Franconian Beer Message Board

Evolution of English and German
Posted by Uncle Jimbo on 2013-10-31 16:40:03

There is another formal German form that approximates the use of the present continuous in English, "Ich bin beim Biertrinken", with a noun form of the verb together with preposition "bei" and the definite article "das", which then is transformed to "dem" courtesy of the dative nature of "bei", and also contracted. But that's different. An English equivalent might be "I'm at beer-drinking at the moment", I suppose.



This reminds of the old English format of putting an "a" at the beginning of a verb.  This would be used in a sentence such as "He heard the bell and came a running."  I recall reading an article about this use of "a" as a verb prefix in English, and I think it was said that it was originally "at".  For example, in the past someone might say, "He is at running."  And if I recall correctly, this was borrowed from another language, which might have been a Celtic language.  I am trying to find something with Google, but so far no luck.