Questions tagged [proto-germanic]
Proto-language for the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages
72 questions
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Is Old Church Slavonic съпрѧтьнъ (sŭprętĭnŭ) descending from PIE *sprend-, *sprendʰ- *sper- (“to flinch; jump”)?
It has always intrigued me that the rather popular Romanian word sprinten (swift, fast, lively) seems very close semantically to English sprint.
The etymology of the English word is rather detailed on ...
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2
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fallaną from (s)gʷʰh₂el instead of h₂epo + h₃elh₁ ? (PIE -> germanic)
My native language is Dutch and I always assumed that the Latin "fallere" and "vallen" would have the same root in PIE. To my surprise, everywhere online I find that this is not ...
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Why do some Proto-Germanic nouns end with *-az?
This ending is common among PG words, but is not present in any descendent or ancestor. Take, for example, this:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/%C3%BEunraz
There is no *-...
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Hypothetical ancestry and evolution of PGmc *auziwandliaz
This is cross-posted from r/asklinguistics, with influence from Wiktionary's Tea Room.
So I'm bundling up three questions regarding the PGmc. proper noun *Auziwandilaz.
First: The /w/ in the ...
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Why did so few changes occur in "Pre-Proto-Germanic"?
Proto-Germanic is dated pretty late. Grimm's Law, the first and defining change, is dated to 500 BC. However, the dialects are supposed to have split up throughout the 3rd millennia BC. This would ...
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What is the term for PIE yo > Gothic ji / Proto-Slavic jь?
What is the term for PIE *yos > Gothic ji?
PIE *kóryos > Gothic harjis
What is the term for PIE *yos > Proto-Slavi jь?
PIE *gʷoyh₃-o-s > Proto-Slavic *gojь
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What is the term for PIE a, o > PGmc a merging?
PIE a, o > Proto-Slavic o has a name "Квантитативное выравнивание" ?quantity alignment?
Does PIE a, o > PGmc a have a special term?
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How did the Germanic languages evolve front rounded vowel phonemes
Proto-Germanic did not have front rounded phonemes. Why do most of its descendants have front rounded vowels?
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Can a strong verb change to weak?
Can a strong verb in the course of time change to weak verb?
MoDu "scheiden" (to seperate) is weak: scheidde, gescheiden.
Its ancestor ODu *skeidan < PWGm *skaiþan < PGm *skaiþana is ...
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What recent (since 2014) work is there on the origin of the Indo-European 1st person singular nominative ego (etc.)?
I have an article by Hamp from 2011 and one by Blažek from 2014, but need to know if there is anything more recent, so I can cite it in an article that needs to be finished yesterday.
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What influenced the fact in almost all European languages the word human "man" means a male?
Why "werman" (OldEnglish man as male) became simply Man (human) and "wifman" (OldEnglish man as female) became woman?
Man in English (man, human)
Homme in French (man, human)
Mann ...
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How can a language-learner determine the root, prefix, and suffix of a word in English, if they know its language of origin?
Many English vocabulary-building books (for example, Merriam-Webster Vocabulary Builder, Word Power Made Easy) break the meaning of words down into three pieces: prefix + root + suffix.
On the website ...
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How implausible is it for the name "Oslo" to have come from the Semitic root w-ṣ-l instead of from Proto-Norse *ansuz + *lauhō?
I am aware that this is a controversial topic, but in a universe where around c. 500 BCE a population of Canaanite mariners did manage to set up a trading post in what is now Sweden: how plausible is ...
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Nominal umlaut alteration in German
I am trying to understand how umlaut came to be as a marker for various inflectional forms in Germanic. The obvious answer is that there was i-umlaut, a-umlaut, u-umlaut, R-umlaut, breaking and ...
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PGmc strong class 4 verb
Why is PGmc *brekaną strong class 4 verb (not class 5)?
It doesn't have the ablaut vowel followed by a sonorant (m, n, l, r).
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Is it not plausible that English "wraith" could be connected to Proto-Germanic "*wraith-" or its derivatives?
For wraith, OED has:
1510s, "ghost," Scottish, of uncertain origin. Weekley and Century Dictionary suggest Old Norse vorðr "guardian" in the sense of "guardian angel." ...
user40164
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Is OE "g" iegland from Pgmc "w" or "j" awjōlandą?
