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The Long Forms of ōn-Verbs in Old Saxon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Edward H. Sehrt
Edward H. Sehrt*
Affiliation:
George Washington University
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Abstract

[The long forms (ahtoie, haloian, uuacoiande, etc.) of verbs of the second weak conjugation in Old Saxon are not of IE origin as is generally supposed, but owe their existence to an attempt to make a sharper formal distinction between indicative and subjunctive by adding the subjunctive endings of the first or jan-class to the stem of the second class. The extension of the long forms to the infinitive and present participle was due in part to the metrical advantages of these forms in certain types of alliterative verse.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 16 , Issue 2-Part1: April-June , June 1940, pp. 99 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © 1940 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Brugmann also grants the possibility of Collitz' contention; cf. Vgl. Gramm. 2.3.199 note: 'Collitz . . . hält das as. ags. *-ōi̓an für eine Neuerung für -ōn. Im Prinzip erscheint das nicht unglaubhaft, zumal wenn man die Neubildung umbr. portaia "portet" vergleicht.'

2 The verbs are the following: ahton (1), folgon (1), frāgon (1), gebon (1), halon (1), ladon (1), lōkon (1), samnon (1), scadon (1), scauwon (1), siđon (1), thagon (1), thionon (2), tholon (19), tilon (1), gitrūon (2), wakon (1), wītnon (1), wonon (2), wundron (2). On friehan cf. Schlüter, Untersuchungen 100 note.

3 Cf. H. M. Flasdieck, Untersuchungen über die germ. schw. Verben III Klasse 59.

4 Ibid. 57.

5 Ibid. 52, 117.

6 Flasdieck 56; Schlüter, Unters. z. Gesch. d. alts. Spr. 99; Holthausen, Alts. Elementarbuch 466, Anm. 1; Wissmann 145.

7 Braune, Ahd. Gramm. §310; Schatz, Ahd. Gramm. §300.