In this article, an alternative historical analysis of the Old English verbs būgian and bōgian is presented, whereby it is suggested that they are relatively late formations. The verb *bū̆wōja- (> būgian) evolved out of the verb *bū̆wa- (> būan) during the Proto-Northwest Germanic era by way of a paradigmatic split. The vowel ū̆ in the root of *bū̆wōja- was subject to assimilatory lowering due to the influence of the following non-high vowels: the lowering of the root vowel produced the stem *bō̆wōja- (> OE bogian). It is argued here that the vowel /u/ was susceptible to lowering in this environment because in the sequence -V(w)V-, it was phonetically short (phonologically, it was length-neutral in this position).
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