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TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 676 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) See also:LANGUAGES ,1 a comprehensive See also:term for a number of languages most of which are still spoken at the See also:present See also:time, namely See also:English, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, See also:German (both High and See also:Low) and the various Scandinavian languages (See also:Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and the See also:Norwegian dialects). The course of time has tended very largely to obscure the See also:affinities between these lan :uages, and in several cases they have been mutually unintelligible for many centuries. In their earliest known forms, however, they betray the most unmistakable traces of a See also:common origin. To the languages enumerated above we have to add the now See also:extinct See also:Gothic, which in the 5th and 6th centuries was spc:_en over a large See also:part of See also:Europe. Detailed accounts of the various Teutonic Ianguages will be found in articles under the respective headings. Here it is ' The following abbreviations are used: A.S. = Anglo-Saxon; O.H.G. = Old High German ; O.N.= Old Norse; I.-Eur. = Indo-See also:European. The See also:symbol " :" denotes relationship between two forms or sets of forms. X\V1. 22possible only to give a brief See also:summary of the See also:chief characteristics of these languages as a See also:group, and of the chief divergences noticeable in See also:early times between the various members of the group.

It should be noted at the outset that the written records of the various languages date from very different periods. Gothic is known to us almost entirely from See also:

Ulfilas' See also:translation of the See also:Bible, which See also:dates from the 4th See also:century. English written literature starts with the beginning of the 7th century, though earlier See also:matter may be preserved in certain poems. The earliest known German and Dutch documents date from the 8th and 9th centuries respectively, while Frisian is practically unknown before the 13th century. Scandinavian written literature seems to have begun in the r zth century, but many poems are probably from two to three centuries older. In the See also:North there are also a large number of See also:inscriptions which are of See also:great value for linguistic purposes. Most of them cannot be dated with certainty,, but the forms of See also:language which they present show all stages of development, from the type found in See also:literary times back to one which is somewhat more archaic even than Gothic. It is probable that the earliest of them date from between the 3rd and 5th centuries. The inscriptions found in See also:England and See also:Germany are much fewer and less archaic. In the latter See also:case, however, a See also:good See also:deal of linguistic See also:evidence is available from the proper names and other Teutonic words which occur in early Latin and See also:Greek writings. Much assistance may also be obtained from the See also:loan-words borrowed by Teutonic languages from Latin and by other languages, especially Finnish and See also:Slavonic, from Teutonic. The Teutonic languages See also:form a distinct and well-defined group of the Indo-European See also:family.

Their nearest affinities are on the one See also:

side with the See also:Celtic and See also:Italic (Latin, &c.) languages, and on the other with the Slavonic and Baltic languages. In regard to the fundamental distinction, however, by which the Indo-European languages as a whole fall into two See also:main divisions, namely according to the treatment of certain guttural and palatal consonants, the Teutonic group belongs definitely, together with Celtic, Italic and Greek, to the western of these divisions. The chief characteristic of the Teutonic languages as a whole lies in their treatment of the Indo-European explosive sounds. This characteristic, generally known as See also:Grimm's See also:Law, is due to See also:sound-changes See also:peculiar to Teutonic, though somewhat similar changes may be traced both in Armenian and Celtic. The most noteworthy phenomena are as follows: (1) The Indo-European voiced aspirates, bh, dh, gh (See also:Lat. f, f, h; Gk. ¢, 0, x) became voiced spirants, b, d, 3. After nasals these spirants became See also:explosives (b, d, g) ; and in the first two cases the same See also:change took See also:place initially, though hardly during the early centuries of our era, e.g. A.S. beran, O.N. See also:berg : Lat fero, Gk. (See also:Ape); A.S. stigan : Gk. rmtxw; O.N. mio8r (A.S. medu) : Gk. µ20v. (2) The I: Eur. voiceless explosives, p, t, k, were preserved only after s (t also in the I.-Eur. See also:groups pt and kt) ; e.g. A.S. stede, Goth. steps:' Gk. eraons; Goth. nahts: Lat. noctem.

