Simplification of Word Structure in Late Proto-Germanic. Role of Stem-suffixes in the Formation of Declensions

Some changes in the morphological structure of the word in Late PG account for the development of an elaborate /ɪ'læb(ə)rɪt/ system of declen­sions in OG languages, and for the formation of grammatical endings.

Originally, in Early PG the word consisted of three main component parts: the root, the stem-suffix and the grammatical ending. The stem-suffix was a means of word derivation, the ending – a marker of the grammatical form. In Late PG the old stem-suffixes lost their deriva­tional force and merged with other components of the word, usually with the endings. The word was simplified: the three-morpheme struc­ture was transformed into a two-morpheme structure. The original gram­matical ending, together with the stem-suffix formed a new ending:

STEM

root

stem-suffix

grammatical ending

Proto—

Germanic

stem	grammatical ending

Old Germanic

languages

e.g. PG *fisk-a-z Gt fisks (NE fish)

PG *mak-oj-an OE mac-ian, Past Tense mac-ode

(NE make, made)

(In Gt fisks the stem-suffix was dropped, in OE macian, macode it merged with the ending, preserving one of the sounds – [i] or [o].)

The simplification of the word structure and the loss of stem-suffixes as distinct components was facilitated – or, perhaps, caused – by heavy Germanic word stress fixed on the root.

Most nouns and adjectives in PG, and also many verbs, had stem-forming suffixes; according to stem-suffixes they fell into groups, or classes: a-stems, i-stems, o-stems, etc. This grouping accounts for the formation of different declensions in nouns and adjectives, and for some differences in the conjugation of verbs.

Groups of nouns with different stem-suffixes made distinct types of declension. The original grammatical endings were alike for most nouns, e.g. Nom. sg -z, Dat. -i, Асc. -m. When these endings fused with different stem-suffixes, each group of nouns acquired a different set of endings. The division of nouns into declensions resting on the stem-suf­fixes is not peculiar to Germanic alone; it is also found in other IE lan­guages (some types of declension in Germanic correspond to certain de­clensions in non-Germanic languages, e.g. o-stems correspond to the first declension in Latin and Russian (their stem-suffix is -a: Germanic -o has developed from IE -a; Germanic a-stems correspond to the second declension in Latin and in Russian (o-stems in both these languages, since IE [ο] became [a] in Germanic).

The Germanic languages preserved the old classification of nouns with great accuracy, added other distinctive features to the noun para­digms and, as a result, had a complicated system of noun declensions in the early periods of history.

Strong and Weak Verbs

The bulk of the verbs in PG and in the OG languages fall into two large groups called strong and weak.

The terms strong and weak were proposed by J. Grimm; he called the verbs strong because they had preserved the richness of form since the age of the parent-language and in this sense could be contrasted to weak verbs lacking such variety of form. From the verbs the terms were extended to noun and adjective declensions. The main difference between these groups lies in the means of building the principal forms: the Pres­ent tense, the Past tense and Participle II. The strong verbs built their principal forms with the help of root vowel interchanges plus certain grammatical endings; they made use of IE ablaut /'æblaut/ with certain modifications due to phonetic changes and environment.

The weak verbs are a specifically Germanic innovation, for the device used in building their principal forms is not found outside the Germanic group. They built the Past tense and Participle II by inserting a special suffix between the root and the ending. The suffix – PG -ð – is referred to as the dental suffix, as [ð] is an interdental fric­ative consonant. The use of the dental suffix is seen in the following forms of weak verbs in OG languages: