Germanic Strong Verb - Class 6

Class 6

Class 6, Sweet's "shake conjugation", represents all verbs in which the Proto-Germanic vowel was *a. PIE sources of this vowel included *h₂e, *o, and a laryngeal between consonants. Possibly in some cases the a may be an example of the a-grade of ablaut, though this is controversial. Like class 5, this class too has j-presents. Compare with Latin facio ("I do"): infinitive facere, indicative active perfect singular fēci, perfect passive participle factus.

In Old English

• scacan scæcþ scōc scōcon scacen ("to shake")
• faran færþ fōr fōron faren ("to travel, fare")
• sacan sæcþ sōc sōcon sacen ("to quarrel")

Contracted

• slēan sliehþ slōg slōgon slægen ("to strike, slay")

With j-presents (and other anomalies)

• hebban hōf hōfon hafen ("to raise, heave")
• scieppan scōp scōpon scapen ("to create, shape")
• swerian swōr swōron sworen ("to swear")

The verb "to stand" has an anomalous loss of its -n- in the preterite:

• standan stent stōd stōdon standen

In Modern English, shake, take and forsake come closest to the original vowel sequence. The consonant anomaly in stand is still visible, and is extended to the participle.

• shake shook shaken
• stand stood stood

Class 6 verbs in modern English: draw, forsake, lade, shake, shape, shave, slay, stand, take. (Like most other classes in Modern English, this class has lost cohesion and now forms principal parts according to many different patterns.) Swear is now class 4. The adjective graven was originally a past participle of the now obsolete verb grave. Note that lade, shape, shave are now weak outside of their optionally strong past participle forms (laden, shapen, and shaven, respectively).

In Old High German the preterite is marked by the diphthong uo:

• graban grebit gruob gruobum gigraban ("to dig, grave")

With j-present:

• heffen huob huobum gihaban ("to heave")

In Modern German the uo is monophthongised to a u.

• graben gräbt grub gegraben

However, the j-presents have instead taken an o in the preterite and participle, perhaps by analogy with class 2.

• heben hob gehoben

Class 6 verbs in modern German: fahren, graben, laden, schaffen, schlagen, tragen, waschen; also backen, fragen, though these are usually weak nowadays; with j-present: heben, schwören. The past tense and participle of stehen (stand, older stund, gestanden), which derive from a lost verb *standen, also belong to this class.

In Dutch, the regular class 6 verbs are close to German:

• graven groef gegraven

However the three j-presents have taken the vowel ie in the preterite, and have chosen three separate paths in the participle:

• scheppen schiep geschapen
• heffen hief geheven
• zweren zwoer gezworen ("to swear an oath")

Class 6 verbs in Dutch are: dragen, graven, slaan, varen, and with j-present: heffen, scheppen, zweren; also "semi-strong" (i.e. with a strong preterite but a weak participle) jagen, klagen (in archaic or regional usage, modern usage is mostly weak), vragen.

In Gothic:

• faran fōr fōrun farans