In all other cases they became voiceless spirants, f, p, x, (h). These new sounds remained (i.) initially, e.g. A.S. hwaet, O.N. hvat: Lat. quod; A.S. feeder, O.N. faiir : Lat. See also:

pater; (ii.) in See also:combination with other voiceless sounds, e.g. Goth. saihs, O.H.G. sehs: Lat. See also:sex; Goth. nahts: Lat. noctem; (iii.) immediately after the (See also:original) See also:accent, e.g. Goth. bropar, A.S. bro8or : Lat. See also:frater, Gk. Oparnp; Goth. taihun, O.H.G. zehan: Lat. decem, Gk. Skim. In all other cases they became voiced spirants (" Verner's Law "), identical with those arising from I.-Eur. bh, dh, gh (see above) ; e.g. A.S. faeder: Lat. pater, Gk. 7nu.1 p; A.S. sweger, O.H.G. swigar (See also:mother-in-law): Gk. 2avpa. (3) The I.-Eur. voiced (unaspirated) explosives, b, d, g, became voiceless, p, t, k; e.g.

A.S. etan : Lat. edere; A.S. aecer, Goth. akrs: Lat. ago*, Gk. ayphs. Among other consonantal changes we may See also:

note especially the following: (4) 3w arising from I.-Eur. ghw or kw (see above) was reduced (except after nasals) before u (perhaps also before I.-Eur. o) to 3, and in all other cases to w; e.g. A.S. guii (See also:war), O.H.G. rd : Gk. -Oaros (cf. 4)6vos) ; A.S. sniwea (snows) : Lat. niuit, . vst4m. (5) The I.-Eur. cons. group arising from combination of dental sound -Ft became ss, as in Celtic and Latin, e.g. A.S. less (seat): sittan, Lat. sedere (cf. Sanscr. pp. sattas, Lat. obsessus). contain valuable contributions to the See also:history of Greek and See also:Roman (6) The treatment of I.-Eur. s was precisely parallel to that of the voiceless spirants f, p, x arising from I.-Eur. p, t, k (see above). It was preserved (i) initially, (ii) in combination with voiceless sounds, (iii) immediately after the (original) accent. In all other cases it became voiced (z).

This voiced spirant subsequently became r in all Teutonic languages except Gothic, where however the distinction between voiced and voiceless spirants is not well preserved; e.g. A.S. ceosan, pp. coren (See also:

Ouse-gusino): Gk, yd'oµat (cf. Lat. gustus) ; A.S. snoru, O.H.G. snura (daughter-in-law) : Sanscr. snuid, Gk. vubs. Most of the other consonantal changes are in the nature of assimilation. (7) bn, dn, In before the accent became pp, It, kk '(probably through the intermediate See also:stage bb, dd, gg) ; e.g. A.S. liccian, O.H.c . leckon (from li3nd-) : Gk. X velxo (cf. Goth. bi-laigon). (8) In became 11; e.g. A.S. full, Goth. fulls: Lith. pilnas. (9) nw became nn; e.g. A.S. pynne, O.N. punnr: Lat. See also:tennis.

(io) dl became ii; e.g. A.S. st(e)all, O.N. stallr: Lat. stabulum (from studhlom). (1 t) In some combinations consonants are lost or new conaonants See also:

developed; e.g. Goth. sunja (truth): Lat. praesentia (-sntja); O.H.G. hunno (See also:centurion) from hundn-, cf. Goth. hund: Lat. centum; A.S. stream, O.N. straumr from sroum-, cf. Gk. psUµa, Old Irish sruaim. The following changes are found in all Teutonic languages, but took place apparently later than those enumerated above: (i) n was lost before x (h), with compensatory lengthening of the vowel; e.g. A.S. pohte, Goth. pahta beside A.S. pencean, Goth. pa kjan. (ii) Final explosives and nasals were lost; e.g. A.S. wile, Goth. wili: Lat. uelit; A.S.See also:ea, Goth. ahwa: Lat. agleam; Goth. kustu: Lat. gustum. In its vowel-See also:system the earliest known form of Teutonic did not differ greatly from the other I.-Eur. languages.