Is OE "g" iegland from Pgmc "w" or "j" awjōlandą?
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Development of Old Norse 2nd and 3rd person sg. (present indicative) forms of "to be"
I was comparing the conjugations of "to be" in Old Norse and Proto-Germanic, and it looks like ON has flipped the 2nd and 3rd person singular forms. Is this what happened, or is there some ...
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Why does PIE *weydtos give PGmc wīsaz not wīssaz?
Why does PIE *weydtos give PGmc wīsaz not wīssaz?
compare Pgmc *stassiz, *gawissiz, *kwissiz
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Why Gothic fairweitjan doesn't have an ablaut?
Gothic "jan" means a causative (e.g. driggkan "to drink" drankjan "to give drink to").
Gothic "ei" PGmc ī should turn into "ai" (e.g. dreiban "to ...
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Why Does PGmc *smalaz (from PIE *(s)mal-) have "a" (not "o")?
Why Does PGmc *smalaz (from PIE *(s)mal-) have "a" (not "o")?
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What is the name of PIE "en+Consonant" > PGmc "in+Consonant" process?
What is the name of changing PIE "en+Consonant" to PGmc "in+Consonant" process (*pent- > *finþaną)?
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Why do Germanic languages signal stressed short vowels by writing orthographically closed syllables?
In learning spelling and pronunciation rules for English, German, and Swedish, I always assumed that Germanic languages tend to distinguish stressed short and long vowels according to orthographic ...
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Why does Old Norse ‘Óláfr’ have á instead of ei?
The Proto-Germanic (PG) diphthong *ai generally becomes ei in Old Norse (ON), except regularly before an original *h and commonly before r (but only from PG *r, not from rhotacised PG *z).
Examples ...
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Why is it called proto-Germanic?
Why have we named this proto language proto-Germanic?
Apparently it developed in southern Scandinavia. Then expanded (via migration or contact?) towards what's now Germany.
I wonder why linguists ...
user31190
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Why Proto-Germanic *frēgō is reconstructed?
Why Proto-Germanic *frēgō is reconstructed on the following forms (not *fragō PIE o-grade of *frehnaną )?
from wiktionary
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What is the name of Proto-Germanic e/ē lengthening?
What is the name of Proto-Germanic e/ē lengthening before ō?
*kwelaną *kwēlō
*wrekaną *wrēkō
*sprekaną *sprēkō
*frehnaną *frēgō
I know that e/ē lengthening before "i" is Vṛddhi gerundive?
*...
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Is Proto-Balto-Slavic zero-grade from long zero-grade i? [closed]
Is Proto-Balto-Slavic zero-grade from long zero-grade i
pílˀnas
wilkás
źírˀna
śírˀnāˀ
Is Proto-Germanic zero-grade from long zero-grade u
fullaz
wulfaz
kurną
hurną
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Why did 'r' disappear in English "speak" (compare German "sprechen") and in German "Welt" (compare English "world")?
I cannot help but notice some 'r'-s seem to have randomly disappeared in both German and English. What is going on there?
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Why are Proto-West Germanic hwaʀ and OHG wēr cognate?
Why are Proto-West Germanic hwaʀ and OHG wēr cognate?
What is the kind of mutation a > ē?
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Is there evidence for expletives (ie. dummy subjects) in Proto-Germanic? What can we say about the situation in IE?
I am aware that obligatory expletives did not exist in early ON and perhaps also not in early OHG, but my knowledge of the specifics is hazy. In OE at least, I believe expletives in conjunction with ...
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Could Proto-Germanic *tīhaną be a "ē-grade" of *tungǭ zero-grade?
Could Proto-Germanic *tīhaną be an ē-grade of *tungǭ zero-grade?
Gothic has -h- / -ng-:
huhrus – huggrjan
juhiza – juggs
ga-teihan – tuggo ?
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a-stem genitive singular in NW Germanic languages
This is a classic problem and I'm not sure I expect a good answer to it, but it's worth it anyway. The question is partly about what appears to be some specious reasoning around Verner's Law forms and ...
