Re: Re[2]: [norse_course] Middle forms of verbs strong and weak

I'm afraid, with the possible exception of "they are brought up", all of those examples seem generally reflexive to me.  But I've always been a little fuzzy on linguistic rules.

Jamie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
To: "wyrdplace@..." <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:41:29 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re[2]: [norse_course] Middle forms of verbs strong and weak

At 7:41:30 PM on Monday, January 25, 2010,
wyrdplace@... wrote:

> This is taken from an online ancient Greek tutorial, but
> it sums up the difference between active, passive and
> middle verbs, and I believe it applies to Old Norse:

Not really, because the <-sk> form in ON isn't actually a
voice at all in the sense that active and passive are
voices.  It's a verbal inflection that has a variety of
functions.  Sometimes it's reflexive: <hann nefndisk> 'he
named himself' is equivalent to <hann nefndi sik>, with the
reflexive pronoun.  (Indeed, this may be the origin of the
form.)  Sometimes it's passive: <þeir fœðizk> 'they are
brought up'.  Sometimes it's reciprocal: <bítask> 'bite each
other'.  Sometimes it significantly changes the meaning of
the verb: <gera> 'to make, to do', but <gerask> 'to become'.
(This may have developed from a reflexive sense, 'to make
oneself (into)' or the like, but the meaning is much more
general than that.)  There are even some verbs that have
*only* an <-sk> form, like <óttask> 'to fear'.  As Michael
Barnes says, it's probably best to treat <-sk> forms as
separate verbs, at least when you're starting.

Brian