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The Origin of The Germanic Dental Preterit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2026

Gustav Must
Gustav Must*
Affiliation:
South Woodstock, Connecticut
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Extract

The weak preterit presents one of the most difficult problems in Germanic linguistics. Many investigators have applied themselves to the solution of the problem, and the number of publications occupied with this question is so great that a perspective can hardly be gained. The varied attempts at a solution, many quite recent, are proof that the much-discussed question has lost none of its appeal. The problem offers a recurring challenge to research, since it cannot yet be considered finally solved.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 27 , Issue 2: April-June , June 1951, pp. 121 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © 1951 Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

*

This paper was translated from the author's German original by Roy F. Failis Jr., a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at Yale University.

References

1 H. Collitz, Das schwache Präteritum und seine Vorgeschichte (Göttingen, 1912); hereafter abbreviated Schw.

2 Cf. Schw. 1; E. Hermann, KZ 69.31 (1948).

3 R. Loewe, IF 4.365–78 (1894); KZ 45.334–8 (1913).

4 H. Hirt, IF 17.40–84 (1904–5); Idg. Gr. 4.98 (Heidelberg, 1928).

5 J. Sverdrup, review of Schw., IFA 35.15–7 (1915); XTS 2.5–96 (1929).

6 Ibid. 15, 17.

7 Ibid. 17.

8 O. v. Friesen, Om det svaga preteritimi i germansk språk (1925).

9 Ibid. 16.

10 Hermann, KZ 69.31–75.

11 Ibid. 74 f.

12 Ibid. 54–5.

13 W. Begemann, Das schwache Präteritum der germanischen Sprachen (Berlin, 1873 This was the first major work on the problem; cf. Schw. 9.

14 O. Behaghel and J. Wackernagel, KZ 30.302 ff. (1890).

15 E.g. Hermann, KZ 69.34; Schw. 19.

16 E. H. Sehrt, The origin of the Germanic weak preterite, Lg. 20.238–40 (1944).

17 Sverdrup, IFA 35.5 ff.

18 Hirt, Handbuch des Urgermanischen (HU) 2.154 (Heidelberg, 1932).

19 K. Brugmann, Gdr.2 2.3.369, 513; PBB 39.84 ff. (1913–4).

20 Sverdrup, IFA 35.15.

21 L. L. Hammerich, Arkiv för nordisk filologi 38.21–50; Bull. Cercle ling, de Copenhague 6.24 ff. (Copenhague, 1941).

22 Chr. Rogge, PBB 50.321 ff.

23 A. W. M. Odé, Das schwache Präteritum in den germanischen Sprachen, Mededeelingen der k. Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam, 1926).

24 Ibid. 39, 45.

25 Hirt, HU 2.156.

26 See for example E. Kieckers, Handbuch der vergleichenden gotischen Grammatik (Handb.) 253–4 (München, 1928).

27 Sverdrup, NTS 2.43.

28 See W. Streitberg, Urgermanische Grammatik (UG) 340 (Heidelberg, 1896).

29 Sverdrup, IFA 35.17.

30 See fn. 21 above.

31 W. P. Lehmann, Lg. 19.19–26 (1943).

32 See Kieckers, Handb. 195.

33 Streitberg, UG 325.

34 R. Gauthiot, Mélanges de linguistique offerts à M. Ferdinand de Saussure (Paris, 1908).

35 IF 12.155–6 (1901).

36 F. Kluge, Elemente des Gotischen 85 (Strassburg, 1911).

37 See Hirt, Idg. Gr. 4.276.

38 Weak preterit forms without a t-formant are to be found in Old Norse, e.g. West Norse pret. ind. 3d sg. horfe (beside horfðe) ‘turned’, ODan. (Jutish) havæ (hafthœ), OSw. (rare) havi, Olcel. hafe ‘had’, Olcel. mis-gere (-gerþe), Runic kiari ‘made’, OSw. laghi, ODan. laghæ (laghthæ) ‘laid’, Olcel. huge (hugþe) ‘thought’, Olcel. 2d pl. sǫgoþ ‘you said’. It is not clear to me whether these are to be taken as original forms or as later developments; the latter interpretation is adopted by A. Noreen, Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik 303 (Halle, 1903) and Geschichte der nordischen Sprachen, Pauls Grundriss2 1.635 (Strassburg, 1913); cf. Loewe, IF 4.365 ff.

39 See Kieckers, Handb. 252, 257.

40 M. H. Jellinek, Geschichte der gotischen Sprache 155 (Berlin, 1926).

41 See Kieckers, Handb. 71.

42 See E. Sievers, PBB 5.23 ff. (1878), 7.141 f. (1880).

43 PBB 8.90 ff. (1881).

44 See Streitberg, UG 341; W. Braune, Althochdeutsche Grammatik 296 (Halle, 1944)

45 Braune 296.

46 Schw. 109 ff.

47 Wackernagel, KZ 30.302 ff.

48 Hermann, KZ 69.73; H. Pedersen, Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen 2.364 (Göttingen, 1913).

49 R. Thurneysen, IFA 9.47 (1898).

50 Thurneysen, Handbuch des Altirischen 372 (Heidelberg, 1905).

51 C. D. Buck, Elementarbuch der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte 100, 109 (Heidelberg, 1905).

52 See Kieckers, Handb. 255.

53 Noreen, Pauls Grundriss2 1.638 f.; Altisl, u. altnorw. Gramm. 321.

54 Behaghel, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache 464–5 (Strassburg, 1916).

55 Schw. 130 ff.

56 Hirt, Idg. Gr. 4.295.

57 Streitberg, UG 346–7; Brugmann, Gdr.2 2.3.536.

58 Hirt, Idg. Gr. 4.295 f.; H. Lewis and H. Pedersen, A concise comparative Celtic grammar 288 (1937).

59 Cf. K. Meisen, Altdeutsche Grammatik 114 (Bonn, 1947).

60 Schw. 150 ff.

61 Behaghcl, Gesch. d. dt. Spr. 467.

62 Rrugmann, Gdr.2 2.3.530–1; Stolz-Schmalz, Lateinische Grammatik 326; Kieckers, Historische lateinische Grammatik 2.223 (München, 1931); Hirt, Idg. Gr. 4.296.

63 Brugmann, Gdr.2 2.3.534.

64 PBB 39.84–5.

65 See Brugmann, Gdr.2 2.3.713.