Germanic Strong Verb - Class 3

Class 3

Class 3, Sweet's "bind conjugation", represents all verbs in which the IE Ablaut-vowel was followed by a nasal (n) or a liquid (r/l) and another consonant. There are also a few cases where the vowel is followed, at least in Proto-Germanic, by two consonants, neither of which is a nasal or a liquid. So the combinations are:

• With nasals (class 3a): CVnC, CVnn, CVmC, CVmm
• With liquids (class 3b): CVlC, CVll, CVrC, CVhC

In the zero-grade forms, the nasal or liquid became a syllabic sonorant in PIE, transcribed as a circle below the letter. In Germanic, these syllabic nasals and liquids were not used, so a u vowel was added in compensation: l̥ > ul. Umlaut causes a shift e > i in the present singular, but in the case of the nasals, this shift takes place throughout the present stem: this is referred to as wandel - the same effect as umlaut, but triggered by the nasal consonant. The preterite singular shows the standard Germanic vowel shift o > a. In the participle, ul becomes ol through metaphony but only with the liquid, as the metaphony is blocked by the nasal.

In Old English, class 3a is little changed from Germanic.

• drincan drinceþ dranc druncon druncen ("to drink")
• bindan bindeþ band bundon bunden ("to bind")

Class 3b experiences a diphthongisation called "Brechung" in preterite singular (a > ea); before r and h this also affects the present stem (e > eo).

• helpan hilpþ healp hulpon holpen ("to help")
• delfan dilfþ dealf dulfon dolfen ("to dig, delve")
• sweltan swilt swealt swulton swolten ("to die, swelt")
• ceorfan cierfþ cearf curfon corfen ("to cut, carve")
• feohtan fieht feaht fuhton fohten ("to fight")

West Saxon palatal diphthongization causes i > ie after g:

• gieldan gieldeþ geald guldon golden ("to pay, yield")

Three verbs have an anomalous æ in preterite singular: berstan ("to burst"), bregdan ("to pull"), frignan ("to ask").

• berstan birst bærst burston borsten

In Modern English, this class is fairly large. This class is still relatively regular: the preterite is mostly formed from the OE preterite singular, occasionally from the preterite plural.

• drink drank drunk(en)
• sing sang sung

However, there are some anomalies. The class 3 verbs in modern English are:

• With nasal: begin, bind, cling, drink, find, fling, grind, ring, run, shrink, sing, sink, sling, slink, spin, spring, sting, stink, string, swing, swim, win, wind, wring
• With ll: swell
• With original "Germanic h": fight

English fling does not go back to Old English, and may be a loan-word from Norse. It seems to have adopted class 3 forms by analogy with cling etc. Similarly ring, string.

In Old High German, class 3 has its vowels unchanged from Germanic:

• bindan bindu band bundum gibundan
• helfan hilfu half hulfum giholfan

Modern German takes the preterite from the OHG preterite singular.

• binden band gebunden
• helfen (hilf) half geholfen

However, the o of the 3b participle has been passed by analogy to some 3a verbs, and also to the preterite of some verbs of both groups:

• beginnen begann begonnen
• bergen barg geborgen ("to rescue")
• quellen quoll gequollen ("to well up")

Class 3 verbs in modern German

• 3a regular (i-a-u): binden, dringen, finden, gelingen, klingen, ringen, schlingen, schwinden, schwingen, singen, sinken, springen, stinken, trinken, zwingen
• 3a with substitution of o in participle (i-a-o): beginnen, gewinnen, rinnen, schwimmen
• 3a with substitution of o in preterite and participle (i-o-o): glimmen, klimmen
• 3b regular (e-a-o): befehlen, bergen; bersten, gelten, helfen, schelten, sterben, verderben, werben, werden, werfen
• 3b with substitution of o in preterite (e-o-o): dreschen, fechten, flechten, quellen, schmelzen, schwellen

In Dutch, class 3a and the bulk of 3b have taken the vowel of the participle for the preterite. However, a small group of 3b verbs have developed a preterite in ie, perhaps by analogy with class 7. This gives the patterns:

• binden bond gebonden
• bergen borg geborgen ("to store")
• helpen hielp geholpen

A small number of verbs of other classes have taken the forms of class 3b by analogy. Class 3 verbs in modern Dutch are:

• 3a: beginnen, binden, blinken, dringen, drinken, dwingen, glimmen, klimmen, klinken, schrikken, springen, stinken, verzinnen, vinden, winnen, wringen, zingen, zinken.
• original 3b: bergen, gelden, schelden, smelten, vechten, zwellen.
• 3b by analogy (original class in brackets): schenken, scheren (4), treffen(4), trekken (6), wegen, zenden (3a), zwemmen (3a).
• 3b with preterite in ie: bederven, helpen, sterven, werpen, zwerven.

In Old Norse, numerous sound changes have resulted in this class fragmenting into 15 or so subclasses.

In Gothic:

• bindan band bundun bundans
• hilpan halp hulpun hulpans
• bairgan barg baurgun baurgans