA c s

¥ •?• ?

a

3 .a

—: A ¥ T>

w

a . S 3P

ts co — (S m

ft oi - ~ " § £ & » SP

.y — 4> -5

bo oi> 9;

The first weak class

7

< IE wrg-j-on-, cf. Avest. 3sg. varazyeiti, Gk. lsg. rhezo < wrgjo. Unlike the derived members of Class 1 these primary verbs generally do not show the /j/-suffix outside the present, e.g. pret. Go. waurhta, ON orta, OE worhte, OHG worhta. Entirely parallel to these primary first-class weak verbs are the strong '/-presents'. They also have a suffix /j/ attached to the root in the present, e.g. inf. Go. skapjan, ON skepja, OE scieppan, OHG scepfen 'create' < IE skab-j-on-. In the nonpresent these strong verbs also show no suffix, e.g. pret. Go. skop, ON skop, OE sceop, OHG skuof. Everything that can be said about the history of the present of first-class weak verbs applies equally well to the present of the strong verbs with /-suffix. As mentioned above their inclusion in the description is indicated by referring in the text to '/-verbs'. Also, the term '/-presents' will be used to designate the subclass of /-verbs defined by absence of /j/ in the nonpresent, i.e. beside the strong verbs it includes the primary members of weak class 1. The falling together of the three formations — deverbative, denominative, and primary — is the single most important morphological fact in the history of /-verbs. With only a couple exceptions, the remainder of their history consists of phonological changes that do not affect the construction of verb forms. Morphological unification was foreshadowed by the fact that two formations shared already in Indo-European a single surface alternation between / and ij in the present. Before the suffix /j/ of primary and strong verbs having a 'heavy root', an / is inserted when a vowel follows, e.g. /pank-j-an-/ pankijan. ('Heavy root' = CVXC where X stands for any segment, a nonvowel as in /pank-/ or the second vowel of a geminate vowel sequence as in /sook-/ = /sok-/. On the 'weight' of polysyllabic 'roots' see Vennemann 1971: 107—8 and Erdmann 1972.) This rule is known as 'Sievers' Law' (cf. Sievers 1878: 1 2 9 - 3 0 ; Edgerton 1934 and 1943). The /-stem denominatives, on the other hand, have the //-sequence at the underlying level, e.g. /xrajni-j-an-/. When the /-stem's root is 'light' (CVX), the 'Converse of Sievers' Law' deletes the i (cf. Edgerton 1934: 237-41), e.g. /mati-j-an-/ -+matjan-. Thus, light-root /-stem matjan- is like primary bugjan-, and strong skapjan-, while heavy-root primary pankijan- is like /-stem xrajnijan-. Although this ////-alternation occurs at first with only a minority of /-verbs, a substantial majority soon acquires one of the alternants by regular phonological change- As weakly stressed e is raised to / (except before r), the ^/'-sequence of all deverbatives and o-stem denominatives becomes ij, e.g. naz-ej-an- > naz-ij-an-, dome-j-an-

8

Chapter I

> dómi-j-an-, With the e-grade of the o-stem nominal suffix now /-i/, o-stem denominatives have become identical to the /-stem denominatives and their light-root members are also subject to the Converse of Sievers' Law, i.e. /wari-j-an-/ warjan-. The deverbative morpheme /ij/ < IE ej may not be subject immediately to the Converse rule, since Indo-European had no morphemes of the form /jj/ and the Converse rule therefore operated necessarily only across morpheme boundaries. Yet the rule is surely soon generalized in Germanic to operate also within the morphemes /jj/ that have arisen by phonological change, e.g. /naz-ij-an-/ ->-nazjan-. (Cf. Lehmann 1955b: 361.) Thus, in the present, where a vowel (the thematic vowel) always follows the /, a single post-radical surface alternation, / after light roots, // after heavy roots, is shared by /- and o-stem denominatives (formed ¡ \ f + i + j + V-/), deverbatives (formed /V" + ij + V-/), and primary and strong/-verbs (formed /\T+ j + V-/). In the nonpresent — athematic with all Germanic weak verbs — no vowel follows the /'-verb suffix, so Sievers' Law and its Converse do not apply. Consequently, the suffixal sequence // must have yielded long i at first, e.g. pret. /naz-ij-de-/ nazlde, /wari-j-de-/ warTctè-, The fact that the suffix is always short in attested nonpres. forms (cf. Go. nasida, warida, frawardida, dómida) is evidence that the present alternation j/ij came to be perceived as /j/ with deverbatives and o-, /-stem denominatives, just as it was with primary /-verbs. In other words, deverbative /-ij-/ and denominative /—i—j—/ were replaced by /-)-/, and the surface present alternation j/ij came to be derived exclusively by the /-insertion after heavy roots of Sievers' Law (/wardj-an-/ wardijan-) and no longer by the /-deletion after light roots of its Converse. With /j/ rather than /ij/, the short suffix vowel in the nonpresent is regular, e.g. /ward-j-de/ wardide-, /dom-j-de-/ dòmide-. The recoding of j/ij as /j/ represents a significant structural change for the /- and o-stem denominatives. Whereas before recoding they were formed by adding the denominative morpheme /j/ to the nominal stem ending in suffix -/, they are formed now by adding a common verb-deriving morpheme /j/ to the root, i.e. the nominal suffix is no longer a part of the formation. The final step in the development of a unified class is the extension of the /- and o-stems' suffix-less formation to all other denominatives, e.g. /wal-j-an-/, Go. waljan, ON velja, OHG wellen formed on the root of the a-stem /waló/, cf. OHG wala\ /stow-j-an-/, Go. stòjan, formed on the root of another a-stem /stówo-/, cf. Go. staua; /kur-j-an-/, Go. kaurjan, on the root of the «-stem /kuru-/, cf. Go. kaùrus.

The first weak class

9

Although it is convenient and usually accurate to describe the first formative element in denominatives as the 'root', strictly speaking it is the nominal stem without suffix vowel, as demonstrated by formations on nouns having a nonvowel in the suffix, e.g. Go. namnjan on the «-stem /naman-/, bandwjan on the wa-stem /bandwo-/. 1.2. The originally diverse verb formations with j thus make up a single PGmc. class. Sievers' Law and its Converse, the shift of weakly stressed e to i and its phonological consequence, the recoding of ij (< ej) as /j/, along with the morphological consequence of this recoding, attachment of the suffix /j/ to the root (or vowel-less nominal suffix), have led to a uniform formation: root plus /j/ plus ending, thematic in the present, athematic in the nonpresent. The only morphological irregularity of the class is in the nonpresent: primary and strong members form their nonpresent stem without the verb suffix /j/. Phonologically there are no irregularities in the PGmc. /-class. The suffix /j/ has three surface allomorphs in complementary distribution: / and ij before vowel, the former after light roots, the latter after heavy ones, and i before nonvowel, e.g. nazjan, merijan, nonpres. nazid-, merid-. The further history of the /-conjugation can be seen as a series of disruptions of this neat pattern, disruptions caused by the various segment deletions that take place in weakly stressed syllables. The deletions begin in Proto-Germanic and continue in every dialect to the period of written documents and beyond. They include the PGmc. deletion of short vowels in final syllables; the related Go. deletion of final-syllable short vowels; the Go. and NWGmc. deletions o f / ; the N- and WGmc. deletions of a, u, and v, the shortening of long vowels: and the loss of / after long syllables. In addition, there are developments affecting the root syllable: gemination and umlaut. All of these begin as synchronic rules, in some cases conditioned differently in the various dialects, or ordered differently with respect to other shared rules. Once introduced, some rules also undergo later generalization and/or loss in one or more of the dialects. Needless to say, it is a complicated history. For clarity's sake, I have chosen to summarize my analysis of it in chart form. Tables 2—9 at the end of this chapter represent each successive synchronic grammar of /-verbs from Proto-Germanic to the early literary dialects. Not every form of the paradigm is shown in the charts. The 2sg. imperative and lsg. pres. indicative are given because their ending vowels are subject to deletion (at different times; the lsg. ending only in N- and WGermanic). The remaining present forms with o-grade theme vowel,

