Ossetic and Germanic verb formation

Joseph Wright: Grammar of the Gothic Language
"
§ 315. The weak verbs, which for the most part are derivative or
denominative, are divided in Gothic into four classes according as the
infinitives end in -jan. pret. -ida, (-ta); -on, pret. -o:da; -an,
pret. -áida; -nan, pret. -no:da. The weak preterite is a special
Germanic formation, and many points connected with its origin are
still uncertain. Some scholars are inclined to regard it as a
periphrastic formation which was originally confined to denominative
verbs, and then at a later period became extended to primary verbs as
well. The Gothic endings of the singular: — -da, -de:s, -da would thus
represent an old aorist formed from the root dhē-, put, place (Gr.
tí-the-mi), which stands in ablaut relation to OE. OS. dōn, OHG.
tuon,
to do, as Indg. *dhó:m, (*dhé:m), *dhé:s, dhé:t, prim. Germanic *Do:n,
(*Dæ:n), *Dæ:s, *Dæ: = Goth -da, -de:s, -da. But it is also probable
that the dental in the pret. sing. stands in close relationship to the
dental of the past participle, where the -Ts = prim. Germanic -Dás,
Gr. -tós.
"

Abaev: A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetic
"
§ 93. An essential feature of the Ossetic verb system is the
alternation of two types of stems: present and past.
From present tense stems are formed the infinitive, the present and
future tenses, the present and future participles, and the gerund.
From the past stem are formed the past tenses.
The past stem is identical with the past participle.
The general mark of the past stem, in contrast to the present stem,
is the addition of the element -t- (after voiceless consonants and
also after a) or -d- (after vowels, resonants, and voiced consonants).
"

In other words, in both languages the past participle and the
preterite are built from the same stem which is formed by extending
the verb root with a dental. That's pretty unique within IE.


Examples
Ossetic
inf lidz&n 3sg pres lidzi 3sg past l&gda ppp l&gd "run away"
inf xæss&n 3sg pres xæssi 3sg past xasta ppp xast "carry"

Old Saxon
inf leggian 3sg leggid 3sg past lagda ppp gilegid "lie"
inf tellian 3sg tellid 3sg past talda ppp gitald "tell"


Pretty spooky isn't it? This pattern in Ossetic which looks like
Germanic weak class 1b (seek, sought) is also a subgroub in Ossetic.
It's getting pretty hard to deny that there was some kind of Iranian
-> Germanic influence. And the influence must have gone in that
direction, the pattern includes only part of the Iranian, but all of
the Germanic languages.


Torsten