User:Dghmonwiskos/Ideas for the development of Proto-Germanic

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Verbs[edit]

Reconstructions of Proto-Germanic show a verb system with two tenses: the past and present tense. The way these tenses would have been formed was what distinguished between two categories: "Weak" verbs (which formed their past tense with a derivative of the suffix *dedē, meaning "he was doing, he was making") and "Strong" verbs (which formed their past tense by changing the grade of the stem, and in some cases reduplicating the initial syllable). This system would have been current at around 500 BC, meaning that there are at least 2000 years between PIE and PGmc as we reconstruct them. Here I intend to detail the changes in the verb system from PIE to PGmc.

  1. PIE (c.2500BC)
  2. PreGmc (c.2000BC)
  3. EGmc (c.1000BC)
  4. LGmc (c.500BC)
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