Chapter I

10

including the 2pl. pres. indicative and imperative in West Germanic, 1 are represented by the infinitive; the remaining present forms with e-grade theme vowel are represented by the 2sg. pres. indicative. The athematic nonpresent is represented by the lsg. pret. indicative (ending vowel retained) and by the perfect participle with strong masc. N sg. ending (ending vowel lost). The underlying forms and first rule (Siever's Law) at the top of Table 2 depict the stage described in Section 1.1, the stage at which the /'-conjugation is already morphologically uniform and still phonologically regular. The first disruption comes with the PGmc. deletion of weakly stressed short vowels 1 ) in absolute final position, e.g. in 'primary' verb endings -mi, -zi, -di, -ndi -> -m, -z, -d, -nd\ 1,3 sg. strong pret. indie, bara, bari

bar ; o-stem G sg. dag-^s ( j ) a

dagj^s (cf. Must 1953); 2sg. imper. beri, nazji, meriji

ber, nazj = nazi,

2

merij = meri, i- and w-stem neut. NA sg. mari, fexu -»• mar, fex, etc., and 2) before a single, final, true consonant (i.e. including-«, -m, but not -r, -I, -j, or -w) if the preceding syllable is weakly stressed, e.g. inf. nazjanan -*• nazjann; lpl. pres. indie, and imper. nazjamjjz -*• nazjamz', 1

2

With Gothic and Norse thematic conjugations the 2pl. pres. indicative and imperative is e-grade, e.g. Go. nimip, ON nemip. West Germanic has replaced the e-grade thematic vowel i with the o-grade vowel a, e.g. early Alemanic OHG nemat, Franconian nemet. (In the Ingveonic dialects, Old English and Old Saxon, the 3pl. ending has taken over for the entire pres. indie, and imper. plural; cf. Fullerton 1974.) Further OHG evidence for the WGmc. replacement of theme vowel is found with the /-verbs where the 2pl. form consistently shows either / (neriet) or its effect in gemination (fremmet). As explained in Section 1.3 below, / occurs in NWGinc. /-verbs only with the o-grade forms, i.e. before the thematic vowel a, never with e-grade forms. This replacement of thematic i by a can be seen as the result of a simplification in the rule choosing ablaut alternants in verb endings. Originally, the choice of alternants was conditioned by both person and number. The IE lsg., lpl., and 3pl. vowel was back: -o, -omes, -onti, respectively; the IE 2sg., 2pl., and 3sg. vowel was f r o n t : -esi, -ete, -eti, respectively. After the WGmc. simplification the choice is based solely on number. The singular has only high vowels, i.e. early Alemanic -u, -is, -it; the plural has only a low vowel, i.e. early Alem. -ames, -at, -ant. I see the vocalization of / t o i in nazj(i) -> nazi and the contraction of ij to 1 in merij(i) -*• men as part of Postal's universal 'Naturalness Condition' (1968: 5 3 - 7 7 ) or, in the terminology of Chomsky and Halle (1968: 4 1 9 - 3 5 ) , as 'linking rules', that is, automatic adjustments entailed by deletion of the following vowel, but not themselves separate phonological rules.

The first weak class

D pi. of nouns dagamiz dagamz (cf. Run. gestumR, borumR) several «-stem forms: G sg. gum^n^z -^gum^nz, A sg. gumanun ->gumann, N p\.gumaniz -+gumanz; N sg. masc. pp. nazidaz ->- nazidz, o-stem pewdanaz -*• pewdanz, /o-stem hirdijaz ( men, Go. merei. With short vowels before a final, true consonant, Gothic deletes, whether the preceding syllable is stressed or not, e.g. /da&-az/ -> dagz, Go. dags, like piudans\ pp. /skuld-az/ -*• skuldz, Go. skulds like nasips, merips. The light-root (therefore monosyllabic) /o-stem masc. N singular is similarly derived at this point, i.e. /harj-az/ hariz (cf. A hari < harin /harj-an/. The attested N form harjis is the result of subsequent Go. developments as explained below). The Go. generalization of PGmc. short vowel deletion before final, true consonant makes the affected endings - VC consistently vowel-less on the surface. Thus without allomorphs manifesting the vowel, these endings are recoded /-C/ and the deletion rule no longer applies in their derivation, e.g. masc. o-stem N sg. /dagrz/ -»• dagz.3 The reappearance of deletable vowels which are not part of an ending morpheme, but rather alternate with nondeletable segments elsewhere in the paradigm, shows that the deletion rule is lost altogether from the grammar of Gothic, e.g. the M-stem suffix's /-w-/ in the N and A singular, e.g. N /sun-w-z/, A /sun-w-n/ originally sunz, sunn, now N sunuz > Go. sunus, Ksunun > Go. sunu. (The recoding of endings 3

With the recoding of the masc. o-stem N sg. ending PGmc. -az as /-z/, as well as the masc. A sg. and neut. NA sg. endings PGmc. /-an/ as /-n/, the same situation arises in the /o-stem nouns as arose in the PGmc. /-verbs with the 2sg. imperative. The heavy-root NA sg. surface forms, e.g. masc. N hirdiz, A hirdin, must be derived synchronically by a special rule i -* T, because the following-vowel condition for Sievers' Law is no longer met, i.e. /hird-j-z, -n/. After the introduction and later loss of the rule deleting/' between vowels and the consequent replacement of Sievers' Law by the rule ji T after heavy root (Section 1.3), the masc. N surface form herdis (and with it the entire masc. /o-stem N singular) is reanalyzed as /herd-j-is/ (hence light-root surface harjis) and the special /'o-stem NA sg. ¡'-lengthening rule is lost (hence A herdi(n), neut. NA riki(n)).

