Renfrew's Celtic Scenario

[Stanley Friesen]

At 09:26 AM 3/12/00 +0000, petegray wrote:
>I'm not so sure.

>Proto-Germanic had a new formation for weak verbs, and in strong verbs the
>pattern:
>     present                 e grade
>     preterite singular  o grade
>     preterite plural      zero grade
>     (and past participle zero grade, though that's not relevant here)

>Later phonetic changes and analogical levelling have obscured the system
>somewhat, and I admit there are problems, especially with class 6 verbs, but
>I don't see that this is "obviously heterogeneous".   The system is based on
>the IE pattern reflected in Greek and I-I perfect.  Even the
>preterite-presents could all go back to the perfect, I think.

That is certainly the *majority* case.  But there are just enough irregular
verbs with remnants of the 'aorist' in Germanic languages to require its
prior existence in some predecessor of Proto-Germanic.  (I seem to remember
even having run across a handful of s-aorists).

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com