…………………..Classification of Languages………………….

There are three main methods of classifying languages: genetic, areal and typological.

(1) A genetic classification groups together languages which are presumed to have arisen
form a common source, such as the Romance languages or Germanic languages.

(2) An areal classification groups together languages sharing features which have spread by
borrowing across a region.

(3) A typological classification divides languages into types based on shared properties which
are not due to common ancestry or geographical contact, such as agglutinating languages.

…………………………Indo-European Languages……………………….

The Indo-European Languages form the language family or family of families of which
English is a member. It constitutes the most extensively spoken group of languages in the
world.

The view that similarities among certain languages of Europe and Asia resulted from a
common origin had attracted scholars for several centuries before the British scholar Sir
William Jones suggested in 1786 that Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek shared features derived
from ‘some common source which, perhaps, no longer exists’. He guessed that the Germanic
and even the Celtic languages had the same source. His postulated ‘common source’ is now
called Proto-Indo-European (PIE) or simply Indo-European (IE).

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is considered to have vanished soon after 2000 BC without

leaving written records. The era of IE is usually dated from c.3000 BC until shortly after 2000
BC. The forms of PIE words are known only indirectly from their reflection in the earliest
written records in IE languages.

The Indo-European language families. PIE gave rise to several ‘families’, related by common
descent from one or other early offshoot. These are often classified as satem or centum
languages. It was once thought that the centum group (including Latin and English) was
western, and the satem group (including Sanskrit) was eastern, but Tocharian, deciphered in
the 20th century, is the easternmost IE language, and it is a centum languages.

The ongoing IE language families are:

The satem languages

(1)Indo-Iranian, including modern Persian and such Indic languages as Bengali, Gujarati,
and Hindi, Romany. Sanskrit and prekarit

(2) Thraco-Phrygian, perhaps represented by modern Armenian.

(3) Illiryan, perhaps represented by modern Albanian.

(4) Balto-Slavonic, including modern Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Russian,
Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Serbo-Croat etc.

The centum languages :

(1) Celtic, including modern Briton, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. The Celts were
spread over a huge territory in Europe, before the beginning of the Christian era, Celtic
languages were spoken over the greater part of central and western Europe. By the latter part
of the 3rd century B.C. Celts had spread to Asia Minor. Today the Celtic languages are
restricted to a few relatively small areas the Atlantic Ocean in the northwest coast of Europe.

(2) Germanic, including English, Danish, German, Swedish. Norwegian etc.

(3) Hellenic , including modern Greek. In ancient times there were many Hellenic dialects,
among them Aelic, Doric, Attic. Most of the local dialects spoken in Greece today, despite of
their ancient literature the Greeks have not had a modern literary language.

(4) Italic including Latin and its Romance descendents, such as French, Provencal, Catalan
and Romanian. In ancient Italy, the main Indo-European language was Latin. Whose chief
city was Rome. Latin became the most important language of the peninsula. Spoken Latin
survives in the Romance languages. All the Romance languages such as Italian, Spanish,
Catalan, Galician, French, Romanian are development of vulgar Latin.

The Germanic family stems from an unrecorded offshoot of IE known as Primitive

Germanic.

The Germanic languages fall into three groups:

(1) East Germanic represented by Gothic which ceased to be spoken in the 16 c. (2) North
Germanic, represented by the Scandinavian languages.

(3) West Germanic represented by modern German, Yiddish, Dutch, Frisian, Afrikaans, and
English.

………………………The earliest period of Germanic language Proto

Germanic………………………….
The history of Germanic group begins with the appearance of Proto-Germanic language.
Proto-Germanic is the language ancestor of the parent-language of the Germanic group. It is
supposed to have split from related Indo-European tongues sometimes between the 15 th and
10th century BC.
PG is entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form. In the 19 th
century it was reconstructed by methods of comparative linguistics from written evidence in
descendant languages.

It is believed that at the earliest stages of history PG was fundamentally one language,
though dialectally colored. In its later stages dialectal differences grow, so that towards the
beginning of our era Germanic appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects.
Dialectal differentiation increased with the migration and geographical expansion of the
Teutons caused by overpopulation and etc.

The first mention of Germanic tribes was made by Pitheas, a Greek historian and geographer.
In the 1st century B.C. In commentaries on the Gallic war Julius Caesar described some
militant Germanic tribes and Tacitus.

Towards the beginning of our era the common period of Germanic history came to an end.
The Teutons had extended over a larger territory and the PG language broke into parts- East
Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic languages.

