>
> > -However, nowadays a reciprocal use is developing, at
> > least in the Norwegian language, and for some verbs this
> > is the prefered way of expressing reciprocal meaning.
>
> This was happening already in ON: <Skilðusk þeir með
> kærleikum> 'They parted (from each other) with friendship'.
>
It's in decline in Danish. The frequent reciprocal 'slås' (with
phonologicall regular -O-, not -å-), past 'sloges' suffers like all
verbs in -s, deponent, passive, reciprocal etc from the lack of
corresponding 'supine' (as the Swedes have termed it, and designed
aa s-form for), so that all compound tenses must be rephrased, cf.
Swedish: de slås, de slogs, de har slagits
Danish: de slås, de sloges, de har ... erh?
The active replacement: 'at slåsse' is more acceptable in Norwegian
than Danish, I believe.
Forms like 'brydes' "wrestle" (recip.), 'kysses' (recip.) are going
out of fashion.
A few still thrive: 'at ses' "see (meet) each other",
'at mødes' "meet each other", 'at snakkes ved' "discuss (at some
future opportunity)", past tense 'sås', 'mødtes', 'snakkedes ved'.
They construct a rickety s-supine from the past tense, if
regular: "har mødtes" "har snakkedes ved [?]". Past s-forms of
strong verbs outside of deponents and reciprocals are out of the
question.
Deponents: 'synes', past 'syntes' "think, believe" are often
confused. As are 'lykkes', past 'lykkedes' "succeed".
Torsten