14

Chapter I

without vowel and the loss of the deletion rule are shown in the second grammar of Table 3.) Before leaving the topic of PGmc. and early Go. and NWGmc. development of weakly stressed vowels in final syllables, a word should be said about long vowels, especially e and o, in final syllables. Because so few morphemes containing final-syllable long vowels are relevant to verb morphology, I give only a brief chronological summary of what I take to be the rules involved, together with one or two examples of each. These rules produce few morphophonemic alternations and are lost from the grammar soon after their introduction. To preserve clarity in illustrating verb developments, Tables 2—9 do not show these rules, though their effects can be seen in the tables' underlying and derived forms. With Jellinek (1895) and Hempel (1966: 3 7 - 9 ) I believe that the problems associated with final-syllable long vowels can be solved without recourse to either Schleifton (Hirt 1931: 1 3 2 - 7 ; Streitberg 1896: 1 5 8 - 6 3 , 1 7 8 - 9 1 ) or 'overlong' vowels (Lane 1963; Bennett 1963). In general, long vowels remain long before a final obstruent. The obstruents that occur in final position are IE t,d,s> PGmc. d, t, z, respectively. (On Verner's Law in weakly stressed syllables and exceptional final -s and p, see Fullerton 1974 and 1975 and the studies cited there.) However, PGmc. final -d is lost early, before the PGmc. rule deleting short vowels finally, e.g. 3sg. pres. opt. berajd> beraj, Go. bai'rai; indie, beridi > berid, Go. bairip. Thus, ed and od now have their vowel in final position, e.g. wk. pret. 3sg. indie. nazided> nazide; ending-less root-stem N sg. IE menot > PGmc. mend(d). (With final long -d in the N singular, like xand, gumo, the root men- becomes an «-stem, menan-.) Gothic shortens e and o to a finally and before a single final glide or dental resonant, e.g. 3sg. pret. indie, nazide > Go. nasida \ thematic lsg. pres. indie, nazjo and «-stem N sg. mend, hand > Go. nasja, mena, hana~, fem. /-stem D (IE Loc.) sg. anstej > Go. anstai; a-stem D (IE Loc.) sg.£eboj > Go. gibai; «-stem D (IE Loc.) sg. sanew > Go. sundu; numeral '8' ax tow > Go. ahtau\r-stem N sg. fader > Go. fadar; bropor > Go. brdpar \ lsg. pret. indie, nasidon and nasidan,_geban (> Go. nasida, giba). The sequence -dw becomes -aw in Gothic only in final position; elsewhere Gothic deletes the back, round glide after the back, round, long vowel, e.g. them. 1 dual pres. indie. PGmc. nazjowf i)z > nazjowz > Go. nasjos. For Northwest Germanic this glide-deletion treatment of ow is regular in final as well as nonfinal position, e.g. '8' axtow > OHG ahto; Ingveonic «-stem D (IE Loc.) sg. sunow > OS suno, OE

T h e first weak class

15

suna. A generalization o f this same rule is t o be seen, I think, in the N W G m c . shift o f final long -o to -u, e.g. thematic lsg. pres. indie, -o, -jo > Run. writu, wTju. With the remaining final sequences o f long v o w e l plus glide N W G e r m a n i c shortens and raises the v o w e l , e.g. f e m . /-stem D sg. -ej > ij = -i, O H G O S ansti; ¿-stem D sg. -oj >-uj > -wi O H G O S gebu ( w i t h loss o f final /, Section 1.4); Norse and High German M-stem D sg. -ew > -iw, Run. -mu(n)diu, early O H G suniu. Unlike G o t h i c , N W G e r m a n i c does n o t shorten final -e ( c f . Run. 3sg. pret. indie, tawide) or the final -o f r o m P G m c . -ow ( ' 8 ' Run. *ahto > O N atta), nor does it shorten either v o w e l b e f o r e a final resonant ( R u n . lsg. pret. indie, tawido < tawidon). N o r t h and West Germanic ' r h o t a c i z e ' z t o R , e.g. nazjo > W G m c . nerju; o-stem N sg. ending -az > Run. -OR , O N -r. In Norse, this R acts like an obstruent (e.g. in conditioning the Short V o w e l Deletion Rule, Section 1.4). In West Germanic, R behaves like a nonobstruental, true consonant (i.e. like nasals), as can be seen f r o m the next d e v e l o p m e n t o f long v o w e l s , the W G m c . lowering-unrounding o f o t o a b e f o r e final - R and -n, e.g. a-stem N A pi.geboR ( c f . Run. rundR), A sg.¿ebon > g_ebaR,zeban ( > O H G geba)\ w k . pret. lsg. indie, naridon > O H G nerita; f e m . and neut. K-stem N sg. -on > -an > O H G zunga, ouga. T h e last prehistoric d e v e l o p m e n t a f f e c t i n g all dialects is the loss o f certain consonants f r o m final position, whether preceded b y a long v o w e l , a short v o w e l , or another consonant. A l l dialects lose -t, e.g. ( I E A b l . sg. -dd » P G m c . adv. -at > G o . galeiko, O H G gilicho] (IE ablaut alternant -ed >) P G m c . -et > G o . hadre, O E gelTce. G o t h i c and Norse also lose any final nasal, e.g. lsg. pres. indie. G o . nazidan > nasida, Norse * tawidon > Runic tawido; /-verb inf. -jann > G o . nasjan, Run. prawijan; G o . lpl. pres. ind. and D pi", -mm (< -mz) > nasjam, dagam; w k . CI. 2 lsg. pres. indie, -dm > G o . salbo, Run. tawo ( c f . Section 2.4). In addition to -t, West Germanic loses final -n and -R, lsg. pret. indie. naRidan > O H G nerita-, inf. -jann > O H G nerien, O S O E nerian; a-stem A sg. geban, N A pi. gebaR > O H G geba; N W G m c . D pi. -mR ( c f . Run. gestumR) > O H G tagum. T h e N - and W G m c . m o n o p h t h o n g i z a t i o n o f aj t o e and aw t o 6 (in all weakly stressed positions where not f o l l o w e d by a v o w e l ) can be seen already in the early Runic inscriptions, e.g. o-stem D ( I E L o c . ) sg. GTsai ( V i m o s e , late 200's), -ride ( T u n e , ca. 4 0 0 ; cf. also the mistaken m o r p h o p h o n e m i c spelling talgidai, Ncurling, ca. 200, f o r 3sg. pret. indie, talgide); thematic pres. o p t . -aj- ( c f . G o . nasjai-), Run. 3sg. wate, O H G 2sg. neries; them. pres. opt. lsg. -aw ( c f . G o . nasjau) > Run.

16

Chapter I

*taljo

> O N telja; w-stem G sg. -awz ( c f . G o . sunaus)

> R u n . magOR,

early OHG fridd. The one NWGmc. final short vowel that results from the developments described above (-u < PGmc. -o) is deleted in accordance with the arguments of Section 1.4. The several NWGmc. long vowels that result are shortened and centralized as described in Section 1.7. 4 1.3. The conditioned deletion of final-syllable short vowels is the first disruption of the original PGmc. /-verb pattern; the second disruption comes with the deletion of j. Here too, Gothic and NWGermanic behave differently, setting quite different conditions for the deletion of the glide. Gothic deletes / between weakly stressed vowels (cf. Krahe 1967b: 65; see Table 3, second grammar), e.g. inf. merijann -»• meri-ann = merjann, lsg. pres. indie, merija meri-a = merja, 2sg. pres. indie, merijiz ->• meri-iz = menz, /o-stem nouns G sg. hirdijis 4

hirdi-is

= hirdis,

N pi. hirdijoz

hirdi-dz

= hirdjoz.

