Thread:User talk:Rua/Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/flōdu/reply

It's found with i-stem endings in OHG and OD, which is typical of old u-stems in those languages. But you do have a point, it can be very difficult to pinpoint heavy-stemmed u-stems in WG as they are a relic class in every attested descendant. It may be helpful to compile evidence for each term individually. The typical outcome is a-stem in the northern languages, i-stem in the southern ones. The northern languages (OE in particular) do not exhibit umlaut in u-stems, which they would if the noun were an old i-stem. This "split" development can be taken as indirect evidence for an old u-stem, but whether it's enough evidence alone I'm not sure.