Abstract
The Eastern Iranian language Yaghnōbī famously preserves several archaic features, including some not found in the closely related Sogdian. Among the approximately three dozen verbs with irregular present and past stems, six (excluding 'to be') may be considered suppletive.
This study examines their prehistory, comparing equivalent forms in Sogdian and other Eastern Iranian languages. The Yaghnōbī suppletive verbs are all formed from inherited verbs of motion; interestingly, they appear to be restricted to verbal stems combined with preverbs, except for the present stem of šau̯- 'to go'.
The Yaghnōbī data furthermore point to the survival of both *gam- 'to come' and *gaʜ- 'to go, move', with the latter underlying past stems in several Modern Eastern Iranian languages.