Reflex in Verb Paradigms
The effect has an important consequence for some of the oldest weak verbs. As the weak past participle was formed with the Proto-Indo-European suffix *-tos, the assimilation could have occurred in all verbs with stems ending with a stop. For most weak verbs this was not an issue, because they had stems that were formed with various vowel suffixes. One such suffix was *-(e)ye-, which formed denominatives and causatives. Its form in the past participle retained this suffix as an intervening vowel, and therefore did not cause any special changes to the consonants: PIE *-(e)y-tos > PG *-idaz.
However, some of the class 1 weak verbs had been inherited as j-presents, and had this suffix only in the present tense forms, but not in the past tense. Some archaic athematic verbs such as "will", and notably the preterite-present verbs, also lacked a vowel suffix. In these verbs, therefore, the participle suffix came into direct contact with the preceding consonant, triggering the spirant law in these verbs. The form of the past participle was also extended to form the weak past tense, spreading the irregular participle form to the entire past.
The following table contains only those that have survived into the modern languages. Medieval languages had many more. (The forms in brackets have been leveled and no longer show the effect.)
| Germanic | English | Frisian | Dutch | German | Icelandic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *bringanan – *branhtē | bring – brought | bring - brocht | brengen – bracht | bringen – brachte | – |
| *bugjanan – *buhtē | buy – bought | – | – | – | – |
| *kaupijanan – *kauftē | – | keapje – kocht | kopen – kocht | (kaufen) | (kaupa) |
| *maganan – *mahtē | may – might | meie – mocht | mogen – mocht | mögen – mochte | mega – mátti |
| *sōkijanan – *sōhtē | seek – sought | sykje – socht | zoeken – zocht | (suchen) | sækja – sótti |
| *taikijanan – *taihtē | teach – taught | – | – | (zeigen) | – |
| *þankijanan – *þanhtē | think – thought | tinke – tocht | denken – dacht | denken – dachte | þykja – þótti |
| *witanan – *wissē | – | witte – wist | weten – wist | (wissen) | vita – vissi |
Although this looks similar to Grammatischer Wechsel, which causes a superficially similar consonant alternation in strong verbs, it is unrelated. Note that the vowel idiosyncrasies in these verbs are mostly a result of the separate and much later development of Rückumlaut. Only when an /n/ disappeared with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel did the spirant law itself result in vowel alternation. Hence Middle High German denken (think) and decken (cover) had the preterites dāhte and dahte respectively.
Another result of the spirant law, though far less obvious, was in the second-person singular past tense form of strong verbs. This form ended with *-t, without a vowel between it and the verb stem, and this caused the final consonant of the stem to undergo the change. This irregular form is preserved only directly in Gothic, however. In Old Norse, the original consonant had been restored by analogy, and the West Germanic languages had replaced the ending altogether, substituting *-ī. But the form is preserved in the older preterite-presents, even in the older West Germanic languages. Compare Gothic magan, Old English magan, Old Norse mega ("may", infinitive) and þu maht, þū meaht, þú mátt ("thou mayest", second-person singular, where -aht- regularly becomes -átt- in Old Norse).
Since the ending was *-ta in late Proto-Indo-European, the suffix should have undergone Grimm's law and become *-þ in Germanic whenever the verb stem did not end in an obstruent, but remained as *-t when the stem ended in an obstruent, because of the spirant law. However, there are no traces at all of an ending *-þ in the Germanic languages (except for the rare and isolated Old English form arþ), and *-t is found universally. It is therefore believed that since verbs ending in obstruents were so common in Germanic, the form with *-t may have been more common than *-þ. This caused the latter to eventually be regularised out of the system altogether, leaving only the former as the sole ending for that form.
Read more about this topic: Germanic Spirant Law
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