Nasal suffix verbs in Germanic and KLUGE’s Law

Nasal suffix verbs in Proto-Germanic – KLUGE´s Law and the case of ON fregna Formally, there can be distinguished three types of nasal suffix verbs in Germanic: 1) primary verbs with traces of suffix ablaut, e.g. *spurnō- (OHG spornōn) ~ *spurna/i- (OE spurnan) ‘to kick’ 2) deverbative intensive-iteratives with root final geminates, e.g. OHG zockōn ‘to depredate’ from ziohan ‘to pull’ 3) denominative verbs like OE brosnian ‘to decay’, the Gothic nan-inflection and Goth. fraíhnan, ON fregna ‘to ask’ The origin of these formations lies in PIE nasal infix presents to seṭ roots, *-néh₂,₃- ~ * n̥h₂,₃ . The weak suffix variant was early thematicised via the pivot form of the 3rd pl. pres. The semi-thematic suffix *-nō- ~ *-na/i- became productive in PGmc. and soon was used to derive verbs from aniṭ roots (*murnō- ~ *murna/i- ‘to mourn’) and even nominal/adjectival stems (Goth. fullnan 'to fill' intrans.). However, in the daughter languages either one or the other suffix variant was generalised throughout the paradigm. The root final geminates of intensive-iterative verbs like OHG zockōn are considered to be the outcome of a PGmc. sound law of n-assimilation (KLUGE´s Law). It will be shown how exceptions to KLUGE´s n-assimilation like the Goth. nan-verbs and ON fregna can be explained by regular sound change and paradigmatic levelling.