Re: irregularities

Sally Caves wrote:
> > If I remember my numbers correctly, English has 168 irregular verbs. And
> > those are just the ones we use *now*. There are all sorts of archaic
> > irregulars that are no longer used but heavily attested.
> >
> > My favorite irregular series in English:
> >
> > think-thought
> > bring-brought
> > buy-bought
> > work-wrought (the old usage)
>
>Some of these are actually curious formations of the *weak* verb.
>Thencan /thohte are what they call "verbs without middle vowels."
>They are Class I weak verbs that show ablaut change in the
>preterite and past participle but because of the change of
>c/g before d to "ht" they exhibit a modified version of the
>dental ending.
>
>You know, "irregular" verbs is a modern concept.  These
>verbs, with the exception of the above, were made from
>Germanic "strong verbs," the prevalent form then (with
>ablaut change to express the preterite and PP).  Weak
>verbs, which became our "regular" verbs, were the ones
>formed by a dental ending.  By analogy, a lot of our strong
>verbs went weak:  "helpan, healp, hulpen, holpen" -- help
>helped helped.
>
> > I like them primarily because they are so transparently cognate with
>German:
> >
> > denken-dachte-gedacht
> > bringen-brachte-gebracht
> > (kaufen and arbeiten are no longer part of the series)
>
>Because of the same formation in proto-Germanic.
>
> > I think that I'll add a web page about irregular verbs in English and
> > German when I've got the time.
>
>Hope this information helps you.  It would be best to talk
>about strong and weak verbs rather than "regular" and
>"irregular."
Hm, when I read German (approx 1995-2000), we were taught to refer to verbs
like _denken_ and _bringen_ as "irregular". The term "strong" was reserved
for verbs like _kommen_ and _helfen_ (that keep the stem consonants
unchanged in inflected forms).

What were our Germans on the list told about this in their schools?

                                                  Andreas
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