Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hwaz

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷís (“interrogative pronoun”).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /xʷɑz/

Pronoun

*hwaz

  1. (interrogative) who, what
  2. (interrogative, in genitive) whose
  3. (interrogative, in accusative and dative) whom
  4. (interrogative, in instrumental) with whom, with what, how, in what way

Inflection

The feminine forms were likely already rare: they do not survive anywhere outside Gothic, and are obsolescent even there. They were used only when the person being asked about was known to be female. For a person of unknown gender, the masculine forms were used.

Declension of *hwaz (irregular)
singular
masculine feminine neuter
nominative *hwaz *hwō *hwat
accusative *hwanǭ *hwǭ *hwat
genitive *hwes *hwezōz *hwes
dative *hwammai *hwezōi *hwammai
instrumental *hwē, *hwī, *hwō *hwezō *hwē, *hwī, *hwō

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*hwa-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 261
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.