East Germanic

The East Germanic subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the
beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were Goths. The Gothic
language now dead, has been preserved in written records of the 4th-6th centuries The Goths
were the first of the Teutons to become Christians. In the 4th century Ulfilas, a West Gothic
bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greek into Gothic. It is written on red
parchment with silver and golden letters and it is known as the SILVER CODEX. It is one of
the earliest texts in the languages of the Germanic group. In 16th century in the Crimea last
manuscripts were found in Gothic.

The other East Germanic languages, all of which are now dead, have left no written traces.
Some of their tribal names have survived in place-names, which reveal the directions of their
migrations: Bornholm and Burgunday go back to the East Germanic tribe of Burgundians;
Andalusia from Vandals; Lombardy form Langobards.

North Germanic

The Teutons who stayed in Scandinavia after the departure of the Goths gave rise to the
North Germanic subgroup of languages. The speech of the North Germanic tribes showed
little dialectal variation until the 9th century and is regarded as a sort of common North
Germanic parent-language called Old Norse or Old Scandinavian.

The principal linguistic differentiation in Scandinavia corresponded to the political division

into Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The earliest written records in Old Danish, Old
Norwegian and Old Swedish date from the 13th century. After that Danish and then Swedish
developed into national literary language.

Norwegian was the last to develop into independent national language. As a result in the 19 th
century there emerged two varieties of the Norwegian tongue: the state or bookish tongue
riksmal and a rural variety- landsmal. At the present time two varieties tend to fuse into a
single form of language nynorsk (New Norwegian).

In addition to the three languages on the mainland, the North Germanic subgroup includes
two more languages: Icelandic and Faroese.

Old Icelandic written records date from the 12th and 13th centuries and age of literary
flourishing. The most important records are: the ELDER EDDA- a collection of heroic songs
of the 12th century, the YOUNGER EDDA(PROSE) and the Old Icelandic sagas.

West Germanic Group of Languages.

Around the beginning of our era the would-be West Germanic tribes dwelt in the lowlands
between the Oder and the Elbe bordering on the Slavonian tribes in the East and the Celtic
tribes in the South. The dialectical differentiation of West Germanic was probably quite
distinct even the beginning of our era since Pliny and Tacitus described them under three
tribal names. After their migrations of the 4th and 5th c. the West Germanic included several
tribes.

The Franconians, and they spread up the Rhine, and are subdivided into Low, Middle and
High Franconians.

The Anglo-Frisian group, the Jutes and Saxons inhabited the costal area of the modern
Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the southern part of Denmark. A group
of tribes known as High Germans lived in the mountainous regions of the Federal Republic
of Germany and the name as High Germans as contrasted to Low Germans.

The High Germans included a number of tribes whose names are known since the early
Middle Ages: the Alemanians, the Swabians, the Bavarians and others.

The Franconians dialects were spoken in the extreme North of the Empire but later they
developed into Dutch-the language of the Low Countries and Flemish-the language of
Flanders. The earliest texts in Low Franconian date from 10th; 12th c. records represent the
earliest Old Dutch. The modern language of the Netherlands formerly called Dutch and its
variant in Belgium, known as the Flemish dialect. Netherlandish is spoken by almost 20
million people.

About three hundred years ago the Dutch language was brought to South Africa and called
Afrikaans. Writing in Afrikaans began as late as the end of the 19th c. Today Afrikaans is the
mother-tongue of over four million Afrikaners.
The High German dialects consolidated into a common language known as Old High
German. The first written record in OHG date from 8th and 9th c. In the 12th c. High German
has intermixed with Middle and High Franconian. The Written Standard of New High
German was established after the Reformation. The total number of German-speaking
people approaches 100 million. It is also spoken in Alsace and Lorraine in France.

Another offshoot of High German is Yiddish. It grow from High German dialects. These
dialects blended with elements of Hebrew and Slavonic. Yiddish was exported from
Germany to many other countries: Russia, Poland the Baltic states and America.

At the later stage of the great migration period-in the 5th c. a group of West Germanic tribes
started out on their invasion of the British Isles. The dialects in the British Isles developed
into English language. From the 13th to the 17th c. it extended to other parts of the British
Isles. The first English records have come down from the 7th c. and in the history of writing
is date in the West Germanic subgroup.

The Frisians and the Saxons stayed on continent. Frisian has survived as a local dialect in
Friesland. The earliest record dating from the 13th c. In the Middle Ages the continental
Saxons formed a powerful tribe in the Elbe. Old Saxons known in written form from the
records of the 9th c. has survived as one of the Low German dialects.

…………………………………..….Stress in PG……………………………………..

The position of the stress was free and movable, which means that it could fail on any
syllable of the word-a root-morpheme, an affix or an ending.

