< Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic

Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/tēkaną

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Alternative forms
  • *takaną (North-West)[1]

Etymology

From an apparent Proto-Indo-European *deh₁g- (“to touch”), with the only formal cognate being Tocharian B täk- (“to touch, feel (with the hand); to fetch”), ceśäṃ (“touches; takes”, 3sg.pres.).[2] Ringe suggests that either pre-Germanic or pre-Tocharian borrowed the word from the other.[3]

Several authors have noted the similarity of this root to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch, take (by the hand)”) (whence *þakkōną (“to touch lightly, tap”), Latin tangō (“I touch”), Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn, “having seized”, ptcp.)), but the two cannot be reconciled by traditional means, as the "unshifted" Germanic *t is not expected to come from PIE *t in this phonetic environment, nor should Germanic *ē (as in the Gothic descendant only) have developed from PIE *eh₂, and Tocharian short *ä cannot continue PIE *eh₂ under normal conditions. However, the stop consonant in Germanic can be explained if it developed from a cluster *dg with voicing assimilation from earlier *tg.[2] According to the hypothesis by Mottausch, the reduplicated form *te-th₂g- (as in Latin tetigī (“have touched”), Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn)) regularly lost its laryngeal in pre-Germanic, and so the resulting *te-tg- would have required voicing assimilation to *te-dg-, which was subsequently back-formed to *de-dg- to restore the normal pattern of reduplication, resulting in the unshifted Germanic /t/.[4] Additionally, the pre-form *deh₁g- that resulted in the long vowel in Germanic can be maintained, if it is assumed that the second stop in this pre-Germanic *dedg- underwent dissimilation to glottalic *h₁ = [ʔ].[5] Kroonen upholds this derivation, though he notes its great difficulties. For a partial alternative, he suggests a back-formation of *tēkaną from iterative *þakkōną (cf. his similar derivation of *slēpaną from *slapp/bōną).[6]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈtɛː.kɑ.nɑ̃/

Verb

*tēkaną[6][7]

  1. to touch
  2. to grasp; to take

Inflection
Conjugation of *tēkaną (strong class 7d)
active voice passive voice
present tense indicative subjunctive imperative indicative subjunctive
1st singular *tēkō*tēkaų—*tēkai ?
2nd singular *tēkizi*tēkaiz*tēk*tēkazai*tēkaizau
3rd singular *tēkidi*tēkai*tēkadau*tēkadai*tēkaidau
1st dual *tēkōz*tēkaiw———
2nd dual *tēkadiz*tēkaidiz*tēkadiz——
1st plural *tēkamaz*tēkaim—*tēkandai*tēkaindau
2nd plural *tēkid*tēkaid*tēkid*tēkandai*tēkaindau
3rd plural *tēkandi*tēkain*tēkandau*tēkandai*tēkaindau
past tense indicative subjunctive
1st singular *tetōk*tetōkį̄
2nd singular *tetōht*tetōkīz
3rd singular *tetōk*tetōkī
1st dual *tetōkū*tetōkīw
2nd dual *tetōkudiz*tetōkīdiz
1st plural *tetōkum*tetōkīm
2nd plural *tetōkud*tetōkīd
3rd plural *tetōkun*tetōkīn
present past
participles *tēkandz*tēkanaz

Derived terms
  • *takô (“hold, seizure”)

Descendants

The North and West Germanic descendants have a class 6 strong verb, while Gothic has a class 7 verb. This is presumably a result of the vowel change in the past, combined with the change of ē to ā in those languages. This gave the ablaut pattern ā-ō-ā which could easily be changed into the a-ō-a of the 6th class.

  • Proto-West Germanic: *takan
    • Old Saxon: *takan
      • Middle Low German: tacken (= tācken?, otherwise secondarily geminated)
    • Old Dutch: *takan
  • Old Norse: taka
  • Gothic: 𐍄𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌽 (tēkan)

References
  1. Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*takanan”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology‎, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 400
  2. Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “täk-”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, pages 305–306
  3. Ringe, Don (1988–1990) “Evidence for the Position of Tocharian in the Indo-European Family?”, in Sprache, volume 34, published 1991, page 105-15 of 59–123
  4. Mottausch, Karl-Heinz (1993) “Zwei verkannte germanisch-italische Isoglossen”, in Historische Sprachforschung, volume 106, pages 148–175
  5. Kortlandt, Frederik H.H. (2000) “Old Norse taka, Gothic tekan, Greek τεταγών”, in North-Western European Language Evolution, volume 36, pages 59–65
  6. Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*takan- ~ *tēkan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 507: “The Germanic strong verb is clearly derived from PIE *teh₂g-, but the development of this root into *takan- and *tēkan- is not straightforward. […]”
  7. Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*tēkanan”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology‎, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 406
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