Questions tagged [proto-germanic]

Proto-language for the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages

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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 ...
Iwan Aucamp's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
86 views

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 ...
Hardtberger's user avatar
3 votes
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108 views

(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 ...
Unbrutal_Russian's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
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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 ...
Hlakkar's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
207 views

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 ...
Orii's user avatar
  • 37
1 vote
0 answers
81 views

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 ...
Vegawatcher's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
118 views

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 ...
Кузнецов Анатолий's user avatar
1 vote
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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
Кузнецов Анатолий's user avatar
1 vote
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79 views

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 ...
siride's user avatar
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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
HungarianMan's user avatar
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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?
HungarianMan's user avatar
0 votes
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106 views

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.
Attila the Pun's user avatar
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Proto-Germanic an-stem Nominative Singular

I've seen the reconstruction of this ending as *-ô in both the masculine and neuter forms on Wiktionary(I don't have the best sources), but that can't be correct. *-ô agrees with West Germanic and ...
Cynemund's user avatar