The history of complex verbs in Scandinavian languages revisited 151 The history of complex verbs in Scandinavian languages revisited: only influence due to contact with Low German? Kurt Braunmüller, University of Hamburg and Steffen Höder, University of Kiel Introduction The ruling doctrine in Germanic language history states that early Germanic had verbal prefixes which, however, were lost in North Germanic in historical times (Krahe & Meid 1967, p. 42 [§ 52]): Im Nordgermanischen … schwinden sowohl beim Verbum als auch beim No- men sämtliche unbetonten Praefixe entweder völlig oder werden stark reduziert. [I n North Germanic … all unstressed prefixes disappear in verbs and in nouns as well, either totally or they became greatly reduced.] Consequently, prefix verbs and other kinds of morphologically complex verbs (including particle verbs) that are found in Modern Scandinavian must reflect later innovations, particularly language contact with Middle Low German and, to a lesser extent, Medieval Latin during the (Late) Middle Ages. The introduc- tion of verbs such as Swedish betala ‘to pay’, förstå ‘to understand’ or miss - förstå ‘misunderstand’ has indeed been considered one of the most salient rep- lications from West Germanic that entered the (Mainland) Scandinavian lan- guages during the era of the Hanseatic League – along with some derivational suffixes such as -he(i)t or -else (equivalent to English -ing). This general view is based on the assumption that Ancient Germanic pos- sessed verbal prefixes, not only the prefix ga-/gi- used in the formation of the preterite participle in West Germanic, but a word-formation strategy involving verbal prefixation in general. The extant verbal prefixes are thus taken to be in- herited from Ancient Germanic, and it is assumed that they were already an es- tablished part of the Germanic verbal systems in the earliest period, as is illus- trated by the following quote: Grundsätzlich gilt für das Altgermanische, daß in der verbalen Komposition die Praefixe unbetont, in der nominalen betont sind. (Krahe & Meid 1967, p. 41.) [It is taken for granted as far as Old Germanic is concerned that the prefixes in verbal compositions are unstressed whereas as they are stressed in nominal ones.]