Its chief peculiarities seem to have been as follows: (i) It had one vowel (a) corresponding to the two vowels a, o found in the other I.-Eur. languages; e.g. Goth. akrs, O.N. akr: Lat. ager, Gk. 6ypbs; Goth. ahtau, O.H.G. ahto: Lat. octo, Gk. bKrw. (2) It had also one vowel (a) corresponding to the two vowels d, o, found in the other I.-Eur. languages, e.g. A.S. braider, Goth. bro See also:

par: Lat. fearer, Gk. ¢pdrrip; A.S. See also:row (See also:rest), O.H.G. ruowa; Gk. 1pu(F)a. The other I.-Eur. vowels, e, u, were preserved in the earliest Teutonic. Soon after the beginning of our era, however, e began to change to i before a nasal followed by a consonant, e.g. Ptol. 4'ivvoi.

(A.S. Finnas, O.N. Finnar) against Tac. Fenni. The diphthong ei became i; e.g. A.S., O.H.(i. stigan,.O.N. stiga: Gk. oretxw (the ei of Goth. steigan is merely graphic). The reduced nasal sounds generally written' n. m, arising from en, ne, em, me, &c., in unaccented syllables, became un, um (rarely nu, mu), e.g. AS., Goth., &c. un- (negative pprefix) : Lat. in-, Gk. d , See also:

lee.; A.S., Goth. hund: Lat. centum, Gk. k-Karbv. • Similarly the reduced liquid sounds r, became ur, ul (rarely ru, 1u); e.g. A.S. furh: Lat. porca; Goth. pulan: Lat. toile, Gk. rerXhµev. Accent.—In the I.-Eur. languages the position of the accent was originally See also:free—i.e., any syllable in the word could See also:bear the chief accent—variation occurring very frequently; e.g. between different cases of the same noun. This freedom of position must have been retained in Teutonic at the time when voiceless spirants (f, p, x, s) became voiced (see above).

Eventually, however, as in Gaelic (Irish) and at one time also in the Italic languages, the first syllable of every word came to bear the chief accent, the only noteworthy exceptions being certain See also:

compound words, more especially verbs compounded with prepositions, which were probably See also:long regarded as more or less See also:independent words. This system of accentuation was intimately connected with the principle of See also:alliteration, the essential characteristic of early Teutonic See also:poetry and the dominant See also:factor in family nomenclature. Alliteration in family names certainly dates from the very beginning of the See also:Christian era, e.g. the S-names in one of the princely families of the See also:Cherusci frequently mentioned by See also:Tacitus, and there is also some evidence that Teutonic poetry was alliterative by this time. It is probable, therefore, that the change in the system of accentuation took place not later than the 1st century B.C. The description of the phonetic characteristics given above applies in See also:general to the Teutonic group of languages as a whole. So far as one can See also:judge from the proper names, &c., which occur in Latin See also:works, the description would probably be true for the time about the beginning of the Christian era. Dialectical See also:differences no doubt already existed, but few of them were soclearly marked that they can now be traced with anything like certainty. The language of the earliest Runic inscriptions does not differ very markedly from this type. The See also:principal changes which we can now detect are as follows:- (i) e became i, (i) in the unaccented syllable of dissyllabic and in the least accented syllables of polysyllabic words; e.g. dohtriz (incr.), O.N. doetr: Gk. Otyartpes; (ii) in accented syllables when the following syllable • contained i, j, or u; e.g. A.S. See also:mid(d), O.N. mi8r: Lat. medius. (2) i became e when the following syllable contained a, e, o; e.g.

A.S., O.H.G. wee, O.N. veer (See also:

stem wera-) : Lat. uir. (3) u became o when the following syllable contained a, e, o; e.g. (i sing. pret.) worahtO (inscr.), A.S. wor(o)hte, O.H.G. wor(a)hta: A.S. wyrcean, O.H.G. wurehen. (4) e became d always; e.g. -mariz (inscr.): Goth. -mers. (5) final a, e, were lost; e.g. (i, 3 sing. See also:peel.) was (inscr.); cf. Gk. MXour-a, -E. (6) final long vowels were (in general) shortened (is_i, o.u); e.g. liuou (inscr.). N. sing. fem.