(The

The important exceptions to the phonological history outlined above come with the G pi. morpheme and the n-stem N singulars. In each case the exceptional ending vowel is perceived as standing in alternation with a vowel not affected by the rule in question. It therefore undergoes restoration of underlying length and/or tongue height upon loss of the rule from the grammar. PGmc. masc. «-stem N sg. -o should give NWGmc. *-u, WGmc. *gumu, *man(j) (Section 1.4), but the alternation with N sg. -o- in fem. tungon, neut. awgon (i.e. underlying N sg. /-o-/ in all genders) leads in West Germanic to restoration of masc. surface -o upon loss of the rule shifting final -o to -u; hence OHG gumo, mano. (Not perceiving - or maybe ignoring — this alternation, speakers of Norse replace -u with the full masc. o-grade «-stem suffix -an > Run. -a, e.g. farawisa, which, upon deletion (Section 1.4), is itself replaced by the e-grade suffix vowel, ON visi, vise.) PGmc. rc-stem fem. N sg. and neut. NA sg. -on should give pre-Gothic -an > Go. *tugga, *hairta, but the alternations with, respectively, all other fem. paradigm forms, tuggon-, and the neut. NA pi., hairtdna, cause restoration of N (A) sg. -on upon loss of the rule shortening final-syllable e, d to a \ hence Go. tuggo, hairto. The Go. G plural ending develops in fashion similar to the fem. and neut. «-stem N (A) singular. PGmc. -on gives at first -an, but alternation with the genitive singular in a-stems (gibos) restores G pi. -o(nj- (gibo) for this class. From there length and mid tongue position also return in the G plural of other nouns. Unlike other restorations, however, the alternant determines the front-back position of the restored Go. G pi. vowel, e.g. o-stem dage with a front vowel like the i of G sg. dagis (cf. Lehmann: 1967). In West Germanic the G plural should be *-a (< -an < PGmc. -on), but the effect of the rule lowering o to a before final n, r disappears with loss of the rule from the grammar and the attested forms, e.g. OHG tago, gebo, reflect restored -on. This restoration surely also depends on a morphophonemic alternation, but I have yet to identify the alternant(s).

The first weak class

17

contraction of the double vowel ii to a single, long segment i and the desyllabification of i before a dissimilar vowel are again entailed by naturalness constraints and are n o t considered separate phonological rules; cf. Note 2.) The examples cited show that the deletion of intervocalic /' changes the pattern of Go. surface alternations substantially. The prevocalic Sievers' Law alternation / vs. ij is eliminated entirely. The o-grade sequence /-j-a-/ is now manifested uniformly as surface -ja-, e.g. merjan, like nasjan. (Cf. also /o-stem N pi. hirdjos like harjos.) That is, both heavy- and light-root o-grade forms are now derived without the application of any rule, neither Sievers' Law nor the deletion of /'. The e-grade underlying sequence / —j-i—/ is manifested as -ji- after light roots, -1- after heavy ones, e.g. 2sg. nasjis vs. mens. (Cf. also /o-stem G sg. harjis vs. hirdis.) Here, too, there is no basis for either Sievers' Law or the /'-deletion rule. Without surface alternations to justify them, both rules are lost from the grammar. But the alternation -ji- vs. -T-, (for which these rules are historically responsible) must be accounted for somehow. That is done most simply with a rule which contracts -jiafter heavy root to T, i.e. /mer-j-is/ mens (cf. Hempel 1966: 28—9, Vennemann 1971: 104—6). (The new Go. grammar of /'-verbs is given in the third portion of Table 3.) The Northwest Gmc. conditions for the deletion of /' differ from those of Gothic. In NWGermanic the glide need not be surrounded by vowels; rather, it must be followed by the homorganic vowel t. (Cf. Mahlow 1879: 4 3 - 4 , who mistakenly attributed the rule to Proto-Germanic.) Thus, while Gothic loses the /' in b o t h e and o-grade heavy-root thematic forms (i.e. those in -ijV-), NWGermanic deletes the glide after b o t h heavy- and light-root forms, but only in the egrade, e.g. 2sg. pres. indie, nazjiz -»• naziz, marijiz mariiz = mariz (Table 4). While the Go. rule has the effect of eliminating the rootweight conditioned alternation between /' and ij, the NWGmc. rule introduces further alternations: beside light-root j(a) vs. heavy-root ij(a) in the o-grade (nazjan vs. marijan), NWGermanic now alternates light-root i with heavy-root 1 in the e-grade (naziz vs. mariz). The NWGmc. deletion of /' is crucially ordered with respect to the next rule affecting/'-verbs, the NWGmc. lengthening of consonants following a short vowel and before /' (gemination). The Norse data indicate that the gemination rule, when introduced, lengthens only the velars £ and k. Thus, in the present of /'-verbs with light roots i n £ or k, o-grade forms have the lengthened consonant, e.g. NWGmc. laggjan, cf. OS leggian, while e-grade forms do not, e.g. NWGmc. lagiz, OS legis (Table 4).

18

Chapter I

Whether naturally or coincidentally, the crucially ordered /-deletion and gemination rules develop historically in opposite directions in Norse and West Germanic: where one is generalized, the other is lost from the grammar. In Norse (Table 5), the deletion of / is generalized to apply before all nonlow front vowels (cf. Noreen 1884: 218), e.g. pres. opt. lsg. telja alternating with /-less tele- in all other pres. opt. forms. Gemination alternations, on the other hand, disappear in Norse. In general, former k 'v kk /k/ remains coded /k/, e.g. vekja, 2sg. vekr, while former g ^ gg /g/ is recoded /gg/, e.g. leggja, 2sg. leggr, legr (Noreen 203—4; the short g of 2sg. legr, nonpres. lagpa is due to a later rule shortening long consonants before obstruent or word boundary; cf. Noreen 207.) In West Germanic (Table 6) it is the gemination rule that is generalized and the /-deletion rule that is lost. WGmc. gemination maintains the NWGmc. environmental conditions (i.e. after short vowel and before /), but lengthens all single nonvowels save r ( < NWGmc. r and R),s e.g. OS fremmian, settian, tellian, an-swebbian, but swerian, nerian. The WGmc. loss of the /-deletion rule is unlike the Norse loss of gemination in that it does not result in the elimination of surface alternations, i.e. there is no reintroduction of / in e-grade forms. Given the 2sg. pres. indie, underlying representation /nar-j-is/, for example, one would expect surface naris to become narjis with loss of the /deletion rule. But that does not happen; the e-grade paradigm forms do not change superficially at all, cf. OS neris. What does change is their underlying representation. That is, the morphological structure of e-grade surface forms is reanalyzed, and it is as an incidental consequence of this morphological reanalysis that the phonological rule deleting / before i is lost from the derivation. 6 5