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Did Grimm's law take effect only 2500 years ago?
Some of the indo-european languages* are documented to be up to 3800 years old, like Hethitic, or 3600 years for Greek. So one would expect that the others are not substantially younger. (* I refer to ...
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Proto-Indo-European *nepōts cognate in Old English
From Proto-Indo-European word *nepōts (Latin nepos, Sanskrit napāt) I need to determine what is its cognate in Old English. More precisely, I need to determine whether the result is nefa (Grimm's Law) ...
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Why does it seem that all Proto-Germanic words have PIE roots?
In Latin, there are words from Etruscan and unknown sources. In Proto-Germanic, pretty much all words are from Proto-Indo-European. Why is that? Are the Proto-Germanic peoples and language very ...
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Petwor and fedwor?
In Proto-Germanic, the word for four is *fedwor. But, in Proto-Indo-European, it was *kwetwores. In pre-Grimm Germanic times, it was pronounced *petwor. Hmm. When was this word a petwor, and why did ...
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Why is the word "wherefore" not "whatfore" and the word "therefore" not "thatfore" and related anomalies
There is a pronominal adverb in many germanic languages that is a conjunction of the descendants of the proto-germanic words *hwar (where) + *furi (for/fore) which means something very similar to "for ...
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When turned "to hear" into "to belong" in Germanic Languages?
In most Germanic languages the verbs for „to hear“ and „to belong [to]“ are the same or very closely related.
It seems a plausible explanation, that in practice belonging to someone (G. gehören) meant ...
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How was excession expressed in Proto-Germanic?
The state of excession (of an adjective) is indicated differently accross Germanic languages.
West Germanic Languages (E: too long, Du: te lang, G: zu lang) build it by the use of descendants from ...
- 193
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(proto-)Germanic evidence for Late Latin vowel length
I would like to find a list of borrowings illustrating the reflexes in (proto-)Germanic of Latin long and short vowels. In particular I would like to find substantiation to the standard claim that it ...
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Was there a Proto-Germannic root of "miskunn"
I was not able to find an etymology of ON "miskunn" within PrG.
Is the first syllable a prefix "mis-" indicating any "wrong kunn, lack of kunn" or a deformed "midi-" as in E "com-passion", G "Mit-leid"...
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What semantic notions underlie PIE *meh₂d- ('wet') and Proto-Germanic *matōną, *matjaną (“to feed, eat”)?
I was reading the etymology of amadouer when I lighted on these attested morphemes:
Etymology
From Middle French amadouer (“to coax, lure”), from a- + *madouer (“to lure, give food to”), from ...
user5306
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Are English 'gay' and Norwegian 'gøy' cognates?
Norwegian gøy means "fun" in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. Does this word have anything to do with English gay?
Wiktionary says gay comes ultimately from Proto-Germanic ganhuz "sudden" via Old French gai ...
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Could someone illuminate for me how PGmc *suma and *sama(n) were derived?
Ie, I am assuming that they are both ultimately deriviative of PIE *sem-/*som-.
So, how are they derived from this, in terms of morphemes, and their meanings?
I have skimmed through both Ringe and ...
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Homophones in Proto-Germanic
Does anyone know reconstructed homophones in Proto-Germanic or where I could look them up? I am interested in clear homophones, not polysemes.
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Have linguistics found any evidence that Semitic languages influenced Germanic languages or vice versa (in ancient times)?
Have linguistics found any evidence that Semitic languages influenced Germanic languages or vice versa (in ancient times)?
BACKGROUND: I suggested to a forum of linguists that a certain Semitic word (...
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How did 'man's time on earth' semantically shift to mean the 'earth' itself?
John McWhorter PhD Linguistics (Stanford). Words on the Move (2016). p. 190 Bottom.
World began as wer-eld, where wer
p. 191 Top
was that "man" word and eld meant "old," as in age. Wer-eld ...
user5306
5
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1
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Possible extrapolation of old German word "hansa" to protogermanic and possibly common root with Sanskrit "sangha"
I came across a discussion about if "Lufthansa" means air-Swan, inspired by the sanskrit word hansa swan. Which is of course wrong as it has its origins in the old german word hansa for group or ...
