Go (verb) - Suppletion in Other Germanic Languages

Suppletion in Other Germanic Languages

The Dutch, Low German, German, and Scandinavian verbs cognate to go, e.g. Dutch gaan, Low German gahn, German gehen, and Danish/Norwegian/Swedish gå, also have suppletive past forms, namely the preterite ging of Dutch and German, güng of Low Geman, gick (from the same source) of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and the past participle gegangen of German. These forms are relics from earlier, more widespread words that meant 'to walk, go' and which survive sporadically in Scots gang, East Frisian gunge, and Icelandic ganga. Some obsolete cognates include Middle Low German, Middle High German gangen, early modern Swedish gånga, and Gothic gaggan. These are reflexes of Proto-Germanic *ganganan, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- ‘to step’, which also gave Lithuanian žeñgti ‘to stride’, Greek kochōnē ‘perineum’, Avestan zanga ‘ankle’, and Sanskrit jáṁhas ‘step’, jaṅghā ‘shank’.

Therefore, the case of English go is not unique among the Germanic languages, and it would appear that most have in a like manner reproduced equivalent suppletive conjugations for their words for ‘to go’, suggesting a cyclical change patterned after the state of affairs in Proto-Germanic.