The stress was now fixed on the first syllable, which was usually the root of the word and
sometimes the prefix; the other syllables- suffixes and endings-were unstressed. The stress
could no longer move either in form-building or word building.

The main accent commonly falls on the root-morpheme, and is never shifted in building
grammatical forms. For example English; be’come, be’coming, over’come….

The heavy fixed word stress inherited from PG has played an important role in the
development of the Germanic languages. The differences between the sounds in stressed
position were preserved and emphasised , whereas the contrasts between the unaccented
sounds were weakened and lost. And after that it affects the suffixes, were weakened and
dropped, the reconstructed PG word ‘fish’, with its descendants in Old Germanic languages:

PG /fiskaz/, Gt /isks/, OE fisc…

.......................................Word structure in PG and PIE………………………………………

Originally, in Early PG the word consisted of three main component parts; the root, the
stem-suffix and the grammatical ending. The stem suffix was a means of word derivation, the
ending – a marker of the grammatical form. In Late PG the old stem – suffixes lost their
derivational force and merged with other components of the word, usually with the endings.
The word was simplified; the three morpheme structure was transformed into a two-
morpheme structure.

Most nouns and adjectives in PG, and also many verbs, had Stem-forming suffixes: according
to stem-suffixes they fell into groups, or classes; a-stems, i-stems, o-stems, etc.

Groups of nouns with different stem-suffixes made distinct types of declension. The original
grammatical endings were alike for most nouns.

………….…….Consonants: Proto-Germanic consonant shift………………….

The consonants in Germanic look ’shifted’ as compared with the consonants of non-
Germanic languages. The alternations of the consonants took place in PG, and the resulting
sounds were inherited by the languages of the Germanic group.

The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of Phonetic law by Jacob
Grimm in early 19th century and are often called Grimm’s Law. It is also known as the First
or Proto-Germanic consonant shift.

 By the terms of Grimm’s law voiceless plosives ყრუ ხშული p-t-k developed in PG
into voiceless fricativesnapralpvani ყრი მსკდომები f-th-x for example Latin-pes
/Russian- пена, Latin-tres/Russian-три, Latin-cor/Russian-сердце, Swedish-fot /NE-
foot, Sw-tre/NE-three, German-holz/ NE-holt. Instead of becoming (yru mskdomi)
There are some exceptions in act 1. Voiceless plosives p-t-k which became voiceless f-
th-x sometimes were violated such as p-b, t-d, k-g, or v, th(vcd) y. He could not
explain that exceptions.
 IE voiced plosives b-d-g (mzhxeri xshuli)were shifted to voiceless plosives p-t-k for
example Latin-labare/ Russian-слабый, Latin-edere/Russian-еда, Latin iugum/
Russian- иго, Germanic- schlafen/NE-sleep, Sw-tio/NE-two, Sw-ok/ NE-yoke. (D-t
Decem-desyat-ten, dental-tooth, g-k agriculture-acre, gene-kin)
 IE voiced aspirated plosives bh-dh-gh were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as
pure voiced plosives v/b-d-g. E.g Latin ferre/Russian-беру, Latin –medius/Russian-
делать, Latin-hostis/Russian-гость, Sw-broder/NE-brother, German-rot/NE-red, Sw-
gastNE-guest.

Another important series of consonant changes in PG was discovered in the late 19 th century
by Danish scholar Carl Varner. They are known as Varner’s Law. Varner’s law explains some
correspondence of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimm’s Law and were for a long
time regarded as exceptions. According to the Varner’s Law all the early PG voiceless
fricatives [f-th-x] which arose under Grimm’s Law, and also [s] inherited from PIE, became
voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; in the absence of these
conditions they remained voiceless. The voicing occurred in early PG at the time when the
stress was yet fixed on the root-morpheme. The process of voicing can be shown as a step in
a succession of consonant changes in prehistorical reconstructed forms.

Varner’s Law accounts for the appearance of voiced fricatives or its later modifications [d]
which ought to be expected under Grimm’s Law. In late PG, the phonetic conditions that
caused in voicing had disappeared: the stress had shifted to the first syllable.

Pater-fader-father

According to Verner’s law voiceless fricatives (f, th,x) became voiced if it was placed
between two vowels and the first vowel was unstressed.

………………………………………..Vowels………………………………………

Throughout history, beginning with PG, vowels displayed a strong tendency to change. They
underwent different kinds of alternations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and
independent.

Qualitative changes (raodenobrivi) affect the quality of the sound e.g. [o>a] or [p>f];
quantitative changes make long sounds short or short sounds long e.g. [i>i:].

