Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/-naną
Proto-Germanic
editEtymology
editReconstructed by Ringe[1] from an alternating suffix *-nō- (singular) ~ *-na- (nonsingular), from Proto-Indo-European *-néh₂- ~ *-nh₂-, from n-infix presents to laryngeal-final roots that were reanalysed as a separate suffix (as in several other branches).
Pronunciation
editVerb
edit*-naną
- Forms fientive verbs, with a sense of 'to become (the base)'.
Inflection
editThese verbs are always intransitive, so there are no passive forms. They seemed to have originally lacked a past participle as well.
Conjugation of *-naną (weak class 4)
Derived terms
editDescendants
editThis suffix was preserved as a separate class only in Gothic. In Old High German, it mostly merged with the third weak class, while in the other descendants it merged with the second weak class.
References
edit- ^ Ringe, Donald (2006) From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1)[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN