Middle High German Verbs - Strong Verbs

Strong Verbs

Strong verbs exhibit patterns of vowel change, called apophony, in the various numbers and tenses of the verb. Strong verbs are further divided according to the pattern of vowel change (the so-called "Ablautreihe"), of which there are seven major subdivisions, or classes, and often further subdivisions within a given class.

Below is a paradigm of the conjugation of a typical Middle High German strong verb, "gëben" (Modern German 'geben', English 'to give') for the indicative and subjunctive present and preterite, along with its principal parts.

In the present indicative singular, many of the classes exhibit a change in the stem vowel (in this case, e -> i). The stem vowel of the indicative preterite singular is often different from that of the plural forms. The 2nd person singular preterite indicative has yet another stem vowel; it is usually the same as that of the preterite subjunctive. The 3rd person plural present indicative ending is also different from Modern German but is the same as that of the weak verbs: "-ent". However, the endings in the indicative preterite are different from those in the weak paradigm: 1st and 3rd person singular have no ending, and 2nd person singular has "-e". In addition, the spelling changes when final devoicing takes place in the 1st and 3rd person singular preterite indicative, where appropriate.

The subjunctive shows more regularity, with no stem vowel differences in singular versus plural and identical endings in both present and preterite. In the present subjunctive, the vowel is generally the same as that of the infinitive throughout, and in the preterite, the vowel is the umlauted version of the preterite plural indicative vowel. The 2nd person singular preterite form has the "-est" ending, the 3rd person singular subjunctive ends in "-e", and the 3rd person plural subjunctive has the "-en" ending, unlike their corresponding indicative counterparts.

Some early Middle High German texts have the 2nd person singular ending in "-es" rather than the more common "-est" in all tenses and moods. The addition of the "-t" to this ending began in the late Old High German era and was solidified fairly early on in the Middle High German era. (Its source is an enclitic: the 2nd person singular pronoun "du" often appeared after the verb: "gibis + du" ('give', the 2nd personal singular form in Old High German + 'you'), which eventually became "gibistu", and finally, the "-t" was reanalyzed by speakers as part of the verb conjugation itself, giving us "gibest (du)".