Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/stadiz

Masculine formation

While it could just be the case that the gender shifted from feminine to masculine in Old Norse and Gothic, it is also possible that it actually represents a functional zero-grade i-stem derivation from *standaną, whose "zero-grade" stem is *stad-, compare this verb's secondary ti-stem *stassiz < *stad-s-tis. Perhaps the two forms were confused and merged in some of the daughter languages.

Vaguely similar, we see that originally masculine *wurdiz < *werþaną was probably reinterpreted as a feminine ti-stem, although an actual ti-stem would have been **wursiz. Anglom (talk) 18:27, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

Clarification

A little more clearly, these are two words with very similar meanings which were inevitably merged into one form or another: original feminine ti-stem *stadiz < *sth̥₂-tís, and masculine zero-grade i-stem *stadiz < *sth̥₂t-ís.

The first needs no explanation but the latter is derived specifically within Germanic from *standaną, whose preterite *stōþ, *stōdun is secondarily regularized from original aorist *stōþ, *stadun. From this earlier point, Germanic derived masculine *stadiz as an oxytonic masculine zero-grade i-stem, a class productive in Germanic for deriving "τομός"-type action nouns. Compare:

• *bitiz, "biting" < *bītaną, "to bite" (OS mūthbiti)
• *bruniz, "burning" < *brinnaną, "to burn" (OE bryne)
• *bugiz, "bending" < *beuganą, "to bend" (OE frambyġe)
• *kumiz, "coming, arrival" < *kumaną, "to come" (OE cyme)
• *stigiz, "climbing, ascension", < *stīganą, "to ascend" (OE stiġe, ON -stigr)

And specifically to show this formations earlier oxytonicity:

• *kuziz, "choosing, choice" < *keusaną, "to choose" (OE cyre)
• *kwidiz, "saying, speaking" < *kweþaną, "to speak" (OE cwide)
• *slagiz, "hitting, striking" < *slahaną, "to strike, hit" (OE sleġe)
• *sudiz, "seething" > "decoction" < *seuþaną, "to seethe, boil" (OE syde)
• *wurdiz, "becoming" > "fate" < *werþaną, "to become" (OE wyrde) (secondarily femininized, either after Norn Urðr < *Wurdiz, or simply reanalyzed as a functionable ti-stem)

If these words had any difference in semantics, the diachronically older feminine *stadiz, would have meant more abstract "place, location", and the younger masculine would have more concretely meant "standing, position", but there are only possible traces of a distinction between feminine and masculine forms in Old Saxon that I've found in Koebler, and no real difference in meaning. Burgundaz (talk) 06:29, 22 February 2021 (UTC)