6

Braune/Mitzka ( 1 9 6 7 : 91—4) posit a much more general rule: lengthening of all nonvowels save r after any segment and before any resonant. Nonlengthening of r (and w?) may be due to a rule spirantizing / (Braune/Mitzka 109 —10) and w (cf. Vennemann 1971: 1 0 8 - 9 ) and/or t o a rule inserting i as suggested by several Runic inscriptions, harija, -warijaR (3 times), prawijan (cf. Bennett 1946). In fact, it is lost from the grammar, for its o n l y other application is among the anomolous Ingv. third class verbs where a parallel reanalysis eliminates it from that derivation also. (See Section 3.6.) The jo- and jd-stem nouns have no egrade endings before which the / might be deleted. The (jjo-stem G singular, though e-grade in Gothic, is o-grade in NWGermanic, cf. Runic Gôdagas early OE dagaes, OS dagas, -es, OHG tages, -as, OE OS OHG he rie s < harjas. Since every form in the /-noun paradigm has /', gemination applies throughout the

The first weak class

19

Until this stage, the i of naris has been heard as the initial segment of the thematic e-grade ending /-is/ and the preceding suffix morpheme /-j-/ has been perceived as absent (deleted before this /). The new perception of naris takes its i as representing the suffix morpheme — the / of o-grade narjan — and takes the ending to be vowel-less /-s/, i.e. the same ending heard in the athematic secondand third-class weak verbs, e.g. 2sg. salb-d-s, pul-e-s. (Original athematic pres. inflection in Classes 2 and 3 is argued in Chapts. II and III.) With the new underlying representation /nar-j-s/, the derivation of surface naris is entirely straight-forward; no rules apply, in particular, there is no deletion o f / . (See Table 6.) The reanalysis creates a special set of present endings for WGmc. /'-verbs. The 'e-grade' 2 and 3sg. indie, forms now have vowel-less endings /-s/, /-d/ (also 2sg. imper. 1-01, Section 1.2) like those that occur with other WGmc. weak verbs, while the remaining /-verb present forms have vowel-initial endings like those that occur with strong verbs. (The special /-verb pres. endings play an important role in the Ingveonic treatment of weak Classes 2 and 3; cf. Sections 2.6 and з.5.) Now without an ending vowel, the WGmc. heavy-root 'e-grade' forms are accounted for in the same way as was the PGmc. heavyroot 2sg. imperative upon the loss of its ending vowel. Surface 2sg. indie, maris, (formerly mari(j)is /mar-j-is/) is now represented as /mar-j-s/ to which Sievers' Law is inapplicable since no vowel follows the /. Its surface f i s therefore exceptional and must be derived by a special rule lengthening i after heavy root in the grammatical environments 2 and 3sg. pres. indicative. As with the imperative's special rule in NWGmc. — indeed, as is the general tendency with all such special exception rules — this WGmc. /-lengthening rule is later lost from the grammar (cf. the first grammar of Tables 7 and 8). Underlying /mar-j-s/ therefore gives surface maris with short suffix vowel; cf. OS OHG'maris like neris, OE maeres like neres (and contrast ON mxrer < mcerir unlike telr < telir). 1.4. Perhaps the greatest disruption of the /-conjugation — as well as other paradigms - is caused by the N- and WGmc. deletions of weakly stressed short vowels. All three weakly stressed short vowels, a, i, and и, are subject to conditioned deletion in both middle and final syldeclension of those roots that meet its other conditions. With no gemination alternation audible, such roots are recoded with the long consonant, e.g. /segg-/, /kunn-/. (Although now 'heavy' they do not trigger Sievers' Law and must be so identified in the lexicon.)

20

Chapter I

lables, e.g. A sg. stajna stajn, kwani kwan, feldu -> feld, D pi. anparum ->• anprum, angilum -*• anglum, hawbudum -*• hawbdum. The standard grammars tend t o treat deletions in medial syllables separately from those in final syllables, thus suggesting two rules or sets of rules. In fact, however, if one allows syllable boundaries into the description, the conditions f o r medial and final deletion are seen to be identical. Further, the approach of some h a n d b o o k s also suggests a separate rule or rules f o r each of the three vowels. However, ordering such rules would be impossible, as shown by ON 1 sg. pres. indie, tel telju and 2sg. imper. ger gerwi. Telju requires «-deletion first (teli), then /-deletion (tel); gerwi requires the opposite order: /-deletion ( g e m ) , then «-deletion (ger). Similarly, WGmc. wo-stem N sg. gadwa requires a-deletion before «-deletion, giving OE gad, while with st. adj. neut. NA sg. sadatu that ordering would give OHG *satz; attested OHG sataz requires the opposite order: «-deletion first (sadat), then adeletion (which in West Germanic cannot apply before a syllable-final nonvowel, as here). What these examples point to, is a single rule for all three vowels which deletes recursively f r o m right to left. In these examples such a rule deletes the final vowel (whereupon a preceding postconsonantal glide is vocalized by the naturalness conditions mentioned in Section 1.2), then the next preceding applicable vowel, and so on until no vowel meeting the rule's conditions is left in the word. Thus, each dialect has only one 'Short Vowel Deletion Rule'. However, its conditions are n o t the same in Norse as in West Germanic; in some of the dialects it undergoes important changes over time; and its ordering with respect to /-umlaut is not u n i f o r m in all dialects, either. Discussion of the relationship between /-umlaut and Short Vowel Deletion is postponed to Section 1.5. In b o t h North and West Germanic, deletion is conditioned by what follows. In Norse the vowel is deleted if syllable-final or if followed by a single, syllable-final obstruent, i.e. -s, -t, -d, -R(< Z). Examples in final syllables with no following obstruent: A sg. staina > ON stein, 2sg. imper. m ON mcer, lsg. pres. indie, gebu > ON gef; with following obstruent: G sg. stainas > steins, 2sg. pres. indie. teliR -*• telr, N sg. skiqlduR > skigldr; in middle syllables with no obstruent: N pi. hamardR > hamrar, lsg. pret. indie, mcerido > mcerpa, N sg. ftQbudinge > hQfpinge; with obstruent: superlative N sg. masc. lengiste > lengste. There is no vowel deletion when the syllable ends with a resonant, e.g. the final -an of the infinitive geban (QNgefa), or, medially, in the -ing- suffix, hgbudinge > hQfpinge. That the rule

The first weak class

21

applies repeatedly on the string from right to left can be seen in e.g. A sg. masc. daniskanu > danskan where the final u is deleted first; the a is not deleted because it is followed by a now syllable-final resonant; and the i is deleted before the syllable-final obstruent 5. Similarly, with e.g. comparative N sg. masc. gebulike: both the / and the u are syllable-final to begin with, but as soon as the i is deleted, i.e. gettuhe, the u's syllable is closed by the resonant I, so the u is not deleted, ON gigfolle. The rule illustrated by these examples can be represented formally as follows: v -stress

