The Germanic languages that I'm familiar with all use a prefix similar to ge- on past participles:
German: Ich habe mir den Fuß gebrochen.
Dutch: Ik heb mijn voet gebroken.
But English doesn't do this at all:
English: I've broken my foot.
Where did this prefix come from? Did English ever have the ge- past participle prefix? If so, why was it lost?
In short:
The Wiktionary page for y- has these usage notes:
This prefix represents a common Germanic perfective prefix which was used to form past participles. Already by the Old English period such participles could be used with or without it, and as it passed into Middle English forms y-, i-, and ȝe-, it became less productive. The prefix was later adopted as a conscious archaism by some writers such as Edmund Spenser, who prepended it to existing past participles.
Etymonline has this to say about y-:
perfective prefix, in y-clept, etc.; a deliberate archaism, introduced by Spenser and his imitators, representing an authentic M.E. prefix, from O.E. ge-, originally meaning "with, together" but later a completive or perfective element, from P.Gmc. *ga-. It is still living in German and Dutch ge-, and survives, disguised, in some English words (e.g. alike, aware, handiwork).
Finally, the Merriam-Webster has this discussion of yclept:
"Clepe" itself is a word that is considered archaic and nearly obsolete, but its past participle "yclept" (pronounced ih-KLEPT) continues to be used, albeit rarely. In Old English, the prefix "ge-" denoted the completion or result of an action; in Middle English, the prefix shifted to "y-" and appeared in words such as "ybaptised" and "yoccupied." Eventually, all the "y-" words except "yclept" fell into disuse. One reason that "yclept" persists may be that it provides a touch of playfulness that appeals to some writers. Another may be that although "yclept" is an unfamiliar term to most people, its meaning can usually be inferred from context. Whatever the reason, "yclept" continues to turn up occasionally in current publications despite its strange and antiquated look.
Emphasis mine in all cases.
And yes, I realize that I haven't addressed the why part of your question.
Like German, Old English did use ge- as a prefix to mark past participles. As it moved into Middle English, this evolved into y- (also i- or ȝe-), and as with many forms of inflection became non-productive and mostly disappeared by the time modern English rolled around.
Wikitionary lists yclept as a holdover, though that in itself isn't terribly common. It does illustrate the point well though moving from geclypod in OE, to ycleped in ME and now to yclept.
I can only tell you that Old English had the ge- form. For example, the inscription on the Ælfred the Great Jewel says "ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN". That translates to "Alfred had me made [crafted]." And gewyrcan would have been pronounced "yewirkahn", roughly speaking.
That said, John McWhorter cites the loss of these prefixes (along with be- and for-) as part of what the Vikings did to English. They simplified many forms and caused many markers to be dropped. (See Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.)
The only two major groups of Modern Germanic languages still using this prefix are as you pointed out above: Dutch (along with Afrikaans) and German. That's two out of how many Modern Germanic languages? Even Low German has dropped it, save 2 dialects close neighbouring on High German.
So here's the breakdown:
Germanic languages using ge-:
Germanic languages forgoing use of ge-:
The reason why it was lost in English is because it was unstressed and not needed when forming past participles. When presented with "ytaken" vs. "taken" it is clear the latter is one less syllable to pronounce. Coupled this with the fact that the past participle moved to immediately after the auxillary verb (due to Scandinavian influence), which also helped. Had we kept using the Old Saxon word order: "I have the picture from off the wall ytaken" we might still be using it.
As reported by Wikipedia, in Old English strong (or irregular) past participles were marked with a ge- prefix, as are most strong and weak past participles in Dutch and High German today.
My native language is German. The syllable ge- is used, I think, when some action or situation the word (verb) expresses has passed, is done, completed, being reported, being applied etc. It alliterates to the verb 'gehen' = to walk, to pass by, walk into. Note: the words 'past', 'passing' indicate by themselves the very same situation. Modern English, as a twist, uses 'go' in a form that indicates future: 'I am going to ...'. Both, German and English, however, use 'gehen' or 'go' to indicate a time different from the present. Speaking this way, I believe, yields a simpler formalism than remembering and applying correctly particular inflexions as we find for instance in Latin for past, future, active and passive voice, gerund, infinitive etc. Just listen to children, and you might hear how your language might be spoken in the future.
