Ein Fall von „umgekehrter“ Etymologie? die Reduktion der verbalen Polymorphie am Beispiel von germanisch *klīƀ- ‘kleben bleiben’

Abstract

The etymology of the German verb kleben (to stick) shows, against the background of the Indo-European root language, that German kleben is the last remnant of a polymorphy. Initially, separate Indo-European morphemes for aorist, present, perfect, causative, and essive are reconstructable. However, the approach of the underlying root morpheme Indo-European *gleib^h- (Proto-Germanic *klīƀ-) ‘to remain stuck’ is marked with a question mark. It is a Germanic special development through which Indo-European *leip- ‘to remain stuck’ was replaced in West and North Germanic. The article demonstrates the role that syntactic and semantic causes play in the reduction of the original complete set of forms of Proto-Germanic *klīƀ- ‘to remain stuck’ from Old High German to Modern High German.