(cf. Gk. ExOpd). (7) final nasals and explosives were lost; e.g. worahta, 1 sing. pret. (cf. Gk. eritrv). These changes appear to have operated in all the See also:

northern and western Teutonic languages during the first four centuries of our era, except the change e.d, which in the extreme See also:west (Frankish). seems not to have taken place until the latter part of the 6th century. Several of them can be traced more or less clearly in Latin writings of the 1st century. The Gothic language, however, seems to have developed on quite different lines. The more important of its changes are as follows: (t) a became i always; e.g. wigs (road): A.S. weg. But i later became e (written ai in Ulfilas' See also:orthography) before r, h; e.g. hairdeis (herdsman) : O.H.G. hirti. (2) u became o (written au) before r, h; e.g. baurgs: A.S. See also:burg.

(In Ulfilas' orthography the letters transcribed e, o are used for long vowels only.) (3) ai, au became e, o; but the digraphs were still written. (4) See also:

short vowels (except u) in final syllables were lost ; e.g. dags, gasts: (N. inscr.) da3az, -3astiz. (5) final nasals and explosives were lost ; e.g. sunu (See also:Ace. sing.) : Sanscr. sunum. (6) final long vowels (including those which had become final through the last change) were (in general) shortened (iii, ova, era)' e.g. waurhta (1 sing. prat.): (N. inscr.) worahto; liuba (N. See also:sin. See also:fern.): (N. iriscr.) liutu. t7). voiced spirants when final (also before s) became voiceless; e.g. bap (3 sing. pret. of bidjan). All these changes appear to have taken place before or during the 4th century. The effect of them must have been to render the Gothic language hardly intelligible to a See also:person who spoke a northern or western language, whereas during the same See also:period there is little evidence for differences among the latter languages themselves. At a later date Gothic underwent further changes which do not appear in Ulfilas' version, or only to a slight extent. (i) i became a See also:close e- sound; e.g. Venethae (Jordanes), for Winid=. (a) u became a close o sound: e.g. Pbyot (See also:Procopius) : Rugii; later o became a in unaccented syllables; e.g. uraz (for -us).

(3) e became i; e.g. leikeis for lekeis (not unfrequently in the See also:

MSS.). (4.) o became Il; e.g. sunjos for sunjos. The chief sound-changes in the northern and western languages seem to have taken place in the 6th and 7th centuries. Some of these changes were common to all the languages in question, some to English and Scandinavian, some to English and German, while others again occurred in only, one of these languages or a portion of it. I. Among the chief changes common to English, Scandinavian and German we may reckon (1) the loss of final a (in Scand. also before final consonants); e.g. A.S., O,N., O.H.G. See also:horn (N. inscr. horna) ; (2) the loss of unaccented i, u after long syllables, e.g. A.S. See also:bond; O.N hdnd, O.H.G. hant: Goth. handus; (3) the change zr before vowels or g; e.g. A.S. deor, O.N. dyr, O.H.G. tier: Goth. (See also:pier.) diuza. II, Among the most important of the changes common to English and Scandinavian. must be classed (s) the See also:affection (umlaut) of vowels by the vowels (generally i, u) of 'following syllables; e.g. A.S. cyn(n), O.N. kyn: O.H.G. kunni; A.S. geofu, O.N. giof: O.H.G. geba.

In early German the only case of this See also:

kind was the affection of a by a following i and even this seems to have taken place much later. To the same See also:category we must reckon (2) the early loss of h LANGUAGES between sonants, e.g. A.S. s-eon, scan, O.N. sid: O.H.G. sehan; (3) the loss of n before s, e.g. A.S. -cis, O.N. dss: O.H.G. Ans—. The sound-changes peculiar to English, Scandinavian and German are treated in the articles dealing with these languages. It should be noted that the Frisian dialects agree with English not only in the phenomena enumerated above, but also in a number of changes peculiar to these languages. Such are (r) the change d,.o before nasals, e.g. AS. m5na5, O.Fr. monath: O.H.G. manod; (2) the change ar.¢e (later e) in other positions, e.g. A.S. rlfed, O.Fr. red: O.H.G. See also:rat; (3) the labialization of a before nasals, e.g. A.S.mon, See also:man, O.Fr. See also:mop, man: O.H.G. man; (4) the change a,.ae (e in Fris.) in close syllables (also in open syllables before front vowels), e.g.

AS. staef, O.Fr. stef: O.H.G. slap; (5) the diphthongization of vowels before h, e.g. A.S. cneoht, O.Fr. kniucht: O.H.G. kneht; 6) the loss of n before p, e.g. A.S. Mer, O.Fr. other: O.H.G. ander; ~7) the palatalization of gutturals before front vowels, e.g. A.S. geldan, gieldan (Engl. yield), O.Fr. ielda: O.H.G. geltan. The noteworthy differences between the two languages in early times seem to have been very few: (I) a, e, i, are diphthongized before-r followed by a consonant in English, but not in Frisian, e.g. A.S. earm: O.Fr. erm (cf. Goth. arms); (2) the diphthong ai became a in English everywhere, but in Frisian only in open syllables (e in close syllables) ; e.g. A.S. a5: O.Fr. eth (Goth. aips), but A.S., O.Fr. )See also:

gun (Goth. See also:aigun); (3) the diphthong au became (aeu, then) ea in English, but a in Frisian, e.g. A.S. eage (See also:age): O.Fr. age (Goth. augo) ; (4) i was labialized in Frisian, but not in English, before (original) w in the following syllable; e.g. O.Fr. siunga: A.S. singan (cf.

Goth. siggwan). Frisian texts of the 13th and 14th centuries show many characteristic changes which must have rendered the language almost, if not wholly, unintelligible to an Englishman of the same period; but it is hardly probable that these changes were for the most part of any great antiquity. Declension.—The I.-Eur. languages seem originally to have had three See also:

numbers and eight cases, though it is by no means clear that each of the latter had a distinct form in every class of stems. In Teutonic there is scarcely any trace of the dual in nouns. Of the cases all the early Teutonic languages pre-served four, viz. the Nominative, See also:Accusative, Genitive and See also:Dative. The Vocative also was kept in Gothic and the Instrumental to a considerable extent in early German, while the earliest Anglo-Saxon preserved many traces of the locative. The case endings are best preserved in the earliest Northern inscriptions and in Gothic. As an See also:illustration we may take those of the I: Eur. o-declension Goth. N. sing. -s A. - G. -is D.

-a N. plur. -Ss A. -ens G. E D. -am N. inscr. -az -a -as -i -o cf. Greek -OS -On (-OW) -OW As examples of the forms found in the inscriptions may be given N. erilaz, A. stain, G. A(n) su3isalas, D. Woduride. In the other classes of stems also the declension conforms to the general I.-Eur. types. Whatever changes have taken place have usually tended towards simplification; thus there are but few traces of stem-variation (ablaut) between different cases of the same noun. The treatment of adjectives was somewhat more peculiar.

In addition to the old type of declension which conformed to that of At/Jac- the See also:

demonstrative pronoun and not, as in Greek and tAvea. Latin, to that of substantives, almost every See also:adjective was inflected also after the See also:model of n-stems. This type of inflection occurs chiefly in See also:conjunction with the demonstrative pronoun (definite See also:article) and it is thought that its origin is to be found in substantival (appositional) See also:sage. The See also:comparative' of adjectives is formed partly by a suffix -izan-(e.g. Goth. sutiza, A.S. lengra), which is apparently extended from the suffix -ios-, -is- found in the other I.-Eur. languages and probably to be compared with Gk. Sim, (from swadison), and partly by a suffix -Own- (e.g. Goth. swinpoza) which is peculiar to Teutonic. Similarly the superlative is formed partly by a suffix -ista- (e.g. Goth. hauhists, A.S. lengest) corresponding to -isto- in other I.-Eur. languages (e.g. Gk. 66uiros), and partly by a new formation -osta-(e.g. Goth. armosts).