Dependent changes are restricted to certain positions or phonetic conditions, for example, a
sound may change under the influence of the neighbouring sounds or in a certain type of
syllable. Independent changes also spontaneous or regular- take place irrespective of
phonetic conditions, i. e. they affect a certain sound in all positions.

From an early date the treatment of vowels was determined by the nature of word-stress. In
accented syllable the oppositions between vowels were carefully maintained and new
distinctive features were introduced, so that the number of stressed vowels grew.

In unaccented positions the original contrast between vowels were weakened or lost. As for
originally short vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their qualitative
distinctions and were often dropped in unstressed final syllables.

Strict differentiations of long and short vowels are commonly regarded as an important
characteristics of the Germanic group. While long vowels generally tended to become closer
and to diphthongize, short vowels, on the contrary, often changed into more open sounds.
IE short [o] changed in Germanic into the more open vowel [a] and thus ceased to be
distinguished from the original IE [a], in other words in PG they marged into [o] for example
nox-nahts- naht.

The margined of long vowels proceeded in the opposite direction: IE long [a] was narrowed
to [o:] and marged with [o:], for example mater-moder-mother.

In later PG and in separate Germanic languages the vowels displayed a tendency to

positional assimilative changes: the pronunciation of a vowel was modified under the
influence of the following or preceding consonant; sometimes a vowel was approximated
more closely to the following vowel. The resulting sounds were phonetically conditioned
allophones which could eventually coincide with another phoneme or develop into a new
phoneme.

The earliest instance of progressive assimilation were common Germanic mutations: they
occurred in late PG before its disintergration or a short time after. In certain phonetic
conditions, namely before the nasal [n] and before [i] or [j] in the next syllable the short [e]
for example ventus-vindr-wind.

[i] and [u] remined or became close, while in the absence of these conditions the more open
allophones were used: [e] and [o]. Later, these phonetic conditions became irrelevant and the
allophones were phonologised. For example sunus-sunr-son; hurnan-horn-horn.

After the changes, in late PG, the vowel system contained the following sounds.

Short vowels: I e a o u

Long vowels: i: e: a: o: u:

Also we have diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [eu], [au] and [iu].

……………………………….Rhotacism……………………………….

In East Germanic, Proto-Germanic *z was maintained as z (or s in final position), but in

Northwest Germanic, *z generally, became r, e.g.: PG * maiz – ‘more’, Gothic maize, but
Old Norse meire, Old English ma:ra, Old High German me:ro.

Within Northwest Germanic, however, treatment of *z in final position varied dialectally: (a)
in North Germanic, it was maintained and appears as r; (b)in West Germanic, *z was
generally lost in final position : e.g.: PG *dagaz, Gothic dags, Old Norse dagr, Old High
German tag, Old English daeg; PG *wi:z or *wiz ‘we’.

Gothic weis, Old Norse ver, Old High German wir, Old English we:.
 ……………………………Gemination……………………………………..

Some changes were shared across major dialects but carried out to markedly differing degrees
or at different times. For example, in West Germanic all consonants (except r) preceded by a
short vowel and followed by j were geminated (doubled), but in North Germanic only velars
(k.g) were affected: compare PG satjanan ‘set’, Gothic satjan, Old Norse setja but Old English
settan.

PG lagjanan ‘lay’, Gothic lagjan, but Old North leggja,Old Saxon leggian.

………………….Palatal mutation/ i-j umlaut………………..

Palatal mutation is the evidence in North and West Germanic languages.

The most important series of vowel mutations, shared in varying degrees by all OE
languages, is known as “I or j umlaut” or “palatal mutation”. Palatal mutation is the fronting
and raising of vowels through the influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following syllable.
The formation of plural form of the words foot, mouse are the result of I umlaut.

Since the sound [i] and [j] were common in suffixes and ending, palatal mutation was of very
frequent occurrence. Practically all Early OE monothongs, as well as diphthongs except the
closest front [e] and [i] were palatalized in these phonetic conditions.

Due to the reduction of final syllables the conditions which caused palatal mutation, that is
[i] or [j], had disappeared in the most words by the age of writing. These sounds were
weakend to [e] or were lost.

The labialized front vowel [y] and [y:] arose through palatal mutation from [u] and [u:],
respectively, and turned into new phonemes, when the conditions that caused them had
disappeared. For example mus and mys. The diphthongs [ie. Ie:] were largely due to palatal
mutation and became phonemic in the same way, though soon they were confused with [y,
y:]. Other mutated vowels fell together with the exciting phonemes, e.g. [oe] from [o]
merged with [e, ae], which arose though palatal mutation, merged with [ae:] from splitting.

