Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words Slip sliding away
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
The difference between weak and strong verbs in English appears to date back to proto-Germanic, where the -d- inflexion arose. It does not appear to be related to weak inflexions in other Indo-European languages: e.g. Greek had a perfect using -k-, and Latin used -v-.
Proto-Indo-European probably didn't have a weak inflexion at all. I've got to admit this is more complicated than I understand and I would need to study several of my geet big thick books some more to get a handle on it. But basically, the sing-sang-sung kind of pattern was regular at the proto-Indo-European level.
It is theorized to derive from pre-Indo-European accent patterns, changing the vowels. I really should know more of this.
P.S. Hi.
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,423Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 1,136 guests, and 3 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 24
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,593tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,922Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org