Analogical leveling from outside the paradigm: Stem-vowel changes in the german modals

Among the many changes that have occurred in the stem vowels of the German modal verbs is one set that has led to the partial or complete elimination of morphophonemic alternations between present and preterite in five of the modals in modern times. Analogical leveling is usually seen as playing an important role in the motivation for these changes. By examining the details of the changes in the standard language and in a large number of dialects, I show that they must be attributed to a number of factors, and that the leveling usually invoked appears to have played very little role. These findings are consistent with the predictions of several recent theories of morphological change and underline the need to distinguish between analogical leveling as a paradigm-internal motivation for change and the elimination of alternations due to paradigm-external and extra-morphological forces.