0 / C

([+ obst]) $

where the symbol $ stands for the syllable boundary, C is any nonvowel, and long vowels are taken to be sequences of two identical short vowels. (Thus V in e.g. CVS can only be a short vowel; a long vowel would be CVV$.) The Norse Short Vowel Deletion Rule has the above form from the end of the seventh century on. In Section 1.5 it will be argued that the rule was acquired about a century earlier in a more restricted form. (The second grammar of Table 5 has the generalized version of the rule; the restricted version appears in the first grammar of Table 5.) With respect to what may follow the vowel to be deleted, West Germanic is more restrictive than Norse. West Germanic deletes short vowels only in syllable-final position; it does not delete when an obstruent or other nonvowel follows in the same syllable. (Original final t, n, and R have already been lost.) For the deletion of a West Germanic imposes no further conditions, e.g. in a final syllable: pp. st. NA sg. masc. and neut. marida -» marid; medially: G sg. peganas -»• pegnas, finally and (then) medially: pp. NA sg. masc. and neut. fagandda -»• fagndd. For i and u West Germanic imposes a condition on what precedes. Each high vowel is deleted only when following a vowel-initial sequence of three or four 'morae' (or 'segments' if long vowels are written as double short vowels; with single or double short vowel the conditioning sequence is often referred to as a 'long syllable'; it includes but is not limited to the 'heavy roots' described in Section 1.1). Examples (with the conditioning sequence set off between dashes): N sg. f-ard-i ^ fard, anst-i ->• anst, fl-ood-i -> flod, f-uust-i -> fust, fiskoop-u -+fiskbp, lang-ist-u -»• langist, lsg. pret. indie, m-aar-fida marda, h-awr-fida hawrda. The 3—4 segment conditioning sequence can also have two nonadjacent (short) vowels (it is then sometimes

22

Chapter I

referred to as 'two short syllables', sometimes implicitly included under 'long syllable'), e.g. NA pl. ubil-u -* util, sg. idis-i -*• idis. A single bimoric sequence does not permit deletion, NA sg. s-un-u sunu, st-ad-i = stadi, nor does a five-moric sequence, e.g. NA pi. h-awbud-u = hawbudu (but then h-awb-u^du -*• hawbdu), r-iiklj-u = rïkiju (but then r-iik-i%ju rikju), lsg. prêt, indie. h-ungar-i%da = hungarida (but then h-ung-a%ridâ -> hungrida), tw-iifil-fîdâ = twîfilidâ (but then tw-iif-is!idd ->• twTflida). The WGmc. Short Vowel Deletion Rule appears first in Tables 7 and 8 and can be represented formally as follows: $ where X\ is any one or two segments and the environment stated in the first pair of angle brackets limits the rule only if the condition stated in the second pair is met. As mentioned above, the deletion of weakly stressed short vowels has far-reaching effects on the morphology. In Norse all endings of the form - V and - VT (T= obstruent) become vowel-less, not only on the surface, but in the lexicon as well, for the vowel is regularly deleted from every occurrence of such endings. The masc. N sg. ending -OR (< -az), for example, becomes surface -R = underlying /-r/ throughout the range of o-stem nominals, e.g. dagR, nidiR nidk, hirctiR, adj. spakR, pp. talidk , rrueridk. Since masc. /'-stem N sg. -iR and «-stem -UR also become -R = / - r / , gestR, SUHR, there has arisen a single, common strong masc. N sg. ending morpheme /-r/ (later /-r/; Table 5, third grammar). In the present indicative of thematic verbs the Norse Short Vowel Deletion Rule eliminates the e-grade ending vowel of the 2,3 singular, e.g. strong /¿ebk / gebR, light-root /'-verb /tal-j-k/ (-»• taliR by /-deletion) -*• telR. Since neither strong verbs nor light-root /-verbs have surface i, the thematic 2,3sg. ending is also recoded, from /-k/ to /-r/. This recoding entails a change in the derivation of the light-root /-verb form, /-deletion can no longer apply, for there is no vowel — let alone a front vowel — following the /, i.e. /tal-j-R/. Instead, surface tek is now derived by application of Short Vowel Deletion to the stem suffix Ijl = i. The recoding of the 2,3sg. ending as /-r/ also entails changes' in the derivation of the heavy-root /-verb form. Surface mtSriR, formerly m&rijiR by /-deletion /mSr-j-k/ by Sievers' Law, is now poded /maer-j-R/ to which neither rule can apply. Instead, surface m&riR must be derived by another special, grammatically conditioned /-lengthening rule. The thematic lsg. pres. indie, ending -u is also subject to Norse Short Vowel Deletion, e.g. /geb-u/ -+geb, /tal-j-u/ teli (-• tel),

The first weak class

23

/mier-j-u/ maeriju) mceri. With -u absent from all surface forms, it too is lost from the underlying representation, /get), tal-j, m s r - j / , and the lsg. pres. indicative comes to be derived just like the 2,3sg. indicative, i.e. deletion of the /-verb suffix after light roots, teli tel, special lengthening of it after heavy ones, mceri -*• mceri. (The/o-stem NA sg. and neut. NA pi. forms, now also without ending vowel, are treated in exactly the same way, i.e. /her-j-(R), hirct-j-OO, kun-j, rlk-j/ her(R), kyn by Short Vowel Deletion, tiirdi(it), rlki by special lengthening.) Beside the lsg. and 2,3sg. pres. indicative, the only other form of the Norse /-verb pres. paradigm to suffer deletion of a final vowel is the 2sg. imperative. Its stem suffix is deleted (the thematic vowel was lost already in Proto-Germanic, Section 1.2), not only after light roots, /tal-j/ tel, but also after heavy ones, /mair-j/ mcer (the special 2sg. imper. /-lengthening rule was lost in early NWGermanic, Section 1.2). In lacking an ending vowel, the lsg. and 2,3sg. pres. indie, and 2sg. imper. forms, e.g. geb(R), tel(R), m&r (T(R)), make up a new subgroup within the Norse thematic present paradigm. The other forms all retain their ending vowel, the optatives because the vowel is long (lsg. -o, other-e-), the infinitive, pres. participle and o-grade plural forms because the short vowel is followed by a syllable-final nasal resonant (or two consonants, e.g. inf. -(j)an, lpl. -(j)amR, 3pl. -(j)and\ the 2 plural will be discussed below). This new grouping becomes important as the thematic ending vowel, where it exists, is standardized for athematic weak verbs (discussed in Section 3.4). It has been explained above that Sievers' Law disappears from the derivation of those heavy-root /-forms which lose (at the underlying level) the following (ending) vowel required for operation of the rule. Where Sievers' Law does not become inapplicable through this elimination of conditioning factor, its effect is erased from the surface form; that is, the Short Vowel Deletion Rule eliminates the Sieversinserted /, e.g. inf. mcerijan -*• mcerjan, lpl. mcerijamR mcerjamR, jostem G pi. hirdijo -*• hirdjo, etc. Thus without overt effect on surface forms, Sievers' Law is necessarily lost from the grammar of Norse and e.g. inf. mcerjan is derived at this stage from /mjEr-j-an/ without the operation of any rule. The Norse 2 plural is apparently exempt from the Short Vowel Deletion rule. Both its pres. indie, and imper. vowel i and its pret. indie, vowel u are followed by a single, final obstruent and therefore meet the rule's conditions, e.g. gefid, gafud; telid (m, d$mR \ N sg., A sg., D sg. /gest- + -r, - 0 , -e/ gestR, gest, geste. Next, the ^-reduction rule (but not including /-deletion) is generalized to apply also after short syllables, e.g. (/talipa/ ->• telipa) telpa\ (/ stapiR / stepiR ) -»• stepR . Finally, umlaut and reduction are again reordered, thus coming back into the order in which they were introduced, namely reduction then umlaut, e.g. /talipa/ -*• talpa, /stapiR / stapR . Interesting though King's theory is, I cannot accept it. First, if the PGmc. nonpresents wurxt-, paxt-, etc. (infs. /wurk-j-an/, pank-j-an/) were derived by a regular deletion of suffix /-j-/ after long, velar-final syllable, one would also expect nonpres. PGmc. *burxt- > OE pret. *borhte (cf. worhte) instead of byrgde to inf. /burgrj-an/, PGmc. *draxt- > OE pret. *dröhte (cf. pöhte) instead of drencte to inf. /drank-j-an/, etc. Furthermore, King's first Norse reordering of umlaut and i-reduction should give lexically front vowels for 'work', 'think' as it does for 'judge', 'guest', i.e. pret. *rta, *pcetta like d$mpa, gest, instead of attested orta, patta. Secondly, King associates the deletion of / with the shortening of i and deletion of /'. He thus defines his relevant natural class by multiple segment types at the high front tongue position. I have associated /-deletion with the deletion of the other short vowels u and a and will take up the shortening of T with the shortening of other long vowels as a separate rule below. Although b o t h the deletion of

