LL-L "Grammar" 2009.06.09 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 June 2009 - Volume 01
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2009.06.08 (04) [EN]

From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org <mailto:list at marcusbuck.org>>

> The Wenker atlas has four maps about imperative forms: 'geh', 'tu', 'sag'
> and 'bleib'. 'sag' doesn't help us at all, cause the first and second person
> forms have the same stem in both German and Low Saxon ('ich sag' - 'du
> sagst' in German, 'ik segg' - 'du seggst' in Low Saxon). 'geh', 'tu' and
> 'bleib' are a bit more useful. Although they have the same stem in German
> ('ich gehe' - 'du gehst', 'ich tue' - 'du tust', 'ich bleibe' - 'du
> bleibst'), they differ in Low Saxon ('ik gah' - 'du geihst', 'ik do' - 'du
> deist', 'ik bliev' - 'du bliffst'). This difference is present in all Low
> Saxon dialects, so we can draw some conclusions from that. _All_ dialects
> show the imperative forms 'do', 'gah' and 'bliev' (or the respective
> dialectal variants of it) and none show imperative forms like 'dei', 'geih'
> or 'bliff'. So my question above "Is it a general rule, that the imperative
> derives from the root?" can be answered: Yes, without German interference
> the imperative always takes the forms from the infinitive.
>

I made some further investigations in Germanic morphology and found out,
that all what I said was based on false presumptions ;-)
There's no paradigm "imperative follows infinitive/first person". "ich
fahre", "er fährt", imperative "fahre" shows, that German too doesn't apply
a rule like that. Actually the rules depend on the Ablaut classes for
Germanic verbs. Third person and imperative only coincide for the Ablaut
classes III.b. (Old High German: infinitive 'werfan', 1st person 'wirfu'
[1st person followed the same pattern as 2nd/3rd person in Old High German],
imperative 'wirf' = Modern German: infinitive 'werfen', 3rd person 'wirft',
imperative 'wirf'), IV. ('neman', 'nimu', 'nim' = 'nehmen', 'nimmt',
'nimm'), and V. ('geban', 'gibu', 'gib' = 'geben', 'gibt', 'gib').
At least according to <http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oudsaksisch>
corresponding forms existed in Old Saxon. The article mentions infinitive
'helpan', 1st person 'hilpu', imperative 'hilp' [Ablaut class III.b.]).
Old Saxon short 'i' was sound-shifted to short 'e' in open syllables and in
front of 'r' and 'l' later, so 'nimu', 'giƀu', 'wirpu', and 'hilpu' would
all coincide with the infinitive after that sound shift. The 2nd and 3rd
persons were formed with an 'i' in it (e.g. 'hilpis', 'hilpid') and where
thus subject to Umlaut. So the 'i'->'e' sound shift didn't affect them and
they stay different until today. Imperative forms 'wirp' and 'hilp' would
have been subject to the 'i'->'e' sound shift too. But in closed syllables
'nim' and 'giƀ' would lead to 'nimm' and 'giff'. They would only lead to
'nehm' and 'geev' if the syllables would have been open. It's not
impossible, that besides 'nim' and 'giƀ' based on dialect (most of our
knowledge of Old Saxon is based on documents from the southern periphery and
we know few about the northern dialects) there where different forms (e.g.
'nima' and 'giƀa'), that would explain the modern forms of 'nehm' and
'geev'. Another explanation would be, that the singular imperative forms
were adjusted to the plural.
And in the end we are where we were right at the start: Most likely it's a
matter of dialect.

Marcus Buck

•

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