Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/ga-
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Proto-West Germanic
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Germanic *ga-.
Prefix
[edit]*ga-[1]
- used as an intensifier for verbs, indicating completeness or perfectivity
- forms nouns or adjectives of association or similarity; co-
- forms nouns and verbs with the sense of "result" or "process"
- forms past participles or participle adjectives from verbs
Reconstruction notes
[edit]Because of its perfective sense, it eventually became used as a marker of the past participle in the West Germanic languages.
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Old English: ġe-, i- — Late West Saxon; gæ- — Anglian; gi- — Northumbrian; ie- — Kentish
- Old Frisian: ge-, gi-, je-, ie-, e-, i-, a-
- Old Saxon: gi-, i-, ge-, ga-
- Old Dutch: gi-, ge-
- Old High German: gi-, ga-, ki-, ka-
References
[edit]- ^ Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 206: “PWGmc. *ga-”