28

Chapter I

short vowels and shortening of long vowels may be part of one overall trend reducing weakly stressed syllables, I believe that the primary association is among different vowels of the same length, that vowel deletion and shortening are here secondarily related processes. The deletion of / is surely a separate rule, as King himself demonstrates when he posits extension of his reduction rule to apply also after short syllables, but excludes extension of its /-deletion component. Thirdly, it is crucial to King's solution that surface absence of the conditioning factor i / j be a prerequisite to lexicalization of umlaut in the stem vowel. This assumption is called into question even by King's own Norse data, for in both /-stem nouns and /-verbs surface i is present in at least two paradigm forms as recoding takes place, N pi. gestiR gestiR, A pi. gesti *-gestin(R); 2,3sg., 2pl. pres. indie. d$miR, dfymip dfymiR, dtf>mip. King therefore hedges some by saying that the conditioning factor must be absent in 'most' forms (1971: 12, fn.). In opposition to this view, one can point to early OE light masc. /-stems; they show recoding of umlaut in the stem vowel with the conditioning factor absent in only three of the nine paradigm forms, e.g. G sg. hygaes, G pi. hyga, D pi. hygum (where o-stem endings have replaced those in -/-). OS light neuter jo-stems provide a further contradiction of King's assumption that disappearance of the conditioning factor must precede recoding. Here the feature in question is gemination of the stem-final consonant, e.g. kunn-, and the conditioning factor is a following /'. The / appears on the surface in all forms save the NA singular and plural. In these forms the following segment is /, the reflex of / upon loss of the following ending vowel -a. Since the ending vowel has been lost from the lexicon (Section 1.4), the NA forms lack / at all stages of derivation, so that the gemination rule — if it still participated in the derivation of /o-stems — should not apply, e.g. */kun-j-0/ -»• *kuni; cf. j-wb. 2sg. imper. /frum-j-0/ -»• frumi. Yet NA forms such as *kuni are not attested in Old Saxon; the attested form is kunni, with geminated consonant. Thus, long consonants have been lexicalized despite the presence of the conditioning factor in all oblique forms, e.g. NA /kunn-j-0/ -*• kunni (where deletion is not suspended: -»• kunn kun, cf. OE cyn). These examples persuade me that lexicalization of a rule-produced surface feature occurs as soon as the feature is manifested in all forms of the paradigm, whether the conditioning factor is present or not. Fourthly and most importantly, King's solution proceeds from the position that Norse behaved originally like West Germanic, deleting i only after 'long syllables'. He seeks support in Runic inscriptions, citing wate (Str^m, ca. 600) as an example of early deletion from a

29

The first weak class

medial syllable, i.e. < *watije. As discussed in Section 1.3, however, Norse had a much earlier rule deleting / before front vowels. Thus watije must first have become watje by /-deletion, which — with no medial i — cannot illustrate the later /-deletion rule. As examples of /-deletion in final syllables King cites two forms, the earlier of which (barutR [brytR], Bjoketorp, ca. 700) is late enough to be seen as a manifestation of the generalized version of the rule (outlined in Section 1.4 above), i.e. it cannot serve to prove /'-deletion after long syllables prior to /'-deletion after short ones. If the Runic spellings are reliable in showing the introduction of some form of vowel deletion prior to the introduction of umlaut, then the inscriptions prior to the first attestation of umlaut, gestumR, 650, are the crucial ones for establishing the original form of the Short Vowel Deletion Rule. Of the pre-umlaut inscriptions showing vowel deletion a substantial majority shows deletion after a 'short syllable', i.e. a vowel-initial sequence of only two morae: Alaifu •«- an-u^lajfu ( B y , c a . 5 7 5 ) , hapu

h-aw-fipu

(Gummarp, ca. 600), fahT

( S t r ^ m , ca. 6 0 0 ) , sat(t)e

s-at-rde

fah-ij-u (Asum; Noleby, ca. 600),

< h r o R e R > [hroRlR] •«- hrdR-ij-cut ( B y , ca. 5 7 5 ) , WiR w-iw-aR ( E i k e l a n d , c a . 6 0 0 ) , haeruwuPfiR •«- haeruwulf-ij-aR ( I s t a b y , ca. 6 2 5 ) .

The pre-umlaut inscriptions which fail to show deletion after short syllables are presumably morphophonemic spellings. The inscriptions from this period which appear to show deletion after long syllables, lapop

final light roots to the class first, hence OE nonpres. /laek-d-/. Light roots in -I presumably followed, e.g. OE /tael-d-/. Later, after the introduction of the umlaut rule (and OE recoding of the root vowel with umlaut), light roots in g, t, d, joined the /-presents, e.g. OE /leg-d-/, /set-d-/, /hred-d-/. 1.7. In addition to Short Vowel Deletion, the NWGmc. dialects subject weakly stressed vowels to several further changes, especially long vowels to shortening.

