*skulan

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *skulan "owe" for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *skulaną (“to owe”),^[3][4] which Kroonen cites as *skulan-.^[4] Before *u in the next syllable the root vowel stayed *u, as in Proto-Germanic *skulun "they owe, they should", continued by Old English sċulon, Old Saxon skulun and Old High German skulun.^[3] Ringe and Taylor trace the past sċ(e)olde to Proto-West Germanic *skoldē, with the vowel of skolda and skolta.^[5]

Morphology

A preterite-present verb.^[6][7] Ringe and Taylor find that the inflection of the preterite-presents had changed little, and that the second singular present in *-(s)t survived unchanged.^[1] Their paradigm has the infinitive *skulan, the inflected infinitive *skulannjē, the present participle *skulandī, the present indicative *skal, *skalt, *skal, plural *skulum, *skulud, *skulun, and the present subjunctive *skulī, plural *skulīm, *skulīd, *skulīn.^[8] The past indicative is *skuldā, *skuldēs or *-ōs, *skuldē or *-ā, plural *skuldum, *skuldud, *skuldun, the past subjunctive *skuldī, and a past participle is doubtful.^[9] The subjunctive *skulīn shows umlaut in Old English sċylen and Old Frisian skele.^[3]

Evidence

The verb is attested in all the West Germanic languages: Old English sċulan, Old Frisian skela, Old Saxon skulan, Old Dutch sulan and Old High German skulan.^[10][11] Old High German has it from the end of the 8th century; spellings with ⟨sk⟩ are regular until the 11th century and give way to ⟨s⟩ after that.^[7] EWA explains the loss of the ⟨k⟩ as a simplification of the cluster in a word that was unstressed in the sentence, and applies this to the same change in the other Germanic languages;^[7] Wiktionary likewise puts the change down to the word's frequent unstressed position.^[2] Old Dutch already has sal in the psalms of the 9th century,^[11] and the western Old Frisian texts have forms such as sella beside skolla.^[12] For the umlauted forms of Middle Dutch sullen, de Vaan reports the VMNW's derivation from the subjunctive, which ended in West Germanic *-ī, and finds it possible but not compelling.^[13]

Meanings

1. to owe^[1][2]
2. to be obliged^[2]

In the daughters the verb became an auxiliary, "shall, must", and Old English and Old High German kept the sense "to owe, to be indebted".^[14][7]

Derivatives

• *skuldi "debt, guilt", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[15] Ringe and Taylor trace Proto-Germanic *skuldi- ~ *skulþi- "debt", a derivative of *skulaną, to Old English sċyld (“debt, guilt”), Old Frisian skeld, Old Saxon skuld and Old High German skuld (“duty, guilt”).^[3]
• Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *skulô (“debtor”), a zero-grade agent noun;^[16] Köbler lists Old English scola, Old Saxon skolo and Old High German skolo under Proto-Germanic *skulō-.^[17]

Reflexes

• Old English: sċulan (“shall, to owe”)^[14]
• Old Frisian: skela (“shall, must, may, can, will”)^[12]
• Old Saxon: skulan (“shall, must, will”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: sulan (“shall”)^[11]
• Old High German: skulan (“shall, must, to owe, to be obliged”)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109
2. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *skulan
3. ^ a b c d Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 30
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 450
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 207
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. skulan
7. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. skulan
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109–110
9. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 110
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sculan
11. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sulan
12. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. skela
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 276
14. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. sculan
15. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *skuldi
16. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *skulô
17. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *skulō-