Germanic Strong Verb - Verb Classes

Verb Classes

Six different ablaut sequences (German: Ablautreihe) exist in the Germanic languages. These are referred to as the six classes in which the strong verbs can be subdivided.

In PIE there were already several possible ablaut sequences in the verb conjugation. The Germanic verb is based on the following four patterns. (For orientation, the numbers of the Germanic principal parts and verb classes are included in this table, but the vowels are those of the unattested but reconstructed PIE).

The standard pattern of PIE is best represented in Germanic by class 3. Classes 1 & 2 have also developed out of this pattern, but here the ablaut vowel was followed by a semivowel (i/j and u/v respectively) which later combined with it to form a diphthong. The PIE variations from which Germanic classes 4 & 5 evolved contain consonant structures which were partly or wholly incompatible with the zero grade, and thus the e-grade and lengthened e-grade were substituted in one or both of the zero grade positions. Thus classes 1-5 are all easily explicable as having developed logically from a single basic pattern.

Class 6 is more problematic. It is a controversial question whether the earlier phases of PIE had an a-vowel at all. At any rate, most occurrences of an /a/ in late PIE are associated with an earlier laryngeal h₂. Opinions still vary about how exactly this worked, but it is conceivable, for example, that the present stem could have experienced the shift h₂e → a. If this is so, then class 6 may also be a variation on the standard pattern.

In addition to the six ablaut sequences, Germanic originally had reduplicating verbs, which in the West and North Germanic languages have lost their reduplication and simplified into a relatively coherent group which may be thought of as a seventh class. However, some verbs, most notably the ri-verbs, retained at least partial reduplication in some languages. In Gothic, reduplication remained in full.

The Anglo-Saxon scholar Henry Sweet gave names to the seven classes (the "drive conjugation", the "choose conjugation" etc), but normally they are simply referred to by numbers.