Oer it gearfallen fan ‘neame’ mei ‘nimme’

Abstract

The Frisian system of strong verbs seems to be in a constant state of flux. This article highlights a particular instance of this, viz. the paradigm of the weak verb neame „call, name‟, which is converging more and more with that of the strong verb nimme „take‟. There are more cases in which Dutch has two verbs, a weak and a strong one, whereas Frisian only has one strong verb (with both meanings). This convergence is proposed to derive from phonological changes. It results in one and the same paradigm of the present tense for both verbs, paving the way for a complete conver-gence. Interestingly, the strong verbs are the „winner‟ here, in spite of the fact that weak verbs are assumed to be the unmarked, productive verb class