Most of the I.-Eur. demonstrative pronouns are found in Teutonic, and the peculiarities of their inflection are in general well preserved. Proaouaa. The most important are Goth. ss, O.H.G. er: Lat. is; A.S. he: Lith. szis; Goth. sa, so, pat): Gk. 6, ,y, 1-6. The last of these (as in Greek) has become a definite article in all except the Scandinavian languages. The interrogative pronouns are Goth, See also:

Maas, AS. hwa: Sanscr. kas, and O.H.G. hwer: Lat. quis. The place of the relative pronoun is supplied by the demonstrative or by indeclinable forms. The inflection of the See also:personal and reflexive pronouns is for the most part peculiar to Teutonic, e.g. Goth. t sing. N. ik, A. mik, G. meina, D. mis; 1 plur. N. weis, A.D. uns (unsis); G. unsara. The See also:majority of these forms are common to all the Teutonic languages, though there is a variation between -e and -i which is probably due to accentual causes; e.g.

AS. ic, mec, me; O.N. ek, mik, met.; O.H.G. ih, mih, mir. Conjugation.—The Teutonic verb-system is simpler than that of most of the I.-Eur. languages. The old See also:

Middle See also:Voice is preserved only in Gothic, where it is used as a passive. In the other Teutonic languages only one or two isolated forms remain. In place of the two old moods, Conjunctive and Optative, there is but one, which is generally called Conjunctive, though its forms are mostly of Optative origin. Again, there are only two tenses, Present and Preterite, the latter of which is derived partly from the I.-Eur. Perfect, partly from See also:Aorist or Imperfect formations. A few old Perfects, however, which have no Presents, retain their original meaning and are generally known as Preterite-presents, e.g. Goth. wait, A.S. wdt, " I know ": Gk. ol8a. In place of the Future the Teutonic languages use either perfective verbs (generally compounded with a prepo= sition) or a periphrasis consisting of the See also:Infinitive with an See also:auxiliary verb. The conjugation of the Pres. Indic.

See also:

Act. corresponds in general to that of most of the I.-Eur. languages, e.g. Goth. I sing. baira, 2 bairis, 3 bairip, I plur. See also:bairam, 2 bairip, 3 bairand, cf. Gk. See also:Opal, Sanscr. bharasi, bharati, Gk. 41EpoiEV, fbEpETE, 4EpOVTL (l$pOVOI). Gothic had also forms for the I, 2 dual, bairns, bairats, which have not been satisfactorily explained. In the other languages there is scarcely any trace of the dual. The conjugation of verbs corresponding to the Greek verbs in -in is preserved best in Old High German; e.g. t sing. habe-m (-n), 2 habes, 3 habet, r plur. habemes, 2 habet, 3 habent, cf. Gk. 1 sing. TAMIL, Lat.

2 sing. habes, 3 habet, > plur. habemus, 2 habetis, 3 habent. A number of archaic forms are preserved in the " verb substantive," e.g. Goth. r sing. See also:

im, 2 is, 3 ist, 3 plur. See also:sind.; O.N. 1 plur. erum; cf. Gk. I sing. See also:apt, 2 E001, el, 3 See also:tart, I OUT. ETAEV, 3 etot. The forms of the Conjunctive (Optative) correspond in general to those of the other I.-Eur. languages; e.g. Goth. 2 sing. bairais, 3 sing. bairai; Gk. 2 sing. ¢,iposc, 3 sing. tpipos.

So also the Imperative, e.g. 2 sing. bair: Gk. (See also:

pipe; but the origin of the 3 sing. and 3 plur. forms in Gothic (bairadau, bairandau) is not quite clear. The Gothic Passive is conjugated as follows in the Pres. Indic.: I, 3 sing. bairada, 2 sing. bairaza, I, 2, 3 plur. bairanda; cf. Gk. 3 sing. ryiperai, 2 sing. ¢ipp (from ¢ips(0)at), 3 plur. q,Epovrai. The Preterite formations are of two types, usually termed "strong " and " weak." The latter belong to verbs whose past participle has a stem -da- (I.-Eur. -to-; see below), the former to the remaining verbs. The singular of the strong Preterite is de-rived from the I.-Eur. Perfect, while the plural, which in most verbs has a different stem, may come either from the Perfect or from Aorist formations.

