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COPYRIGHT 2002 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
Reduplication, one of regular ways of forming the Indo-European perfect, was inherited into the early Germanic as a marker of the preterite in some strong verbs. Of all older Germanic languages, Gothic as the only one retains this formation systematically; other dialects, due to large-scale modifications in the structure of their preterite, seem to have lost the original reduplication from their grammars. Although no reduplicated forms are properly attested in any of the Northwest Germanic dialects, Old English (not exclusively) displays a number of irregular formations within the seventh class of strong verbs, which have been traditionally considered reflexes of earlier reduplication. The Old English survivals of the originally reduplicated preterits, frequently referred to as r-preterites, are confined to one dialect only (Anglian) and include the following irregular forms: heht, leolc, speoft, beoft, leort, reord, ondreord (the preterite forms of hatan 'command', lacan 'leap', spatan 'spit', beatan 'beat', laetan 'let', raedan 'advise', ondraedan 'dread' respectively).
The present paper attempts to investigate the presumed vestiges of reduplication in the Old English seventh class of strong verbs, concentrating in particular on the provenance of the irregular preterite formations. The analysis hinges on the assumption that the reanalysis of reduplication into a new type of ablaut must have taken place on the way from Proto-Germanic to the early Northwest Germanic stage. Such restructuring in the system of Germanic strong verbs, it seems, obtained in the wake of the interplay of external and internal factors, namely the Germanic accent shift to the initial position and the marked influence of Frankish where the non-reduplicating pattern originated and wherefrom it disseminated to the whole Germanic speaking territory.
1. Introductory remarks
There are many linguistic phenomena, which, despite the amount of attention they have received within various linguistic frameworks, still remain intriguing puzzles, without a fully satisfactory explanation. Such is the Germanic reflex of Indo-European perfect reduplication, and especially its Northwest Germanic development. Investigated in detail, it still lacks unambiguous solution and numerous interpretations of facts offered seem far from being transparent. The present paper is not an attempt at reviewing the many theories (2) that have been advanced; rather, it approaches the data from a slightly different perspective, hoping to shed light on the external conditions of the split which occurred within the Germanic strong verbs class VII. In the paper, I would like to refer to a recent model proposed by Mottausch (1998) which provides a relatively new approach to the problem, concentrating on geographical and chronological circumstances of reduplication in Northwest Germanic.
Reduplication as a means of expressing perfectivity (3) has been employed in various Indo-European languages. Next to ablaut, it served originally as the major pattern of forming perfect in Proto-Indo-European. (4) This original pattern is best preserved in Greek and Sanskrit as in:
(1) Gr. leipo : leloipa (5) 'leave'
Gr. klepto : keklopa 'steal'
Gr. pheugo : pepheuga 'flee'
Skt. vartati : vavarta 'turn'
Skt. budh- : bubodh- 'know'
Latin, on the other hand, retains a slightly modified pattern, displaying, in the majority of forms, regular reduplication without ablaut:
(2) L. cano : cecini 'sing' ( < *kan- : *ke-kan-)
L. pendo : pependi 'hang'
L. curro : cucurri 'run'
A similar situation obtains for Germanic. Available data, furnished primarily by Gothic, allow for the reconstruction of the originally reduplicated preterites, existing along some regular ablaut patterns in Proto-Germanic. The Germanic controversy centres around the conflicting data provided by East Germanic (Gothic) on the one hand and Northwest Germanic on the other.
2. Gothic and Northwest Germanic facts
Preserved intact in Gothic, reduplication in the seventh class of strong verbs is in fact one of the features which renders this language distinct from other Germanic dialects. Regularly reduplicated forms appear here to indicate systematically the preterite of about 27 Gothic strong verbs. It is formed by prefixing a vowel (/[dpsilon]/) to the verbal root, possibly together with a consonant -- if the root begins with a single consonant, or a consonantal cluster -- if the root begins with such, unless one of the consonants is a sonorant. Some of the attested Gothic examples include (Bech 1969: 14):
(3) haitan : haihait 'command'
fahan : faifah 'catch'
fraisan : faifrais 'tempt'
laikan : lailaik 'jump'...
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