Re: Mi- and hi-conjugation in Germanic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> (As van Coetsem has shown, *e:2 reflects PIE *ei with
> a-Umlaut: PIE *ei, *eu split into *ee > *e:2, *eo [a-umlaut]
> vs. *ii > *i:, *iu [i-umlaut]).

> If we depart from a PIE paradigm with *o ~ *e Ablaut in the
> hi-conjugation past, it is clear that the North-West
> Germanic forms in the preterite (A1..A3) have generalized
> the hi-conjugation plural (and, in NW Gmc. also the 2sg.)
> with *e-grade of the root.

The North and West Germanic strong class VII preterite do not have *-
e-, but *-e:2- which is quite another matter. I am not sure van
Coetsem has "shown" anything, and even if he has the particulars are
not really to the advantage to the idea. Some of the verbs show
traces of reduplication, all their Gothic counterparts are
reduplicated, and simple dereduplication would have seriously
undermined the identity of the preterite stem. If an irregular
reduction of reduplicated forms is accepted there are no other
problems.

Jens