In the plural the endings were originally accented ; hence many verbs show differences not only in the stem vowel but also in the consonants (by Verner's Law, see above) between the two numbers; e.g. AS. sing. waes, wearti, plur. waeron, wurdon. Reduplication is preserved in Gothic only in a limited number of verbs (e.g. haldan, pret. haihald) ; in the other languages it is rare. The inflection is as follows: Goth. I sing. -baup, 2 -basal, 3 -baup, r dual -budu, 2 -buduts, i plur. -budum, 2 -budup, 3 -budun; cf. Gk. I sing. olaa, yiyova, 2 olaea, 3 o1SE, ryeyovs, plur. 7Tµev, yiya ssv. Except in Gothic and Scandinavian the 2 sing. has generally a form (originally Aorist) similar to the plur., e.g. A.S. See also:

butte.

The stem of the Conjunctive also agrees with that of the plur., e.g. Goth. 1 sing. -budjau, 3 sing. -budi. The " weak " Preterite seems originally to have arisen out of a periphrastic formation of which the second part consisted of Imperfect or Aorist forms of the verb seen in A .S. See also:

don, O.H.G. tuon (related to Gk. rW,fpl), and probably identical with the Pret. A.S. sing. dede (dyde), plur. dO2don; O.H.G. sing. teta, plur. tatun. The short reduplication-syllable, however, is lost in the sing., while the long syllable of the plur. (and dual) is preserved only in Gothic. The inflection of the Indic. is as follows: sing. Goth. I nasida, 2 -See also:des, 3 -da; A.S. nerede; -des(t), -de, O.H.G. nerita, -ios, -ta.

O.N. lag la (early inscr. -o), -ir, -i. plur. 3 Goth. nasidedun, A.S. neredon; O.H.G. neritun; O.N. logb'u. It is to be observed that the stem of the weak Preterite almost always conforms to that of the past participle. Such forms as Goth. pret. waurhta are probably derived from the past part. waurhts (stem waurhta-) on the See also:

analogy of pret. nasida beside past part. nasips (stem nasida-), where the resemblance between the two formations is due to the See also:regular operation of the sound See also:laws, The inflection of the Conjunctive agrees with that of the strong Preterite, e.g. Goth. nasidedjau. The Infinitive is formed from the present See also:stein with an ending -an (e.g. A.S. beran), and probably was originally a case-form of a verbal noun. In the western languages we find also the Dative of a stem -anja- used after a preposition; e.g. A.S. to eeosenne, O.H.G. zi nemanne.

The Present Participle has a stem -and- (I.-Eur. -ont-) identical with the ending of the 3 plur. Indic., as in the other I: Eur. languages; but the Participles in actual use were declined as -an-or -ja- stems, e.g. G. bairanda, A.S. berende. The unextended stem survives only in substantives, e.g. A.S. wigend, " warriors." The stem of the Past Participle (Passive) is formed by the suffixes -to-and -no- (See also:

Tent. -da-, -na-), as in the other I.-Eur. languages. The former occurs as a living formation only in connexion with the verbs whose Present stem ends in ja-, -o-, .e- (in Gothic also -run) ; e.g. Goth. nasips, salbo 6s (: nasjan, salbon). The Past Participle in use with other classes of verbs has a stem -ena- or -See also:aria-, the former in English and Scandinavian, the latter in Gothic and German; e.g. A.S. borenn, O.N. borinn, Goth. baurans, O.H.G. (gi)boran.

