*sprekan

Reconstruction

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

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną (“to speak”),^[3][4] which Kroonen cites by its stem *sprekan- and Orel as *sprekanan.^[4][5] Köbler sets up the verb as West Germanic *sprekan in his Old English, Old Frisian, Old Dutch and Old High German dictionaries.^[6][7][8][9]

Morphology

A strong verb.^[10][9] Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Dutch and Old High German inflect it in class IV, Old English in class V.^{[7][10][8][9][6]} The difference shows in the past participle, Old English sprecen against Old Saxon gisprokan and Old High German gisprohhan.^[11] Kroonen takes the class V inflection to have replaced an older preterite of the verb.^[4]

Evidence

Ringe and Taylor list *sprekan among the lexemes unique to West Germanic, which are more or less isolated etymologically: Old English sprecan, Old Frisian spreka, Old Saxon sprekan and Old High German sprehhan.^[12] Old Dutch has sprekan, recorded as ⟨sprecan⟩ in the Old Low Franconian psalms of the 10th century, and later in Williram's commentary of about 1100, the Middle Franconian Rhyme Bible and the Groningen psalm glosses.^[13] The Mercian Vespasian Psalter has spreocan with back umlaut, where West Saxon has the plain vowel.^[14] Old English also has a form without r, specan,^[4] and so has Old High German, spehhan.^[9][15]

Competing analyses

EWA calls the loss of r in the Old High German verb sporadic.^[15] Kroonen suggests that the Old English variation goes back to an alternation at the beginning of the word in the original preterite, before it was replaced by the class V forms, or else to the influence of the related iterative *spurkōn-.^[4]

Meanings

1. to speak^[1][2]

Old Frisian also used the verb for "to bring a legal complaint", "to claim" and "to mean",^[16] and Old High German also for "to answer", "to confess" and "to mention".^[9]

Derivatives

• *wiþrasprekan "to speak against, to contradict", which Wiktionary reconstructs from Old English wiþersprecend and Old Frisian witherspreka;^[17] Köbler lists an Old Frisian compound of the verb with the prefix meaning "against".^[7]
• *sprāku "speech, language", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[18] Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *sprāki or *sprākiju "speech" behind Old English sprǣċ and Old Frisian sprēke, and take Old Saxon sprāka and Old High German sprāhha to have been shifted into the ō-stems or to be a different type of derivative.^[19] Kroonen derives Proto-Germanic *sprēkō- "speech" from the verb.^[4]

Reflexes

• Old English: sprecan (“to speak, to say, to converse”)^[20]
• Old Frisian: spreka (“to speak, to say; to sue; to claim; to mean”)^[16]
• Old Saxon: sprekan (“to speak, to say, to talk, to declare”)^[21]
• Old Dutch: sprekan (“to speak”)^[13]
• Old High German: sprehhan (“to speak, to say, to express, to answer, to confess”)^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 127
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *sprekan
3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *sprekaną
4. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 469
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 366
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sprecan
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. spreka
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sprekan
9. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sprehhan
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sprekan
11. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton, p. 455–456
12. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 126–127
13. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. sprekan
14. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 326
15. ^ a b 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. spah
16. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. spreka
17. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *wiþrasprekan
18. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *sprāku
19. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 209
20. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. sprecan
21. ^ Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. sprekan