Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/-aną
Proto-Germanic
Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European *-onom, from *-o- (thematic vowel) + *-nom (verbal noun suffix). The few remaining athematic verbs (which were irregular in Proto-Germanic) accordingly used only *-ną. Cognate with Sanskrit -अन (-ana).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɑ.nɑ̃/
Verb
*-aną
- The infinitive suffix of strong verbs.
Usage notes
This suffix was not productive in Proto-Germanic.
Inflection
Strong verbs consist of four principal parts: the present stem (1), the past singular stem (2), the general past stem (3) and the past participle (4). The seven classes of strong verb differ only in how their principal parts are formed.
| active voice | passive voice | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | indicative | subjunctive | imperative | indicative | subjunctive | |
| 1st singular | *1-ō | *1-aų | — | *1-ai | ? | |
| 2nd singular | *1-izi | *1-aiz | *1- | *1-azai | *1-aizau | |
| 3rd singular | *1-idi | *1-ai | *1-adau | *1-adai | *1-aidau | |
| 1st dual | *1-ōz | *1-aiw | — | — | — | |
| 2nd dual | *1-adiz | *1-aidiz | *1-adiz | — | — | |
| 1st plural | *1-amaz | *1-aim | — | *1-andai | *1-aindau | |
| 2nd plural | *1-id | *1-aid | *1-id | *1-andai | *1-aindau | |
| 3rd plural | *1-andi | *1-ain | *1-andau | *1-andai | *1-aindau | |
| past tense | indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| 1st singular | *2- | *3-į̄ | ||||
| 2nd singular | *2-t | *3-īz | ||||
| 3rd singular | *2- | *3-ī | ||||
| 1st dual | *3-ū | *3-īw | ||||
| 2nd dual | *3-udiz | *3-īdiz | ||||
| 1st plural | *3-um | *3-īm | ||||
| 2nd plural | *3-ud | *3-īd | ||||
| 3rd plural | *3-un | *3-īn | ||||
| present | past | |||||
| participles | *1-andz | *4-anaz | ||||
Derived terms
Proto-Germanic strong verbs
Descendants
- Old English: -an
- Old Frisian: -a
- Old Saxon: -an
- Old Dutch: -an
- Old High German: -an
- Old Norse: -a
- Gothic: -𐌰𐌽 (-an)
References
- Fulk, R.D. (2018). A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 252–253; 284–285.