32

Chapter I

Where not deleted, final-syllable short a is fronted to as in West Germanic if not followed by n, e.g. early OE o-stem G sg. dxgaes\ OS dagas, -es; OHG tages, -as; OHG 2pl. pres. indie, and imper. nemet, -at.9 Old High German later raises this ae along with prenasal a to e after /, e.g. /-verb inf. nerien, 2pl. pres. indie, and imper. neriet, jostem G sg. heries. All the NWGmc. dialects reduce some vowels to a in medial syllables. In Old High German short vowels are affected (Section 2.7), in Ingveonic long vowels (Sections 2.7 and 3.5), in Norse the long front vowels e and T(Section 3.4). The main shortening rule affects all remaining weakly stressed long vowels in Norse and Ingveonic (Table 5, third grammar; Table 8, second grammar). In Old High German (Table 7, second grammar) it affects only long vowels in absolute final position. While shortening does not alter the color of high vowels in any dialect, nor the color of other vowels in Old High German, it does change the color of nonhigh vowels in Norse and Ingveonic. Norse raises e to i and lowers and unrounds o to a, e.g. ON pres. opt. 3sg. teli, lsg. telja; pret. indie. 3sg. talpi, lsg. talpa. Ingveonic lowers e and o to ce and 5 respectively, e.g. pres. opt. early OE neriae-, OS nerie-, -a-\ 3sg. pret. indie, early OE neridas, OS neride, -a (Contrast consistently spelled OHG l,3sg. pres. opt. neme, nerie. The OHG 3sg. wk. pret. indie, vowel a is that of the 1 singular, reflecting -a(n) < -on; cf. 2sg. neritos.)\ o-adv. OS gilico, -a; numeral '8' OS ahto, -a; masc. «-stem N sg. OS gumo, -a. (Contrast consistently spelled OHG galihho, ahto, gumo.) Ingveonic also fronts a to e.g. lsg. pret. indie, early OE neridae, OS nerida, -e; a-stem AG sg. and NA pi. early OE giefce, OS geba, -e; fem. and neut. «-stem N sg. early OE tungae, eagae, OS tunga, -e, oga, -e. (Contrast consistently spelled OHG nerita, geba, zunga, ouga.) Along with other long vowels, the shortening rule also applies to the various f s derived by special lengthening which alternate with /, e.g. NA sg. hirdi, riki, ON pres. indie, sg. masri(r). With their effect erased, the special /-lengthening rules disappear (Table 5, fourth grammar; cf. 9

I follow Twaddell ( 1 9 6 3 ) in interpreting the Old Saxon spelling fluctuation between < a > and < e > as [ ae]; also the fluctuation between < o > and < a > as [o], and that between < u > and < o > as [u |. The first and last of these fluctuations also occur in Old High German and I therefore extend Twaddell's hypothesis to that dialect, assuming OHG |ae| and [ u ] , respectively. Further, o n the basis of symmetry with | U | I also read OHG and OS |U) for consistent < i > . (Old Saxon < i > is consistent when representing the vowel; it is o n l y the glide (jl that fluctuates in spelling between < i > and < e > ; the same is true for the glide in Old High German.)

The first weak class

33

the fate of Sievers' Law, Section 1.4). Furthermore, in Norse and Ingveonic, where shortening is unconditioned, no vowel-length alternations arise by the shortening rule, and formerly long vowels are therefore recoded as short (Table 5, fourth grammar; Table 9, first grammar). Without long vowels on which to operate, shortening is also lost fron the grammar. Even in Old High German, where restricted to final vowels, the shortening rule produced alternations only where there existed allomorphs with following nonvowel (e.g. irc-stem hohi vs. pi. G hohino, D hohim). Thus, the majority of shortened vowels are also recoded as short in Old High German and the rule is lost in that dialect too. (Table 7, third grammar; hohi shows restoration of length.) Now lexically short, some formerly long vowels ought to be subject to the Short Vowel Deletion Rule, e.g. WGmc. NA sg. /hird-j, rlk-j/, fem. i-stem D sg., NA pi. /anst-i/, Ingv. l,3sg. pret. opt. /ner-j-d-i/.° These vowels must be specially exempted from deletion, just"like those of the ON 2pl. and WGmc. lsg. pres. indie, endings. Indeed, it may be this necessity for widespread grammatically conditioned suspension of the Deletion Rule that provoked the elimination of alternations leading toward loss of deletion in Old Saxon and Old High German (Section 1.4). Lastly, a rule I call 'centralization' further changes the color of certain weakly stressed vowels in all the NWGmc. dialects during the literary period. Affecting the reflexes of originally long vowels and the original short vowels with which they have fallen together, centralization lowers high i and u in all dialects: to [i] and [u ] in Low and High German (cf. Note 9), to e and o in Norse and English, e.g. OS OHG 2sg. pres. indie, neris, nonpres. nerid-, nerit-, NA sg. riki, richi, OE neres, nered-, rice, ON pres. indie, sg. mcere(r), 2pl. telep, matrep, pp. talepr, NA sg. rike\ OS OHG lsg. pres. indie, neriu, -o, OS GDA sg. and NA pi. tungun, -on, Angl. OE nerio, ON tungon (cf. OHG zungun). In Old English, centralization also shifts o to a, e.g. '8' eahta, masc. «-stem N sg. guma, and ae to e, e.g. G sg. daeges, pres. opt. nerie-, pret. indie. 1,3sg. nerede, o-stem GDA sg. and NA pi. giefe, fem. and neut. «-stem N(A) sg. tunge, eage. 1.8. The last phonological rule to be treated in this chapter on disruptions of the original /-verb pattern is actually acquired (and ordered) before the centralization rule. It deletes / after long syllables. It is present in the grammars of all NWGmc. dialects save that of Old Saxon (though it is acquired there by Middle Low German times), e.g. OS

34

Chapter I

märian, leggian, but OHG mären, leggen, OE mceran, lecgan, ON mcera. Old Norse does not delete / after g or k, e.g. leggja, stfikja. The deletion of / after long syllables together with the deletion of i in the same position raises the question whether the /-verb morpheme still exists for heavy-root members, e.g. is the ON möera-paradigm still derived from /mjer-j-/? For Old Norse the answer is clearly negative: the /j/-morpheme has disappeared from the underlying representation of heavy-root members of the first weak class. Its only reflex is the e of 1,2,3sg. and 2pl. pres. indicative moire, mcerer, mcerep and this is surely perceived as the ending vowel rather than a stem suffix (cf. end of Section 3.4). Confirmation can be found in the absence of a postradical vowel i or e with the N and G sg. masc. and neut. NA sg. past participle, e.g. mcerpr, mcerps, mcertf t). The two following consonants initially prevented deletion of the stem suffix. Its absence in Literary Norse shows that the stem has been recoded /mier/, i.e. without the suffix morpheme /j/. At the opposite extreme is Old Saxon where / is not deleted after long syllables. Thus present on the surface before vowel as [j], inf. märian, before syllable-final nonvowel as i, 2sg. pres. maris, pp. gimärid, and, with suspension of Short Vowel Deletion, even syllablefinally, as i, pret. märida, the suffix morpheme /j/ remains as a formative element of OS heavy-root /-verbs. Old English heavy roots reflect the suffix, as e, only in the 2,3sg. pres. indie, m&res, -ep, and in pp. forms without vowel-initial adjective ending, mäired. As in Norse, both of these e's come to be heard as an ending vowel, as shown in Old English by pres. forms with vowel-less 'e-grade' endings, e.g. dems(t), demp like those of strong verbs, cf. hilps(t), hilpp, bintsft), bint. Thus, Old English has also lost the suffix /j/ with heavy roots (Table 9, second grammar). The suffix is retained with heavy-root members in Old High German. It is consistently represented, as i, in the 2,3sg. pres. indie, and endingless pp. forms, maris, märit, gi-marit and, with suspension of the Deletion Rule, in the 2sg. imperative, märi, and Franconian pret. and other pp. forms, märita, gi-märiter. Moreover, underlying /j/ is needed to account for the alternation with strong verbs in the vowel of the inf. ending, e.g. mären vs. werdan.

The first weak class

« a «» W (M e E

•6«

a S e £

e

c