Germanic Strong Verb - Class 5

Class 5

Class 5, Sweet's "give conjugation", represents all verbs in which the IE Ablaut-vowel was followed by a single consonant other than a nasal or a liquid. This class is originally similar to class 4 except in the participle. There is also a small subgroup called "j-presents" which show umlaut throughout the whole of the present stem.

In Old English the preterite is in æ/ǣ, as in class 4.

• sprecan spricþ spræc sprǣcon sprecen ("to speak")
• cweþan cwiþþ cwæþ cwǣdon cweden ("to say", cf. "bequeath", archaic past "quoth")

With West Saxon palatal diphthongization (after c, g)

• giefan geaf gēafon giefen ("to give")

With j-presents

• biddan bæd bǣdon beden

Contracted, anomalous:

• sēon sihþ seah sāwon sewen ("to see")

In Modern English this group has lost all group cohesion.

• eat ate eaten
• give gave given
• lie lay lain
• see saw seen
• sit sat sat

Class 5 verbs in Modern English: bid, eat, give, lie (= lie down), see, sit. Get, speak, tread, weave are now class 4.

In Old High German this group is relatively uniform. The model is geban, or for the j-presents, bitten.

• geban gibu gab gābum gigeban ("to give")
• bitten bat bātum gibetan ("to ask")

In Modern German this group is little changed from Old High German:

• geben (gib) gab gegeben
• bitten bat gebeten

The verb essen ("to eat") had a past participle giezzan in OHG; in MHG this became geezzen which was contracted to gezzen and then re-prefixed to gegezzen:

• essen (iss) aß gegessen

Class 5 verbs in modern German: essen, geben, genesen, geschehen, lesen, messen, sehen, treten, vergessen; with j-presents, bitten, liegen, sitzen.

In Dutch, class 5 is much as in German, except that the preterite retains the vowel length distinction which we also observed in class 4 above.

• geven gaf (gaven) gegeven
• bidden bad (baden) gebeden
• eten at (aten) gegeten

zien ("to see") has experienced a loss of the original /h/, with a resulting assimilation of the stem vowel to the vowel of the inflection, and shows Grammatischer Wechsel between this original /h/ and a /g/ in the preterite:

• zien, zag (zagen), gezien

Class 5 verbs in Dutch: eten, geven, genezen, lezen, meten, treden, vergeten; anomalous: zien; with j-presents: bidden, liggen, zitten.

In Gothic:

• giban gaf gēbun gibans
• saiƕan saƕ sēƕun saiƕans