Re: PIE meaning of the Germanic dental preterit

Origin of the Germanic Weak Preterite (part-2)

I. Reduplication, as in important mechanism in relation with the verb
morphology, was largely spread in Proto-Germanic (see reduplication
in Gothic, see the Origin of the West Germanic Seventh Class Verbs)

II.a The Germanic weak preterite was developed by Proto-Germanic
based on several -dHeh1- 'verbal construction' that existed in Proto-
Germanic (some of them originated directly from PIE)

II.b Proto-Germanic weak preterit was constructed having mixed
endings => similar (but of course not identical) with today French
Subjonctive (->that has Pres. Endings in sg. + Imperfect Endings in
Plural)

Proto-Germanic weak preterit has
In Sg. non reduplicated PIE endings
like :
PIE *-dHo:m/*-dHe:m -> Gothic -da
PIE *-dHe:s -> Gothic -de:s
PIE *-dHe:t -> Gothic -da

[I say 'like the above ones' because these endings needs to include
the attested ON -dai too.]


In Pl. from reduplicated PIE endings that were preserved in Gothic as:
-> Gothic -de:dum
-> Gothic -de:duþ
-> Gothic -de:dun


3.a The Reduplication Verbal System crashed in West Germanic => the
verb conjugations using this mechanism were completely reshaped in
West Germanic (see WGermanic Seventh Class Verbs as an argument for)

3.b -> The Reduplication System was still preserved in EastGermanic
(see Gothic, in Roman Times)


This model explains well the overall situation without to propose
"a_haplology_that_happened_in_sg_but_not_happened_in_pl" ...

Marius