The Germanic language family is one of the language groups which resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It in turn divided into North, West and East, Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern languages, most importantly: Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish (North); English, German and Dutch (West); and Gothic (East). The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ...

The Germanic verb system lends itself to both synchronic and diachronic comparative analysis. This overview article is intended to lead into a series of specialist articles discussing historical aspects of these verbs, showing how they developed out of PIE, and how they came to have their present diversity.

Wikipedia articles relating to Germanic verbs

Specialist subsidiary and related articles are: Germanic weak verb, Preterite-present verb, West Germanic strong verb, East Germanic strong verb, North Germanic strong verb, Indo-European copula; Go (verb). In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that form their preterites and past participles by means of a dental suffix, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound. ... The preterite-present verbs are a small group of anomalous verbs in the Germanic languages. ... In the Germanic languages, strong verbs are those which mark their past tenses by means of ablaut. ... This planned new article will describe the verb in Gothic parallel to the article West Germanic strong verb. ... This planned new article will describe the verb in Norse and in the modern Scandinavian languages, parallel to the article West Germanic strong verb. ... A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English verb to be. ... The verb go is highly irregular, and is the only suppletive verb in English apart from be. ...

For the verb in particular Germanic languages, see: English grammar, English verbs, English irregular verbs, List of English irregular verbs, German grammar, Dutch grammar. English grammar is the study of grammar in the English language. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... English has a large number of irregular verbs. ... This is a list of irregular verbs in the English language. ... German grammar is the study of grammar in the German language. ... This page will attempt to outline the grammar of Dutch. ...

For other aspects of Germanic verbs, see the articles Ablaut, Umlaut, Wandel, Verner's law and grammatischer Wechsel. In linguistics, the process of ablaut (from German ab- off + Laut sound) is a vowel change accompanying a change in grammatic function. ... Ä ä Ö ö Ü ü The term umlaut is used for two closely related notions: a special kind of vowel modification and a particular diacritic mark. ... In linguistics, the German word Wandel (movement) is used to designate a fronting of a vowel caused by assimilation to following a nasal or by a following w. ... Verners law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s and *x, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively *b, *d, *z and *g. ... In historical linguistics, the German term Grammatischer Wechsel (grammatical alternation) refers to the effects of Verners law when viewed synchronically within the paradigm of a Germanic verb. ...

General articles are: Verb, Regular verb, Irregular verb, Copula, Principal parts, Infinitive, Past tense, Present tense, Future tense, Suppletion. A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (to decompose (itself), to glitter), or a state of being (exist, live, soak, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... A regular verb is a verb whose conjugation can be predicted given a few verb forms (principal parts) and a few rules. ... In contrast to regular verbs, irregular verbs are those verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the languages in which they occur. ... The word copula originates from the Latin noun for a link or tie that connects two different things. ... In language learning, the principal parts of a verb are the series of key forms which the student has to learn by heart in order to be able to conjugate the verb through all its forms. ... In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present Contents // Categories: Grammatical... In linguistics, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by a verb as not having happened yet, but expected to in the future. ... In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is the use as an inflected form of a word of an entirely different word that is not cognate to the uninflected form. ...

Types of verbs in Germanic

The Germanic verb system carried two innovations over the previous Indo-European verb system: Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

1. Simplification to two tenses: present (also conveying future meaning) and preterite (expressing or describing a past action or condition).
2. Development of a new way of indicating the preterite and past participle, using a dental suffix.

Later Germanic languages developed further tenses periphrastically, that is, using auxiliary verbs, but the constituent verbs of even the most elaborate periphrastic constructions are still only either in present or preterite (cf I would have had with would in preterite). The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ...

Germanic verbs fall into two broad types, strong and weak. Elements of both are present in the preterite-present verbs. Despite various irregularities, most verbs fall into one of these categories. Only two verbs are completely irregular, being composed of parts of more than one Indo-European verb.

Strong verbs

See specialist articles: West Germanic strong verb, East Germanic strong verb, North Germanic strong verb. In the Germanic languages, strong verbs are those which mark their past tenses by means of ablaut. ... This planned new article will describe the verb in Gothic parallel to the article West Germanic strong verb. ... This planned new article will describe the verb in Norse and in the modern Scandinavian languages, parallel to the article West Germanic strong verb. ...

Strong (or vocalic) verbs display vowel gradation or ablaut, and may also be reduplicating. These are the direct descendants of the verb in Proto-Indo-European, and are paralleled in other Indo-European languages such as Greek: leipo leloipa elipon. All Indo-European verbs which passed into Germanic as functioning verbs were strong, apart from the small group of irregular verbs discussed below. In linguistics, the process of ablaut (from German ab- off + Laut sound) is a vowel change accompanying a change in grammatic function. ... Reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ...

Examples in Old English:

• fallan — feoll — feollon — (ge)fallen
• hātan — hēt — hēton — (ge)hāten

Or Old High German:

• fallan — fiall — fiallun — (gi)fallan
• heizan — hiaz — hiazun — (gi)heizan

In Proto-Germanic consonant alternations known as grammatischer Wechsel developed, as a result of Verner's law. An example in modern Dutch: Verners law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s and *x, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively *b, *d, *z and *g. ...

• verliezen — verloor — verloren

Weak verbs

Main article: Germanic weak verb In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that form their preterites and past participles by means of a dental suffix, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound. ...

Weak (or consonantal) verbs are those which use a dental suffix, either -t- or -d-. In Germanic, the strong verb system ceased to be productive and the consonantal preterite became the only productive conjugation in all the Germanic languages. All new verbs in any modern Germanic language are consonantal. Most of the original strong verbs have since become weak. This is therefore the standard "regular" verb group in the modern languages.

Preterite-presents

Main article: Preterite-present verb The preterite-present verbs are a small group of anomalous verbs in the Germanic languages. ...

These verbs have a present tense looking like a vocalic preterite, originally from an Indo-European perfect, and preterite with dental suffix. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

Suppletive verbs

Main articles: Indo-European copula; Go (verb). A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English verb to be. ... The verb go is highly irregular, and is the only suppletive verb in English apart from be. ...

A small number of Germanic verbs show the phenomenon of suppletion, that is, they are made up from more than one stem. The verb to be has its forms from four IE roots (*es-, *er-, *bhu- and *wes-). In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is the use as an inflected form of a word of an entirely different word that is not cognate to the uninflected form. ...

The phenomenon of verb paradigms being composites of parts of different earlier verbs can best be observed in an example from recorded language history. The English verb to go was always irregular, having the past tense eode in Old English; in the 15th century, however, this was replaced by a new irregular past tense went. In fact went is originally the past tense of the verb to wend (compare wend-went with send-sent); today wend has the regular past tense wended.

IE optative

A special case is *wiljana (to want, will), which has its present forms from an IE optative.

Regular and irregular verbs

When teaching modern languages, it is usually most useful to have a narrow definition of a "regular verb" and treat all other groups as irregular. See the article irregular verb. By this standard, English has 283 irregular verbs, and only the most straight-forward weak verb counts as regular. (In English, the strong verb system has collapsed so far that all strong verbs can be regarded as irregular.) In contrast to regular verbs, irregular verbs are those verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the languages in which they occur. ...

In historical linguistics however we seek patterns to explain anomalies and tend only to speak of "irregular verbs" when these patterns cannot be found. Most of the 283 English "irregular" verbs belong to historical categories which are regular within their own terms. However, the suppletive verbs are irregular by any standards, and for most purposes the preterite-presents can also count as irregular. Beyond this, isolated irregularities occur in all Germanic languages in both the strong and the weak verb system.