Palatal mutation led to the growth of new vowel interchanges and to the increased varability
of the root-morphemes: owning to palatal mutation many related words and grammatical
forms acquired new root-vowel interchanges. For example dje-mot-meeting. A verb derived
from the noun-stem with the help of the suffix –j- sandjan-send. Likewise we find variants of
morphemes with an interchanges of root-vowels in the grammatical forms mus-mys, mouse-
mice, since the plural was originally formed by adding iz.
 …………………………….Velar mutation……………………………..

Another kind of change referred of umlaut is Early OE is the so-called “velar-mutation”

found in some of the OE dialects. It was caused by the influence of back vowels in the
diphthongs. Swestor-sweostor-sister/ caeru-caru-cearu-care.

………………High Germanic consonant shift……………………

The first or Germanic Sound-Shifting took place at a very early date; the second or High
German sound-shifting, on the other hand, was not completed until as late as the 6th century.

This second process is very important and while studying Modern German, we must consider
it in more detail. Taking English as typical of a Germanic language unaffected by the High
Germanic sound-shifting, the following examples will show the changes which the mutes
have undergone in passing into High German. We must carefully distinguish three possible
positions of the mute when it occurs at the beginning of a word initially, in the middle-
medially, at the end-finally.

Dentals 1

T ----Z ց Tide –zeit Ten-zohn

Tale-zahl Tongue- zunge

SS better-besser
Water-wasser
To mate- messen

R, tr, s, sr heart-herz Set-setzen

Lot-los Hot-heisz

Th –D thick-dick Thorn-dorn
Brother-broder South-sud(en)
Hearth-herd

D-T day-tag deaf-taub

wade-waten tide-zeit

Labials
p-pf path-pfad pepper-pfeffer
paw-pfote pillar-pfeiler

p-f, ff, pf pipe-pfeife help-helfen

soap-seife step-stufe

(b) f (v) – f(v) finger-finger Full-voll

Folk-volk Fowl-vogel(birf)
 Gutturals
k-k can-kann
knot-knoten
clothe-kleiden
k-ch make-machen book-buch
week-woche bleak-bleich
h-h(ch) heart-herz horn-horn
beech-buche
g-g guest-gast gift-gabe

Exceptions
T usually remains unchanged in the following consonantal groups:
Tr: true-treu Ft: often-oft
Trust-trauen soft-sanft
Cht: sight-gesicht st: stone-stein
Might-macht master-meister
D remains unchanged when preceded by N, and also in a few words when preceded by L or
R
Nd, ld, rd: wind-wind round-rund
Bold-bald murder-mord
P remains unchanged when preceded by S, in foreign origin words:
Sp: spin-spinnen
Wasp-wespe
B, when preceded by M, is assimilated:
Mb-mm: lamb-lamm
Timber-zimmer
Climb-klimmen

…..………..არსებითი სახელი ძველ გერმანიკულ ენებში………………….

არსებითი სახელის მორფოლოგია გერმანიკულ ენებში ეფუძნება ინდოევროპული

ენებისათვის მახასიათებელ პრინციპს: სირტყვის სამნაწილიან სტრუქტურას,
კერძოდ, არსებითი სახელი პროტო-გერმანიკულში შედგებოდა სამი ელემენტისაგან:
ძირი (ლექსიკური მნიშვნელობის მატარებელი), ფუძისეული სუფიქსი (რომლის
მეშვეობითაც ხდებოდა სახელთა სემანტიკურ ჯგუფებად დაყოფა) და გრამატიკული
დაბოლოება (ფლექსია). თუმცა აღნიშნული სამნაწილიანი სტრუქტურა ჩვენამდე
მოღწეულ ძველ გერმანიკულ ენათა ხელნაწერებში აღარ ფიქსირდება; როგორც
ცნობილია, მახვილის პირველ მარცვალზე ფიქსირებამ პროტო-გერმანიკულში
გამოიწვია ბოლოკიდურა მარცვლების შესუსტება და რედუცირება, რამაც, თავის
მხრივ, გამოიწვია სიტყვის სამნაწილიანი სტრუქტურის რღვევა. მხოლოდ გოთურ
ენაში ვხვდებით ფუძისეულ სუფიქსს დატივისა და აკუზატივის მრავლობით
რიცხვში:
Dat. pl. wulf-a-m (suffix a) gast-i-m (suffix i) gib-o-m (suffix o) sun-u-m (suffix u)

Acc. pl. wulf- a-ns gast-i-ns gib-o-s sun-u-ns

gib-o –s ში ამოვარდნილია n.

