[gothic-l] Re: Digest Number 828

[gazariah]

Gerry,

The Germanic languages all show a lot of restructuring and
suppletivism in their conjugations of "to be."  (Suppletivism means
using two roots to make up the forms of one verb, like 'go'
and 'went' in English.) So maybe it's not too surprising that no
cognate of 'be'(from IE *bheu-) shows up in Gothic.

What interests me is the absence of Verner's Law /z/ < /s/ in the
preterite of 'wisan'. (The /z/ changed to /r/ in all Germanic
languages but Gothic. This accounts for 'was'/'were' in English.
Modern German, for example, has restructured the preterite of "to be"
using the /r/ forms: ich war, du warst, er war, etc.)

How do Gothic shcolars account for these Gothic preterite forms
with /s/? If it's restructuring, Gothic seems to have moved quite
fast.

Gerry, if you're the guy who has written riddles in Gothic, it would
be foolish pedantry to put in so many (explanations). I do this for
others who care to follow along.

Regards,
Gazariah


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