East Germanic Strong Verb

Indo-European

The Indo-European vowel-alternations could be as follows:

ei — oi — i

eu — ou — u

e — o — (zero)

These are all the same. An alternation between e - o - — (zero)

o — ō — a

eh₃ - oh₃ - h₃

Where ''h₃'' is a Laryngeal . The important point is that all these classes are one and the same from an I-E point of view.

Germanic

In Germanic, these became the following classes:

ī — ai — i

iu — au — u/o

e/i — a — u/o

a — ō — a

In the last class there was also a lengthened grade with ''ē''

In Gothic we find these forms:

dreiban (ei = ī) — draif (3sing) — dribun (3pl) — dribans (past participle)

biudan — bauþ — budun — budans

hilpan (from ---helpan) — halp — hulpun — hulpans

qiman (from ---qeman) — qam — qemun (e = ē) — qumans

faran — for (o = ō) — forun (o = ō) — farans

In addition, we find a class of reduplicating verbs, with or without vowel alteration:

haitan — haihait (=hehait) — haihaitun (=hehaitun) — haitans

tekan — taitok — taitokun — tekans

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East Germanic Strong Verb