ფუძისეული სუფიქსის სემანტიკა დაკარგულია, ერთადერთი ჯგუფი, რომელშიც

ვლინდება ფუძისეული სუფიქსის სემანტიკა არის –რ სუფიქსის მქონე არსებითი
სახელები; აღნიშნული სახელები ნათესაობის აღმნიშვნელია ყველა ინდოევროპულ
ენაში : ლატ. pater, ძვ.ინგლ. dohtor , რუს.дочь-дочери.

გერმანიკულ ენებში არსებობდა შემდეგი ტიპის არსებითი სახელის ფუძეები:

ხმოვნის შემცველი სუფიქსით: -a, -o:, -i, -u.

ფუძეები n-ზე და სხვა თანხმოვნებზე: -s.-r, nd.

ძირეული მორფემისაგან შემდგარი სახელები.

ზოგიერთ სუფიქსს ჰქონდა თავისი ვარიანტები. მაგ. გოთურში: a-ja, wa; o-jo, wo; n-
in, -an; da სხვ.

ხმოვანფუძისეული სუფიქსის მქონე სახელებს ჰქონდათ ძლიერი ბრუნება, n

ფუძისეული სუფიქსის არსებითებს კი სუსტი ბრუნება.

ინდოევროპული ენების მსგავსად ძველ გერმანიკულ ენებში არსებობდა სამი სქესი:

მამრობითი, მდედრობითი და საშუალი.

ინდოევროპულ ენებში სქესის კატეგორია მოგვიანებით წარმოიქმნა და დაედო უკვე

არსებულ კლსაიფიკაციას არსებითი სახელისა ფუძის ტიპის მიხედვით. ცალკეული
სქესი ასოცირდებოდა გარკვეულ ფუძისეულ სუფიქსთან,

მაგ. ინდოევროპული –ო-სუფიქსის მქონე სახელები (გერმანიკული ა-სუფიქსი) იყო

მამრობითი და საშუალი სქესის,

-ო -ფუძისეული სუფიქსის მქონე სახელები მხოლოდ მდედრობითი სქესის,

-ი - სუფიქსიანი სახელები ყველა სქესის,

-უ -სუფიქსიანი მამრობითი და მდედრობითი სქესის.

ნ-ფუძისეული სუფიქსის მქონე სახელები სამივე სქესის შეიძლებოდა ყოფილიყო. რ-

სუფიქსის მქონე სახელები, ისევე როგორც ძირეული მორფემის შემცველი სახელები
მიეკუთვნებოდა მამრობით და მდედრობით სქესს

სავარაუდოდ, ინდოევროპული 8 ბრუნვა პროტო-გერმანიკულში 6 ბრუნვამდე

დავიდა, თუმცა ძველ გერმანიკულ ენებში არსებით სახელში ხვდებით 4 ბრუნვას;
მაგალითისათვის ავიღოთ მამრობითი სქესის ა ფუძისეული სუფიქსის მქონე
არსებითი სახელის აღდგენილი პარადიგმა:

მხოლობითი მრავლობითი

Nom. dagaz dagoz

Gen. dagas dago

Dat. dagai dagamiz

Acc.daga daganz

........................ზედსართავი სახელი ძველ გერმანიკულ ენებში...................

გერმანიკულ ენებში ზედსართავი სახელის ბრუნება განსხვავდება არსებითის

ბრუნებისაგან შემდეგი მახასიათებლებით:

განსხვავებით არსებითისაგან, ცალკეულმა ზედსართავმა სახელმა შეიძლება

იბრუნოს როგორც ძლიერი ბრუნებით (ანუ ნაცვალსახელური ბრუნებით ან როგორც
ხმოვანსუფიქსიანმა არსებითმა) ასევე სუსტი ბრუნებით (ანუ, როგორც ნ სუფიქსის
მქონე არსებითმა სახელმა). ბრუნების ტიპს განსაზღვრავს ზედსართავის სინტაქსური
ფუნქცია და კონტექსტი: იმ შემთხვევაში თუ ზედსართავი სახელი არის
ერთადაერთი მსაზღვრელი, მაშინ მას აქვს ძლიერი ბრუნება, თუ ზედსართავს წინ
უსწრებს სხვა მსაზღვრელი ( მაგ. ჩვენებითი ნაცვალსახელი) მაშინ მას აქვს სუსტი
ბრუნება. თუმცა არსებობდა გარკვეული ჯგუფი ზედსართავებისა, რომლებიც
იბრუნოდა მხოლოდ ერთი ტიპის ბრუნებით:

მაგ.: მხოლოდ ძლიერი ბრუნება ჰქონდათ შემდეგ გოთურ ზედსართავებს: alls

(ყოველი),, fulls(სავსე), halbs (ნახევარი), midjis(საშუალო), ganohs (საკმარისი).

