Page 20 - 4952

1) strong verbs;
2) weak verbs;

3) united preterit-present verbs.
Strong verbs used vowel gradation to derive their preterit and

P2. Examples: OE bindan (inf) – b?nd (pret sg) – bundum (pret
pl) – bundans (P2) (ModE bind – зв'язувати).

Weak verbs derived the same forms with the help of a dental

suffix –d-. It’s phonetic variants were /t/, /d/, /Ɵ/.

Examples: OE styrian – styrede – styredon – styred (ModE stir –

рухати(ся), розмішувати).
Preterit-present verbs used vowel gradation to derive the forms

of the present tense while their form of the preterit was built

with the help of the dental suffix.
Examples: OE wītan (inf) – wāt (pres sg) – wĭton (pres pl) –

wiste (pret sg) – wiston (pret pl) – ʓewiten (P2) (знати).

1.3 Word order
In IE as it was a highly inflected language word order was

free. In the GLs word order gradually became fixed. In some
languages like English it resulted in the fixation of the position

of each member of the sentence. Sometimes it also resulted in

the frame constructions and inversions.

2. Germanic word formation and vocabulary
Like any other IE language the GLs have always employed

three main word-building devices: affixation, word composition,

sound changes (non-productive).
Considering Germanic word stock we usually distinguish

two main layers: native words and borrowings. As to the native
words we speak about three subgroups: Indo-European words,

words typical of Germanic group, and English proper group.

18