Suppleesje by tiidwurden yn it Eastfrysk: Sealtersk sjo - saach - blouked, Wangereagersk sjoo - blauket - blauket (‘sjen’)

Abstract

In this article a tentative reconstruction is given of the development of the suppletive paradigm of the verb ‘to see’ in the East Frisian dialects of Saterland and Wangerooge. It is then shown that the case of ‘to see’ might
be part of a more general tendency towards verbal suppletion in East Frisian. Suppletive patterns are not only found with the verb ‘to see’, but can also be traced with other highly frequent irregular verbs like ‘to walk’
and, possibly, ‘to say’, ‘to give’, to drink’ and ‘to stick/to punch’. Since verbal suppletion is not very common in the Germanic languages, the East Frisian development would be quite extraordinary. The scarcity of historical sources makes it impossible to draw any hard and fast conclusions, however.