Wurzelerweiterungen im Germanischen

Abstract

As Luhr (1988) and Kroonen (2011) have pointed out, strong verbs with /p t k/ following a long vowel, diphthong or resonant are common in the Gothic Bible. Many of these are clearly related to verbs with double voiceless stops attested in West and North Germanic languages. These geminate stops are connected with the sound law Kluge discovered. However, this law needs to be clarified. It does not originate in the assimilation of *n to a preceding obstruent, rather it is a real doubling. Besides true gemination the influence of Voice Onset Time (VOT) of stop consonants in preresonant position is discussed (Denton 1998; 1999; 1999a). Only double voiceless stops agree with the sound law. By the assignment of these stops to coda and onset of the next syllable new root final voiceless stops arose. Also the approximant w in lexeme final position with the Old English verba pura is an innovation. The starting point were the strong verbs of class VII. The synchronically opaque reduplicated forms were reanalyzed as containing a *-z- as infix (Venneman 1994; 1997). For example, the pre-form of the 2. singular preterite optative Old High German biruuuis < *be.zu.is, shows insertion of a glide w between -u-i-. Synkope of u brought the *-z- as rhotacized *-R into contact with the glide w and strengthened this sound so that speakers could identify it as a root-final consonant w. In addition to these sound conditions the rise of new ablaut forms with the verba pura is explained.