2021. Proc Ling Soc Amer 6(1). 173–187. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4957. Leveling or reanalysis? An explanation of Middle High German paradigm merger Junyu Ruan* Abstract. Strong verbs in Middle High German (MHG) have two past indicative stems in the verb inflectional paradigm, which merged into one in Modern High German (NHG). This change is mostly assumed as paradigmatic leveling in previous studies. However, the NHG past indicative stems are inherited from different cells in the MHG paradigm across different inflectional classes, or even innovatively created by combining different parts of the MHG past indicative stems. This paper attempts to identify the base of leveling using a computational model called Minimal Generalization Learner, proposed in Albright (2002b). The results can account for the extraordinary patterns of merger found in German to some extent, but they are not perfect and even pose new problems. As a counter-proposal, I argue that the merger that appears to be paradigmatic leveling might be triggered by reanalysis of phonological features as morphological exponents. Keywords. Middle High German; analogy; historical linguistics; morphological change; inflectional paradigm; corpus linguistics 1. Analogical changes from Middle High German to Modern High German. The paradig- matic changes in the development from Middle High German (MHG) to Modern High German (NHG) are particularly interesting for morphological studies. In traditional MHG grammar, most verbs belong to either strong verbs or weak verbs, though there are also unproductive irregular groups with only few members. Segment alternation (conventionally termed Ablaut, Umlaut and Grammatischer Wechsel) and suffixation are the main ways to build tense-modal stems in strong classes, whereas in weak classes, tense-modal stems are built mostly by suffixation. In the devel- opment from MHG to NHG, unusual patterns of analogical change are attested. In MHG, inflectional paradigms of strong verbs are built out of six different stems at maximum: (a) the present singular stem, shared by indicative present singular forms and the imperative 2nd singular; (b) the infinitive stem, shared by the infinitive and all other present forms; (c) the past 1st/3rd stem, shared by the indicative past 1st singular and the 3rd singular; (d) the past plural stem, shared by indicative past plural forms; (e) the past subjunctive stem, shared by the indicative past 2nd singular and all subjunctive past forms; (f) the past participle stem, only used by the past par- ticiple.1 These stems can be distinguished not only by the stem vowel (Ablaut or Umlaut) but also by the stem-final consonant (Grammatischer Wechsel). In NHG, on the other hand, the stems of all past indicative forms merged into a single one. The directions of the merger of stem vowel as well as stem-final consonant, as shown below, are remarkably complex. 1.1. THE MERGER OF STEM VOWEL ALTERNATION FOR PAST INDICATIVE STEMS FROM MHG TO NHG. Most MHG Strong Classes have different stem vowels for the past 1st/3rd stem and the past plural stem, a pattern inherited from the distinction between Proto-Indo-European (PIE) o-grade * Authors: Junyu Ruan, The Ohio State University ([email protected]). 1 The difference in stem-vowel between the past subjunctive stem and other past stems results from Umlaut, which, according to Wiese (1996), should be considered lexical phonological rather than morphological in NHG. However, since the vowels of the personal endings, which had triggered the sound change in verb stems, were weakened into /ə/ in MHG and no longer synchronically identifiable, this paper considers all these stem forms to be morphological- ly conditioned and thus equally takes them as candidates for the base form in the whole paradigm. © 2021 Author(s). Published by the LSA with permission of the author(s) under a CC BY license. past singular stem and zero-grade past plural stem. Classes VI and VII have different origins in PIE, and correspondingly, the past indicative forms in these classes share the same stem from the very beginning. For Strong Classes that show vowel alternation between the past 1st/3rd and the past plural stems (i.e. Classes I - V), the distinction in stem vowel is lost in NHG, partially trig- gered by regular sound change in some Strong Classes and partially by morphological change in others. In cases where morphological changes occurred, we can see different directions of changes happened across different Strong Classes or even across different lexical items within the same Strong Class. MHG NHG Class gloss past.1.sg past.1.pl. past.part. past.1.sg. past.1.pl. past.part. VI /ɡruob/2 /ɡruobən/ /ɡəɡrabən/ /ɡruːb/ /ɡruːbən/ /ɡəɡraːbən/ “dug” VII3 /hielt/ /hieltən/ /ɡəhaltən/ /hiːlt/ /hiːlt-ən/ /ɡəhaltən/ “held” Table 1. Class VI & VII: preservation of MHG stems4 The past 1st/3rd stem and the past plural stem are originally the same in MHG for Strong Classes VI and VII. Therefore, though regular sound changes occurred in the stem vowel (i.e. the mon- ophthongization of MHG /uo/, /ie/ to NHG /uː/, /iː/, see Paul 1929:24), the morphological relationship between these two stems remains intact. MHG NHG Class gloss past.1.sg past.1.pl. past.part. past.1.sg. past.1.pl. past.part. IV /nam/ /naːmən/ /ɡənomən/ /naːm/ /naːmən/ /ɡənomən/ “took” Table 2. Class IV: Merger of the past 1st/3rd singular stem and the past plural stems caused by regular sound change Vowel lengthening started in some areas at a period as early as Old High German (OHG), and it spread through the whole High-German-speaking region by the time of NHG. It mostly occurred under three conditions: (1) in open syllables; (2) before /r/ + dental clusters; (3) in monosyllabic words ending with nasals or liquids (Mettke 1967:69-70; Paul 1929:21-22). MHG Strong Class IV verbs happen to be characterized by having nasals or liquids as stem-final consonants. As a result, the stem vowels in past 1st/3rd stems (e.g. /nam/) fulfill the third condition and are there- fore lengthened. This, then, is a merger triggered by sound change. However, analogical changes are attested in some exceptional cases. For example, the past indicative stem of /ʃerən/ “to shear” is /ʃor-/, whose stem vowel is the same as the stem vowel of past participle and believed to result from the preceding /ʃ/ sound (Mettke 1967:194). But /ʃerən/ has become weak and no longer belongs to Strong Class IV in NHG.5 2 Stem-final voiced stops are devoiced at word-final position in both MHG and NHG, i.e. /ɡruob/, /ɡruːb/ are pro- nounced as [ɡruop], [ɡruːp]. But the phonologically conditioned final devoicing rule is irrelevant to our study and not represented in the phonemic transcription. 3 Though there are six subclasses in Strong Class VII, the stem vowels in their past stems are the same. They are thus collapsed into one row in the table. For details about the subclasses see Mettke 1967:198-200, Paul 1929:112, Boor & Wisniewski 1984:127-128. 4 In MHG, the past subjunctive stem is phonologically predictable from the past plural stem through Umlaut (Paul 1929:107-108), and in NHG, it can be phonologically derived from the past stem. Therefore, the past subjunctive stem is mostly omitted in tables where inflectional paradigms of MHG or NHG are shown. 5 Strictly speaking, two individual processes of leveling are involved in the development of /ʃerən/ from MHG to NHG. The MHG past indicative stems are first leveled by the past participle in terms of stem vowel. Then its inflec- tional paradigm is completely rebuilt from its present stem based on derivational rules of NHG weak verbs, since it has become a weak verb in NHG. 174 MHG NHG Class gloss past.1.sg past.1.pl. past.part. past.1.sg. past.1.pl. past.part. Ia /steiɡ/ /stiɡən/ /ɡəstiɡən/ /ʃtiːɡ/ /ʃtiːɡən/ /ɡəʃtiːɡən/ “climbed” Ib /leːh/ /lihən/6 /ɡəlihən/ /liː/ /liːən/7 /ɡəliːən/ “lent” V /ɡab/ /ɡaːbən/ /ɡəɡebən/ /ɡaːb/ /ɡaːbən/ /ɡəɡeːbən/ “gave” Table 3. Classes I & V: Replacement of the past 1st/3rd singular stem by the past plural stem The past indicative stem in NHG Strong Class I is built based on the MHG past plural stem, whose stem vowel has undergone lengthening when in open syllables, cf. MHG /stiɡən/ “we climbed” > NHG /ʃtiːɡən/. By contrast, the expected descendants of MHG past 1st/3rd singular stems */staɪk/ and */leːh/ were replaced. Similarly, the lengthening of stem vowel in Strong Class V past 1st/3rd stem does not result from regular sound change but analogy, because the stem vowels in forms like [ɡab] do not stand in open syllables, nor are they followed by nasals or liquids, since MHG Strong Class V verbs are characteristic for not having nasals or liquids as stem-final consonants. On the other hand, lengthening that is triggered by other paradigm cells is attested not only among verbs but also among nouns, e.g. MHG /taɡəs/ (pl.) ~ /taɡ/ (sg.) “day” > NHG /taːɡə/ ~ /taːɡ/, where the stem vowel in the plural form stands in an open syllable and is thus lengthened. The lengthened vowel spreads to the singular form, where the condition for lengthening is not fulfilled.8 MHG NHG Class gloss past.1.sg past.1.pl. past.part. past.1.sg. past.1.pl. past.part. IIIa /band/ /bundən/ /ɡəbundən/ /band/ /bandən/ /ɡəbundən/ “bound” IIIb /ɡalt/ /ɡultən/ /ɡəɡoltən/ /ɡalt/ /ɡaltən/ /ɡəɡoltən/ “applied” Table 4. Class III: Replacement of the past plural stem by the past 1st/3rd singular stem In NHG, the /u/ in past plural stems has been replaced by /a/ in past singular forms, so that all past indicative forms share the same stem with /a/ across most lexical items in Strong Class III.