Re: Somewheres

On 2024-09-02, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:
>

The -ing suffix in Modern English is a fusion of two Old English
suffixes, one similar to German -ung & the other to German -end. I'm
not sure of the extent to which that encouraged the development of the
current -in'/-ing situation.

>
One might add that the -ung is a suffix that substantivates a verb,
while the -end makes the verbform present particip. There are parallels
in Danish where we have -(n)ing and -ende.

I'm not surprised. I think (but am open to correction) that English is
the only Germanic language that has merged them.


--
We take the music far more seriously than we take the lyrics, which
are just throwaway lines.                          ---Malcolm Young