Remains of old Participles in -to-, -no- formed otherwise than those in living use may be found in adjectives; e.g. A.S. (c)ald : alan (cf. Lat. altus), full : Lat. plea (cf. Lith. pilaus). The above See also:

sketch will suffice to show that in regard to See also:morphology the Teutonic group of languages has many characteristic features which distinguish it from other languages of the same stock. On the other See also:hand the morphological differences which exist among the Teutonic languages themselves are on the whole comparatively slight and due mainly to the operation of See also:syncretism and other simplifying processes. In more See also:recent times these processes have been carried still further, so that e.g. the Danish verb has lost all inflection of person and number, while distinction of gender has wholly disappeared in English. In the earlier `stages of the Teutonic languages differences of phonology are more marked than those of morphology, and afford surer criteria for determining the relations of these languages to one another. It is customary among scholars to classify the whole group in three main divisions, an eastern or Gothic, a northern or Scandinavian, and a western which includes English, Frisian and German. We have noticed above that Gothic began at an early date to show marked divergences from the other languages. The Scandinavian languages also certainly underwent a considerable number of peculiar changes before the beginning of their literatures.

But it is to be remembered that from the 6th century to the 9th the Scandinavian peoples were practically cut off from communication with other Teutonic nations by the Slavonic occupation of See also:

Mecklenburg and eastern See also:Holstein. The earliest of the more striking sound-changes peculiar to Scandinavian, viz. the loss of initial j-, is not thought to have taken place before the 7th century, while the most characteristic features in its morphology, i.e. the development of the See also:post-See also:positive article and of the new medio-passive, '. elong in all See also:probability to a later period. If we confine our See also:attention to changes which probably took place before the middle of the 7th century it will be seen that the English and Frisian languages may fairly be described as lying about midway between Scandinavian and German, though they had already developed well-marked characteristics of their own. They are doubtless to be regarded as the representatives of the old language of the maritime districts, and it is probable that languages of this type were at one time spoken along the whole of the See also:coast between the present frontiers of See also:Belgium and See also:Denmark. On the other hand the See also:special characteristics of German in all probability developed in the interior and those of Scandinavian See also:round the Baltic and the See also:Cattegat. From the 8th century onwards the High German (See also:southern) dialects of German differed greatly from those spoken further north owing to the operation of the changes generally known as the " second sound-shifting." The northern dialects, however (Old Saxon and Low Frankish'), were essentially German, though both were more or less affected by Frisian See also:influence. The Gothic and Scandinavian languages have one or two characteristics in common, the most important of which is the treatment of intervocalic j and w in a number of words. In the former case we find Goth. -ddj- and O.N. -ggi-,whereas in German a diphthong developed; e.g. Goth. twaddje (Gen. of twai. "two"), O.N. tveggia: O.H.G. zweio.

In the latter case both Goth. and Scand. had ggw (O.N. ggv), while a diphthong appears both in English and German, e.g. Goth. triggws ("true"), O.N. tryggr: AS. getriowe, getriewe, O.H.G gitriuwi. It may also be noted that Gothic and Scandinavian preserved the ending -t in the 2 sing. of the strong Preterite, while English and German had a different form with the stem of the plur. (see above). On the ground of these common characteristics some scholars hold that Gothic and Scandinavian are more closely related to one another than to the other Teutonic languages, But, whatever may have been the case originally—and the evidence is far from conclusive—it is clear that by the 4th or 5th century the Scandinavian languages had far more resemblance to English and German than to Gothic, The languages of the See also:

Vandals, Gepidae and other eastern tribes seem to have been practically identical with Gothic. That of the Burgundians, so far as we can judge from the slight evidence at our disposal, had at least a,s much in common with southern German as with Gothic, which may be due to the fact that this tribe, though originally located in the See also:basin of the See also:Oder, had moved westwards by the 4th century. The early divergence of the eastern languages in general from those of the north and west is perhaps to be ascribed in part to the great See also:extension southwards of the territories of the eastern tribes in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Yet it is not to be overlooked that all dialectical divergences within the Teutonic group seem to be of relatively recent origin, as compared, e.g., with the special characteristics of some of the Greek dialects. Indeed there is scarcely one of them of which' we can say with certainty that it dates from before the beginning of our era. (H. M.

End of Article: TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

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