Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/skaþjaną

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Latest comment: 11 years ago by CodeCat in topic Conjugation
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Conjugation[edit]

This verb's descendants show a mixed class: in Old English it is strong and weak; in Old Norse it is weak; and in Gothic it is strong. I believe the original verb was strong. The only type of strong verb I know of with j in the present is type 5, which indicates a different base vowel (i). Can anyone shed any light on this? Leasnam (talk) 16:35, 1 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

There are also class 6 and 7 j-presents, and from a Proto-Indo-European perspective there is no reason why any strong verb couldn't have a j-present. It's thought that most j-presents became weak at some point (but they still remained j-presents) but I don't know if that happened to particular classes. Gothic has a class 6 verb, so I suppose that's the case here too. —CodeCat 18:03, 1 June 2013 (UTC)Reply