მხოლოდ სუსტი ბრუნება ჰქონდათ: გოთურში ზედსართავებს: ibna (მსგავსი), taihswa

(მარჯვენა), ainaha (ერთადერთი); ყველა გერმანიკულ ენაში ზედსართავებს
შედარებით ხარისხში., ზოგიერთ შედგენილ ზედსართავს

საყურადრებოა, რომ მსგავსად არსებითი სახელისა ზედსარვის დაჯგუფება

ფუძისეული სუფიქსის ტიპით ხდება; ეს განპირობებულია იმით, რომ
ინდოევროპული ენების განვითარების ადრეულ ეტაპზე ზედსართავი და არსებითი
არ იყო დიფერენცირებული, ისინი ერთ კატეგორიაში ერთიანდებოდნენ და მსგავსი
პარადიგმა ჰქონდათ, მხოლოდ მოგვიანებით მოხდა არსებითისა და ზედსართავის
დიფერენცირება, ზედსართავთა ნაწილმა თავისი პარადიგმა ჩვენებითი
ნაცვალსახელის მიერთებით შექმნეს (ძლიერი ბრუნება), ნაწილი კი იბრუნოდა
როგორც ნ ფუძისეული სუფიქსის მქონე არსებითები (სუსტი ბრუნება).
განსხვავებით არსებითისაგან ზედსართავს ჰქონდა 5 ბრუნვა (ინსტრუმენტალურის
ან მოქმედებითის ჩათვლით)

fu

Case Weak declension Strong declension

Adjective Adjective
Singular Noun Noun
root M. N. F. root M. N. F.

Nom. guma -a -o -o dags -s -ø -a

Acc. guman -an -o -on dag -ana -ø -a

blind- blind-
Gen. gumins -ins -ons dagis -is -áizos

Dat. gumin -in -on daga -amma Ái

Plural    

Nom. gumans -ans -ona -ons dagos -ái -a -os

Acc. gumans -ans -ona -ons dagans -ans -a -os

blind- blind-
Gen. gumane -ane -ono dage -áize -áizo

Dat. gumam -am -om dagam -áim

ზედსართავის ხარისხების მაწარმოებელი სუფიქსები პროტო-გერმანიკულში იყო::

შედარებითი ხარისხი: iza, oza, აღმატებითი: ista, o:sta.

iza / ista გამოიყენებოდა სხვადასხვა ძირის მქონე ზედსართავებთან. ოზა/ო:სტა

ნაკლებად პროდუქტიული იყო და გამოიყენებოდა –a, -o: სუფიქსის მქონე
ზედსართავებთან.

არაწესიერი ზედსართავები:

gods batiza batists კარგი

ubils wairsiza ცუდი

mikils maiza maists ბევრი

leitils minniza minnists ცოტა

………………………....The Strong Verb System…………………………..

The arrangements of the strong verbs in seven classes reflect the earlier distinction. In verbs
of the first five classes, the present tense forms are continuations of active inflection in
accordance with their active/animate meanings, e.g. Class I Go. steigan 'climb', Class II
kiusan 'choose', Class III hilpan 'help', Class IV niman 'take, accept', Class V lisan 'read'; the
preterite is based at least in part on the perfect of Proto-Indo-European, which indicated
state as the result of completed action.

…………………….The Four Classes of Weak Verbs………………………….

The four classes of weak verbs are distinguished by their suffixes, and also by their meaning.

Class 1 has a -ja- suffix based on PIE -éye/o- with -a- from PIE -o- in the root, as in PGmc
lagjan 'lay' in contrast with PGmc ligan 'lie'; as in this verb they have causative or factitive
meaning. While many in this class are based on verbal roots, others are based on nominals,
such as hailjan 'heal'.

Class 2 has a suffix based on -ō- from PIE -ā- as in salbōn 'anoint' and are chiefly
denominatives; cf. OHG salfs 'a salve'.

Class 3 has an -ái- suffix, as illustrated by the Go. preterite habáida (cf. the infinitive haban)
and OHG habēta, though not in the other dialects, as in OE hæfde 'had'.

Class 4 has a -nō- suffix based on PIE -nā-, as in Go. waknōda, with a shortened form in ON
vaknaþe 'wakened'; the vowel was also weakened in the present, as in Go. wakna, ON vakna
'I waken'. Verbs of the class have inchoative or middle meaning.

..................................ზმნათა მცირე ჯგუფები.................................

