< Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic

Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/-naną

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed words and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Etymology

Reconstructed 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

  • IPA(key): /nɑ.nɑ̃/

Verb

*-naną

  1. Forms fientive verbs, with a sense of 'to become (the base)'.

Inflection

These verbs are always intransitive, so there are no passive forms. They seemed to have originally lacked a past participle as well.

Derived terms

<a class='CategoryTreeLabel CategoryTreeLabelNs14 CategoryTreeLabelCategory' href='/wiki/Category:Proto-Germanic_class_4_weak_verbs' title='Category:Proto-Germanic class 4 weak verbs'>Proto-Germanic class 4 weak verbs</a>

Descendants

This 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

  1. Ringe, Don (2006) From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, Oxford University Press
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