პრეტერიტო-პრეზენტული ზმნები აწარმოებენ თავიანთ აწმყო დროის ფორმებს

როგორც ძლიერი ზმნები პრეტერიტის ფორმებს (ანუ აბლაუტის მეშვეობით), ხოლო
პრეტერიტის ფორმებს დენტალური სუფიქსის მეშვეობით (მსგავსად სუსტი
ზმნებისა). თუმცა ზოგიერთ პრეტერიტო-პრეზენტული ზმნის ფორმები არ ავლენს
აბლაუტის საფეხურებს (მაგალითად, ზმნა mag (თანამედროვე ინგლისურში may).
პრეტერიტო-პრეზენტული ზმნები თანამედროვე მოდალური ზმნების
წინამორბედები არიან. ბევრ პრეტერიტო-პრეზენტულ ზმნას აქვს ნაკლული
პარადიგმა, მაგ. ზმნა daug (ვარგა) წარმოდგენილია მხოლოდ აღნიშნული ფორმით.
აღნიშნული ტიპის ზმნები შეიძლება ძლიერი ზმნების მსაგავსად 7 კლასად
განვალაგოთ (ასტერიქსიანი ფორმები რეკონსტრუქციის შედეგია):
Infinitive Meaning Class Present Preterite

*witanan "know" I wait wissa

*lisanan "know" I lais lissa

*aiganan "have", "own" I aig aihta

*duganan "be useful" II daug duhta

*unnanan "grant" III ann unþa

*kunnanan "know (how to)", later "can" III kann kunþa

*þurbanan "need" III þarb þurfta

*dursanan "dare" III dars dursta

……….……………………Gothic alphabet…………………………………

Gothic was originally written with a Runic alphabet about which little is known. One theory
of the origins of Runes is that they were invented by the Goths, but this is impossible to
prove as very few inscriptions of writing in Gothic runes survive.

The Gothic alphabet was invented around middle the 4th century AD by Bishop Wulfila
(311-383 AD), the religious leader of the Visigoths, to provide his people with a written
language and a means of reading his translation of the Bible. It is based on the Greek
alphabet, with some extra letters from the Latin and Runic alphabets.

Used to write:

Gothic, an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken in parts of the Crimea until the
17th century.

The Goths were divided into two main tribes: the Ostrogothi or Greutungi (dune-dwellers)
and the Visigothi or Tervingi (steppe-dwellers). Related tribes included the Burgundians and
the Vandals.

…………………………..….Runic Alphabet…………………………….

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write
various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized
purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark (or fuþark, derived
from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K); the Anglo-Saxon variant is
futhorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the same six letters). Runology is
the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology
forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark (around 150–800), the Anglo-
Saxon Futhorc (400–1100), and the Younger Futhark (800–1100). The Younger Futhark is
further divided into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they were also used
in Norway and Sweden), short-branch or Rök runes (also called Swedish-Norwegian,
although they were also used in Denmark), and the stavesyle or Hälsinge runes (staveless
runes). The Younger Futhark developed further into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval
runes (1100–1500), and the Dalecarlian runes (around 1500–1800).

We know that the Germanic languages had a large proportion of words, which have no parallels in
other groups of the IE family.
The most ancient etymological layer in the Germanic vocabulary is made up of words shared by
most IE languages. They refer to a number of semantic spheres; natural phenomena, plants and
animals, terms of kinship, verbs denoting basic activities of man; in addition to roots, the

Those are instances of transition from compound words into derived words; they show the
development of new suffixes-from root-morphemes—at the time when many old derivational stem-
suffixes had lost their productivity and ceased to be distinguished in the word structure. The new
suffixes made up for the loss of stem-suffixes.
Both etymology layers of the vocabulary—the IE and the Germanic layer-are native words. A large
number of words must have been borrowed from Latin prior to the migration of West Germanic
tribes to Britain.

he full extent of the OE vocabulary is not known to present day scholars. There is no doubt that
many words have not been recorded in the extant texts at all.
Despite the gaps in the accessible data, philological studies have given us a complete outline of the
OE vocabulary as regards its etymology, word structure, word-building and stylistic differentiation.
Etymological survey of the English Vocabulary
Word etymology throws light on the history of the speaking community and on its contacts with
other peoples.
Native Words
Native OE words can be subdivided into number of etymological layers coming from different
historical periods. The three main layers in the native OE words are; a) common IE words, b)
common Germanic words, c) specifically OE words.
Words belonging to the common IE layer constitute the oldest part of the OE vocabulary. They were
inherited by PG and passed into the Germanic languages of various subgroups, including English.
Among these words we find names of some natural phenomena,